Firefly (Balham)

• I was really impressed with the quality of the cooking here
• Firefly is one of those added extra Thai restaurants where the food has those lttle touches you associate with the kind of meals you would actually be seved if you were in Thailand
• Some of their starters are so evocative of that great street food you get in markets in Bangkok you find it's like an awakening
• The restaurant in the Balham franchise is independently run by Thai chefs Nong and Lamai
• They are known for doing a good pad Thai (stir fried noodles with king prawn) a meal you will get served indulgently for breakfast in the better Thailand hotels
• Gaeng pet (red curry beef with Thai aubergine) and panang gai (cumin and coriander infused chicken curry)
• The decor is modern and the restaurant mixes with the fairly active bar area in a slightly uneasy relationship it can be noisy
• The bar itself is also pretty decent and not too large
• We visited quite late on a Saturday night so most people were just there for the bar at that time so we were just expecting the usual pub grub
• Quite a good choice and every dish we had was most enjoyable
• Sometimes it's best to forget an poor/overpriced meal by treating yourself to another meal
• What would otherwise have been a positive experience was ruined by the astonishingly slow service neatly an hour wait
• I'm can only assume there was some problem in the kitchen as I really can't see how our simple dishes took so long

Read More