Punchy, varied and characterful Thai food is a hill worth dying on.

I have a pet theory that the decor of Thai restaurants can be seen as a rough proxy for London’s relationship with Thai food (and possibly the UK’s said relationship too).

Old school high street Thai restaurants often aped the decor of Bangkok’s Grand Palace and its ilk, but on a shoestring budget, while those inside pubs might not have had any decor of their own to speak of. Their often curry paste-based dishes were just as rough and approximate. Many of the ‘nu-Thai’ restaurants that opened in the wake of the credit crunch followed the Polpo-led trend of stripped-back, bare brick wall interiors, with much more focus and attention paid to the sourcing and preparation of the dishes themselves. Sometimes with a dash of inventiveness reflecting the personalities of those in the kitchen (for better or, in the case of Som Saa, for the worse) and the small plates format of the Polpo era.

The latest emerging cadre of Thai restaurants mimic the aesthetic of street food stalls and other informal eateries in Thailand, the very antithesis of the gilded Buddha look of the early trad high street crowd, while their menus mix tradition with quirkiness much more forcefully than any of their predecessors. The exemplars of this approach have been Plaza Khao Gaeng and its spin-off, Speedboat Bar, both budding mini-chains. While getting a table in advance at the original Soho branch of Speedboat Bar is more often than not a fruitless endeavour, it’s generally a much more achievable task at the newer Notting Hill outpost.

Starters at Speedboat Bar Notting Hill

Although compact, the crustaceans used in the prawn ceviche were nonetheless plump and muscular. The brine was just as memorable – fearsomely spicy, yet with a noticeable umami undercurrent.

It’s easy to overlook the deep-fried chicken skins, but these little morsels turned out to be intensely enjoyable thanks to the punchy chemistry of the zaep seasoning. Each bronzed curl was crispy, salty, umami and zesty, while free of any oil or grease.

Small- and medium-sized dishes at Speedboat Bar Notting Hill

Lighty sweet and fatty lap cheong-style Chinese sausage wasn’t overly rich, but it was still neatly offset by the crisp, tangy, sour and sweet mix of a salad based around pickled mustard greens.

Squishy Thai aubergines had an aniseed-like hint to them, their toothsome forms also conveying light hints of sweetness and spiciness.

Thin, narrow and partially transparent starch-based noodles came with a selection of firm, springy seafood. The lightly umami and spicy suki sauce bound the carbohydrates and proteins together into a satisfyingly sticky package.

Thick and wide noodles, almost certainly made from rice flour, had a stronger sense of umami courtesy of its sticky sauce. Thick yet tender slices of beef and crunchy, bitter greens neatly rounded out what I suspect is a homage to Cantonese-style ho fun.

Thick, tender, sinewy tranches of tongue and squidgy, unctuous tendon came bathed in a mildly musky and sweet curry sauce. Although the sauce wasn’t as sophisticated and nuanced as the beef massaman at Plaza Khao Gaeng, this was still a satisfying curry.

Oddly, the sauce of the crispy pork and black pepper curry tasted uncannily similar to the sauce of the tongue and tendon curry above. At least the pork was a little more distinctive than the sauce thanks to its textural charms, the easily crackable mantle snapped apart to reveal fatty, tender swineflesh. It was all perfectly cromulent, but I ultimately prefer the more unusual textures (by bourgeois Middle England standards) of the tongue and tendon curry.

Poached pork might be alliteratively pleasing, but it was a mild calamity in the taste department. The drearily beige meat was in deep need of the lime, garlic and chilli dressing. Without its zestiness, umami and cumulative spicy heat, the pork would’ve been inedible.

The deep-fried crispy pork was similarly misconceived. Effectively a mediocre version of Cantonese crispy roast pork, it started out well enough. The skin was bubbly and crunchy, but all the fat had been rendered away. While this did at least mean the swineflesh was moist, it couldn’t hide the deep levels of blandness. The sweet chilli dipping sauce was very much needed here, despite the basic, child-like simplicity of its taste profile.

Larger sharing dishes at Speedboat Bar Notting Hill

A restaurant doing its own take on instant noodles is an intriguing idea and Speedboat Bar almost got it right with its vajazzled version of Mama-brand tom yum noodles. The lightly creamy and sour soup seemed to have been boosted with a bit of lemongrass. Firm prawns and squid swam about amidst chunks of pork that were fatty and crunchy then tender. The only problem is that the noodles themselves were just a bit too soft.

The whole sea bream wasn’t a dream, but neither was it a nightmare. The crispy, gently chewy skin meshed well with the sweet and musky sauce. But the seams of snowy white fish underneath that skin ranged from overcooked to merely okay.

Desserts at Speedboat Bar Notting Hill

Lightly creamy mango pudding was gently evocative of the fruit and came doused in what I’m pretty sure was flavoured condensed milk, enhancing the creaminess a touch. A dense and lightly tangy wedge of pomelo was arguably more enjoyable than the main mango pudding itself, so much so that I developed a hankering for a pomelo pudding.

The pineapple pie was a homage to a McDonald’s fruit pie, but was arguably even better. While deep fried like its Golden Arched inspiration, the crunchy curlices of this pie were entirely free of oil and grease. Although the diced filling only managed to evoke the sweetness and sharpness of pineapple to a mildly modest degree, the accompanying taro ice cream rode to the rescue. It effectively captured the distinctive sweet starchiness of taro, helped along by extant bits of taro. So much so, that I want this pie to be stuffed with taro rather than pineapple.

The Verdict

Speedboat Bar’s Chinese-influenced take on Thai food isn’t perfect, with some noticeable stumbles in the fish and pork departments. But for all the things it gets wrong, it gets so many others right. With some judicious ordering, it’s perfectly possible to have a meal that ranges from crunchy to tender. Fearsomely spicy to sweet and musky. Tangy and sour to lightly creamy and zesty. Without this broad-straddling oeuvre, or indeed the quirky decor, buzzy crowds and (mostly) efficient service, Speedboat Bar wouldn’t be anywhere as satisfying and fun as it is. So, despite its wobbliness and the fact that it’s clad in the aesthetic of an overidealised present, I hope this ‘bar’ is a foretaste of more Thai restaurants to come. A bar in the sense of a standard to be met, rather than a place to be sick at on a Friday night.

Name: Speedboat Bar

Address of branch tried: 191 Portobello Road, Notting Hill, London W11 2ED

Phone: none listed

Web: https://speedboatbar.co.uk

Opening Hours: Monday-Thursday noon-midnight. Friday-Saturday noon-01.00. Sunday noon-23.00. 

Reservations? essential.

Average cost for one person, inc soft drinks, when shared between three: £50 approx. 

Rating: ★★★★☆