Restaurant Review: Siam Bay

Gordon Barr, Evening Chronicle

WE are huge fans of the Thai Royal Orchid in Hexham.

So when we heard the owner was opening a restaurant in Whitley Bay, it was high on our list of potential eating outs.

We went there this mid-week, just five days after it opened, enticed by the fact it is offering both Thai and Indian meals and the great memories we have of the Hexham premises.

While we try to review as many new restaurants as possible for Eating Out, one of the problems with newly opened places can be that teething problems have not yet been smoothed out.

So there is the good, and the not-so-good, to report on our first outing to Siam Bay.

The restaurant has a lovely aspect out to the sea, and inside the premises are beautifully decorated, with authentic Thai furnishings. After a slight mix-up with our booking, we were seated next to a window and perused the menu. The environment was a bit ‘smokey’ due to sizzling meat dishes and perhaps some extra ventilation could be added.

I chose to go Indian, while Callum and Gary opted for Thai. For starters Callum chose fried tofu (£4.25), Gaz the battered king prawns (£6.25) and I the chicken chat (£3.75) – the latter arriving on the table more than five minutes after the rest. It was worth the wait, though, as it was a dish brimming with flavours and with a cracking kick to it.

Gary’s starter came with a sweet lemon sauce which he described as luscious and the lightly battered prawns themselves were extremely succulent.

Callum described his tofu as "a bag of fresh air in batter – tasteless, no texture to talk about, the dipping sauce bland, very disappointing". I often refer to Callum as Fusspot on this page, but his damning remarks were justified.

Main course didn’t go smoothly either. The dishes – sizzling spice chicken (£10.95) with mushroom rice (£3.25) and peshwari nan (£2.25) ; weeping tiger sirloin (£10.95) with egg-fried rice (£3.25); and chicken green curry (£7.95) with sticky rice (£3.25) – arrived in a very haphazard manner. Callum’s curry came more than five minutes before his sticky rice, while my mushroom rice arrived long before my sizzling chicken. Only Gary’s meal came at roughly the same time.

Again, the sizzling spice chicken was a concoction of flavours and had my taste buds dancing a jig, while Gary’s weeping tiger, a tender medium-rare slab of steak sizzling in its own juices, was spot on, with the accompanying sauce quite spicy.

My naan bread was quite tasty, but way too greasy for my liking.

Due to his wait for the rice, Callum had to send his curry back as it was now cold.

When eventually reheated, again he found the meal disappointing, the very spicy sauce being the only element of taste – the rest of the ingredients he thought were bland and tasteless.

Staff were apologetic and we understand they were having some staffing issues, which is a great shame so early on in the game.

I was replete with my meal, and today, as I write up the article, I can still taste some of those flavours in my mouth (to the chagrin of my colleagues no doubt!).

Callum, on the other hand, had few flavours to remember after his meal, and along with Gary tried the ice cream which, although bought in, did its job quite nicely thank you.

I really want Siam Bay to succeed. Mr Miah was not there the night we visited and I do think, had he been overseeing, many of our quibbles would not have happened – he is very much an attention-to-detail person.

The restaurant has a lot going for it, it just needs to iron out those rough spots.

The Indian and Thai food is cooked by two separate teams of chefs, each specialising in their respective national dishes.

The extensive menu and unique set-up allows guests to choose between the two, with 26 starters and 19 curries making up just a small portion of the choice on offer.

Indian starters range from onion bhajis and samosas to the more unusual tandoori quail, with 14 curry dishes on offer which can include king prawns, beef and chicken tikka as their main ingredients.

A similarly varied range is offered in the Thai selection, which features chicken toast, battered king prawns and honey beef for starters. Main courses include pad-stir fried, noodle and curry dishes.

It is early days and I wish the team at Siam Bay every success and we’ll be back some time in the future to see how the dust has settled.