Epsom Thai

I went to this restaurant two weeks ago for the first time and i came back the week after… The food is amazing! I’ve been to Thailand before and I can say the food in this restaurant is proper thai food! Both red curry and green curry are delicious! Chicken cashew nuts and pineapple fried rice are also very good!

The aptly named Epsom Thai, as others have pointed out, is indeed a Thai restaurant in Epsom. It’s generally been our go-​to destination for Thai curry takeaway, and we haven’t been disappointed yet. The red prawn curry is my personal favourite, though if you enjoy a bit of heat, the green curry is quite tasty as well.
I’ve only actually sat down to eat in the restaurant once, and unfortunately I wouldn’t necessarily rush to go back. The décor is very comfortable and well suited to a Thai restaurant, and the food was still delicious, but the staff seemed disorganized at best.
A manager or owner was mostly ignoring his customers, instead just shouting at the waitresses instructing them to shuffle tables around to pack in as many diners as possible. Unfortunately this resulted in half of our table being taken out from under us halfway through our meal, and my wife being virtually trapped in the front corner of the restaurant by another bizarre choice in table placement. Luckily, the food was still delicious, and as it was a busy Friday night, we simply shrugged off the service oddities and enjoyed our meal.
To sum up, 5 stars for takeaway, 3 stars for the dine-​in experience, 4 stars overall.

Drunken Duck was wonderful. Everyone else loved their food, too, but I was too far gone in ecstasy to notice what they picked.

Quick glance:
+ good portion size
+ courteous staff, but…
— very slow service
— too much salt and sugar
— 10% inclusive tips on bill
I came here for dinner on a Tuesday night. There were about 6 other tables filled that evening which I thought was a promising sign.
The ambience is romantic, with candles dotted on the dining tables and traditional Thai wood carvings and decorations adorning the walls.
I had Thai iced tea which came with whipped cream and candied sprinkles, both of which were novel to me. I didn’t know whether to chuckle or frown.
We had the Epsom Thai Starter, which was not elaborated in any details on the menu. It was a sharing platter for two which came with sesame prawn toast, vegetable spring roll, vegetable tempura /​bhaji, deep fried prawn, and chicken satay. The food was hot and tasted fresh, especially the prawn, but the chicken satay was too sweet.
For mains, two of us shared a prawn pad Thai (good sized, tasty prawns but again the noodles were too sweet and lacked oomph), a duck dish, and rice with chicken, sausage and mushrooms in a hot pot.
The duck dish was very spicy and salty and the meat hardly tasted of duck. It looked and tasted like it was from a cheap takeaway, unfortunately. The rice dish looked much better, presented in a clay pot and was fragrant. The mixture of chicken, sausage (which looked and tasted like hot dogs), button mushrooms, celery, peas, and rice looked appetising, but again there was so much sugar in the dish that I took it in turn to have duck followed by rice and so on to finish my dinner. I can also assure you that I was extremely dehydrated that evening after all the salt and sugar intake.
The staff was courteous but service very slow. An inclusive service charge of 10% is scrawled onto the menu with a blue biro, which I guess helped highlight the cheeky inclusion. It’s a shame that the restaurant has taken to this tactic. The final bill is not itemised so you have to trust the staff has tallied up your food and drinks honestly and correctly.
Although the quality of the ingredients seem average to above average, the end product lacked imagination and the distinctive Thai flavours. The restaurant looks the part but failed to walk the walk. I cannot recommend having Thai food here, as only around the corner is Mae Ping also serving Thai food (albeit more expensive), but at least the walls in Epsom Thai are interesting to look at.

Epsom Thai is in a little concentration of restaurants on South Street. As its name says, it’s literally a Thai restaurant in Epsom.
I think it’s a good restaurant for families as it’s child-​friendly but for adults and for flavour, I prefer Mae Ping by the train station.
All the usual dishes are on the menu but everything tastes a bit toned down, perhaps to appeal more to kids. So the curries are a bit muted, the zing of fresh lime and creaminess of coconut which defines this cuisine is somehow lacking that crucial edge for me. It’s edible but average.
Service is always very hospitable but the food only merits an average 3 stars.