Eathai?

'Eathai is a fusion of the words Eat and Thai', the menu at Busaba Eathai informs patrons rather pompously. No shit.

It's another oriental creation from Alan Yau, originator of the Wagamama chain, Berwick Street's dim sum paradise Yauatcha and the Michelin-starred Hakassan in Hanway Place.

I've been meaning to try out the Store Street restaurant for ages (the one in Wardour Street somehow appeals less) and so recommended it to my cousin when he came in for dinner last night.

He had the Mussaman duck curry with peanut and potato and I had the equally Koran-friendly Muslim beef curry with banana capiscum and cherry tomato, a dark and gunky concoction in a bowl from which protruded stew-sized chunks of meat.

The highlight though was one of the side dishes, Thai Calamari, cooked with ginger and little green peppercorns on their stalks. It was so good in fact that I had to go back at lunchtime today to have it once more. Right now I can't imagine myself having anything else for lunch...ever again!

I had another very good meal last week in Mar i Terra, a Galician-Spanish tapas bar in an old house left on its own beside the railways tracks between Waterloo and Southwark. Squid was once again a major element in the gratification.

(Phillip took this image of the eathai with his sexy little black Ricoh GX100 camera.)