REVIEW: Thai Season, Bishopthorpe Road, York – our verdict

THAI cuisine tops the culinary charts for me so when I learnt that one of York’s popular Thai dining spots had changed, it felt only right to try it out – admittedly months after the newest venture had opened.

I reserved for 6.30pm on a Saturday night at Thai Season on Bishopthorpe Road, which was previously home to the delicious Rice Style.

The small restaurant was almost full when we arrived and a stream of hopeful walk-ins kept popping in to enquire about tables throughout the evening – it was a positive sign.

Thai Season is on Bishopthorpe Road, York – here’s our verdict. (Image: Nadia Jefferson-Brown)

Thai Season also runs a stall at Shambles Market so perhaps its reputation has spread.

The exterior has a blue-painted frontage that befits the vibrancy of ‘Bishy Road’, once hailed the Notting Hill of the North, and there are tables outside where a handful of people were waiting as we arrived. Inside, the colourful theme continues with blue, red and whites stripes up the walls, and the restaurant’s name is lit up in blue neon lights above the bar just in case you forget where you are.

(Image: Nadia Jefferson-Brown)

We ordered drinks – Thai lager Leo (£4.95 for 330ml) and two diet cokes (£3.50) – and shared some lovely and crispy misshapen prawn crackers (£3.95) with a Thai sweet chilli sauce that I like, while we checked out the menu.

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For starters, my son ordered the five pork Gyozas (£6.95) that contained fairly small morsels of pork, flavoured with garlic and chives, enveloped in a hot and crispy casing that was deep fried, with a sweet, sticky and moreish soy dipping sauce on the side. It was a good start.

Vegetable spring rolls with Thai sweet chilli sauce. (Image: Nadia Jefferson-Brown)

I had three vegetable springs rolls (£7.25) which were decent in size and piping hot. Hand-rolled, they were also very crispy and had a good balance of pastry to filling, including pickled cabbage, carrot and vermicelli. They didn’t have much flavour, but the accompanying sweet chilli sauce did the trick.

My husband ordered his favourite Thai starter – Tom Yum soup which is usually a fragrant hot and spicy broth and should have come with mushroom, lemongrass, kaffir lime leaves, red chilli and lime juice.

The soup he was served was a fairly vibrant red that paled once stirred to become an almost creamy consistency with an overriding flavour of coconut milk – not the broth he was expecting. We suspect he’d been mistakenly given the alternative Tom Kha soup (£8.50) with chicken, whose main ingredient is coconut milk, which would also explain the absence of any discernible lemongrass.

Disappointed, he decided to go with it as the restaurant was very busy – though he’d ordered a coconut-based curry for his mains so it wasn’t ideal. However, he enjoyed the soup which was nice and hot, with plenty of finely-sliced chicken, along with a few mushrooms and some skinless baby tomatoes.

Thai Green Curry with plenty of chicken but too much oil. (Image: Nadia Jefferson-Brown)

For mains he ordered a Green Curry (£16.50), I went for my all-time favourite, Massaman Curry (£17.95) – both curries came with Jasmine rice – and my son plumped for Pad Thai (£13.50).

For the second time, my husband was served the wrong dish – a red curry instead of green. On this occasion, he reminded the waitress of his original order, and she apologetically returned to the kitchen. It didn’t take too long to swap the dish, but long enough for mine to cool while I waited so we could eat together. Some fresh portions of hot rice would’ve been welcome to compensate for the delay but this wasn’t offered.

The green curry had a clearly visible layer of oil on top which my husband said was very unpleasant to taste. The chicken was good – nice, tender and plenty of it, with bamboo shoots and fine beans in the mix but he said the sauce itself didn’t pack the anticipated punch. His verdict was that it was average rather than good, ruined by the oil – and not something he’d order again.

My choice of Massaman is usually a rich but mild and aromatic curry with beef or chicken, potatoes, onions and roasted peanuts. I’m a creature of habit when I like something and have eaten this curry a lot! While there have been variations in consistency and sweetness over the years, I’ve rarely had a bad one. Until this one.

The Massaman Curry that missed the mark at Thai Season. (Image: Nadia Jefferson-Brown)

Scraping for the positives first, I’ll say the portion of rice was a good size and cooked well. Both the rice and curry were served in their own bowls which were hot to touch to ensure the food stayed warm.

I poured the curry in with the rice and started my meal, but the texture of the meat – described on the menu as ‘slow cooked shin of beef’ – was squidgy and unpleasant, and demanded a closer inspection. Not liking what I saw, I set about cutting off large bits of fat and gristle and deposited them into the now-empty curry bowl. By the time I’d finished, almost half of the base was covered in inedible and unsightly scraps.

The remaining bits of beef were very small – not enough for an appetiser never mind a main meal at the top end of the menu’s price list. It was also tough and sinewy. I was left with a few morsels to go with the rice and three small pieces of potato. Any remaining sauce that hadn’t been soaked up by the meat lacked any depth of flavour and barely made any impression on me at all. It was incredibly disappointing.

Afterwards, I regretted not requesting another dish but the waitress who’d asked if our meals were ok had come to the table while we were still waiting for my husband’s dish to arrive so I hadn’t started mine at that point. I was then unable to catch anyone’s attention as the restaurant was packed by then and very busy.

When our dishes were subsequently cleared, I showed the offending fat and gristle left in the bowl. I noted that our waitress didn’t seem particularly surprised. She explained they used brisket and said “sometimes this is an issue”. Why, then, isn’t the Massaman checked every time it leaves the kitchen if this has been a problem in the past?

Our waitress said she’d tell the chef (for what good that would do), and offered not to charge me for the dish which was only right in the circumstances. Her apology seemed genuine – but wouldn’t tempt me back.

The best dish of the night – Pad Thai at Thai Season on Bishopthorpe Road, York . (Image: Nadia Jefferson-Brown)

On a happier note, my son had no complaints about his Pad Thai. It was a generous portion, he loved the succulent slices of beef and said the fried egg had absorbed all the flavours of the dish, which came with plenty of chopped peanuts to sprinkle over. The finely-sliced carrots and bean sprouts lent a nice crunch, and we all agreed he’d made the best choice of the night – though that isn’t the biggest compliment, all things considered.

With noise levels from other diners rising around us, making it increasingly difficult to hear each other, I was keen to pay and leave without bothering with desserts. I checked the bill carefully to ensure the Massaman wasn’t included – and noted that we’d been charged for three beers instead of the two ordered. It was resolved easily enough, with yet another apology.

Usually, after a night out, I leave a restaurant mentally planning my next meal on a return visit – on this occasion, I left disappointed, peckish and determined not to venture back. Perhaps we were unlucky with our choices, perhaps we’d picked an unusually busy night, perhaps the kitchen was short-staffed … who knows. But I do know, that with so many decent restaurants in York, I won’t be going back to this one.

Reviews are independent and paid for by The Press.

Verdict

Food: Inconsistent

Atmosphere: Busy and bustling

Service: Hit and miss

Value: Poor overall

Address: Thai Season, Bishopthorpe Road, York

Tel: 01904 463248

Web: thaiseasonyork.co.uk