Naamyaa Café, 407 St John Street Angel Building London
She said: It was a lovely sunny day and
we thought we’d cycle to Angel and meander around the antique shops. He wanted
to eat at the shiny, contemporary looking Thai place we passed last week and
though I was on the fence I did like the space so in we went. Naamyaa is of the
Busaba ilk – trendy, modern interior, open kitchen and accessible menu of
appealing dishes. I really liked the sound of the 48 hour braised mackerel so
put in my order only to be told they didn’t have it. Not a great start. Still,
there were other choices I had my eye on so went for the Prawn Green curry. To
start we shared some spring rolls which were good. But when my Prawn curry
arrived I managed to identify four small prawns and not much else. Very cheeky.
Luckily we had ordered a side of Morning Glory which was salty but fine and I
shared some of his Aubergine pot which was juicy but again far too salty. It’s
a shame really as Naamyaa has that feel of a great local find, until you get to
the food. The only reason we were upbeat on leaving was because our joyous
dining discount card meant we paid £20 instead of £40, taking the sting out of
a disappointing Thai experience.
He said: Naamyaa is definitely the kind of place being developed with
franchising in mind: really strong brand ID (imagine Giraffe meats Busaba) and
designed down to the most minute detail. Not that there’s anything wrong with
that. The menu is wide-ranging, pan-Asian rather than strictly Thai, with lots
of choice for all times of day, including breakfast, and mid-priced. The food
we ordered was just okay: it looked good on the plate, came in decent portions
for the vegetarian things, but was so salty that it was hard to pick-up that
magic simultaneous sweet/sour/spicy trick that Thais do so well. I was really
excited to go here, having a soft-spot for sugar-high interior design, but the
food was kind of a let-down. Drinks were good though, so maybe this is the
place to go with the gang, sharing a whole bunch of small plates to keep yer
heads screwed-on longer. That could be a good night actually: Naamyaa has a good energy to it; and, with
all that drinking and peeing, the extra salt will probably come in handy.
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