Chaopraya Review
Chaopraya is a franchise of Thai restaurants, which are located in various major cities around the UK. I had known of the Chaopraya restaurants in Glasgow and Edinburgh for a couple of years and had heard mostly positive reviews, but I had never visited, so when I heard it had opened up in Aberdeen I decided to check it out for myself this week!
Once my friends and I were seated, the service unfortunately began slacking slightly. Our waitress, a smiley and friendly young woman, seemed to take her time a little too much with taking our order for drinks and food. The service of our starters was nice and speedy, however the gap between us finishing our starters and receiving our main dishes was, in my opinion, too long. With that said, I do not wish to discredit our lovely waitress too much, as she did make us feel very welcome and was extremely polite. The restaurant opened during the summer at the location where the well-known Monkey House was before it. I had visited Monkey House once before it closed, and upon my visit to Chaopraya I noticed a vast improvement in the interior design and layout of the restaurant. It gave off a luxurious atmosphere, with rich burgundy and gold colours, along with authentic Thai decorations. I was greeted at the door and shown to my table straight away.
Now for the food! I had absolutely nothing to complain about with the food I ordered. Everything was cooked to perfection! To start, my friends and I shared a portion of Thai fishcakes along with a portion of pork ribs. As a main, I ordered crispy pork belly, which was delicious, and my friends were more than happy with their choices of Thai red prawn curry and massaman lamb curry.
In conclusion, even though the service could have been sped up, it did not take away too much from the overall experience of the restaurant. The food was absolutely worth spending that little bit extra on for better quality.
HC gives Chaopraya Aberdeen 4/5 stars!