I like how the menu at Toomai teaches us so much about the ethos of the restaurant:
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- You can come any day, even on a Sunday when you’re hungover. You can also bring your baby so no need to find a sitter; we have high chairs, and we won’t give you evils when said baby cries.
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- We don’t want you to rush into any big decisions without having seen what your food will look like first.
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- No MSG = healthy. Nutritious, fresh, tasty AND healthy; all wonderful qualities.
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- We are so proud of our drinks selection that even if you don’t try one, we want you to at least have viewed our vast selection. If you’re too cold or lazy to come to us, we will come to you.
You’ve already learnt a fair amount so I’ll be brief. The atmosphere is very buzzy and lively, although this made it a tad too noisy at times to have a conversation. The staff were very friendly, service was quick, and if seated in the right place as we were, you can see all the goings on in the kitchen:
We shared starters and mains (one each) and chose paneer chilli (indian cottage cheese [their description not mine] with onions, peppers and chilli sauce), spicy papaya salad (papaya, tomatoes, carrots, green beans and peanuts in a thai dressing) and beef salad (pan seared beef with carrots, onions, cucumber, mint and peppers). They were all quite spicy, as the name suggests. The paneer chilli was my favourite as it was the most interesting. The others were also good, and you could really taste the refreshing mint in the beef salad:
Portions are big so I could have stopped there, but since it was already ordered, for main I had a chicken red curry with jasmine rice which was tasty, not too spicy, not too rich:
Toomai is good value (we paid £16 each). A sound addition to the West Hampstead collection of restaurants.
dinner with jo 