WHEN you're freakishly tall (and unco-ordinated after even half a glass of tepid chardonnay), you tend to instinctively bend down when you go into basement restaurants. I found out long ago that standing tall is all very well, but you only need to have been brained a couple of times to get the message. And I've not only got the message, I also have a collection of strange indentations on my head to prove exactly how I got it.
Perhaps that's one of the reasons I've usually avoided Ruan Siam and its venerable predecessor, Siam Erawan. Although the restaurant is just yards from where I used to live, I've eaten there very infrequently. Not only was there the fact that ten min
utes further up the hill is Dusit Thai (which, while pricey, remains the best Thai restaurant in the capital by some distance), but there's also the coincidence that the site now occupied by Ruan Siam was once a flat that belonged to some friends of mine. It seems like a hundred years ago now, but they were a wild bunch whose antics don't deserve to be aired in a family newspaper, especially as they've all now morphed into fine, upstanding citizens.
One of the two rooms that constitute Ruan Siam was a bedroom; I don't eat in there. The other room is a collection of little alcoves, several of them with a ceiling so low that even when I stoop, the top of my head runs along the roof, stuck to the plaster as if I was some kind of human trolleybus. That would be worth enduring if the food was excellent, but when I visited 18 months ago, shortly after Ruan Siam opened, it was undergoing teething troubles and the food wasn't good enough to merit a review.
But rumours began to circulate, suggesting they'd got their act together; that the food was much better. So back I went, stooping to enter. Ruan Siam is the showpiece of a triumvirate of highly successful Thai restaurants in Edinburgh, and like the other two it is normally full. This time was no exception, but where Ruan Thai and Ruan Mai have a lot more passing trade, Ruan Siam is generally full of locals. It's tucked away down stairs with only an unobtrusive little sandwich board to let people know of its existence, making it easy to drive on by in blissful ignorance.
The reason for the strength of the local following soon became obvious. The place can't do anything about its dimensions, but it's a comfortable setting, replete with tropical fauna and flora and some nice Oriental artwork. The food is also many notches up the culinary scale from the greasy effort of 18 months ago.
This time around we chose to start with kanom jeep, the Thai dumplings stuffed with chicken and prawns, and crispy duck pancakes with plum sauce, from a menu that was clearly long on ambition as well as being, well, just long. The pancakes were excellent, and while the four dumplings – neat little parcels tightly packed with ground chicken and prawns – were a little bland, they were brought to life by an eye-wateringly tart sweet-and-sour sauce.
Our main courses were equally solid, if unspectacular. Fiona plumped for the steamed sea bass in a spicy sauce, while I chose the yellow curry with a sauce of coconut milk, potato and peanut. The fish was served off the bone and was supremely succulent, but apart from that it was a little disappointing: there was no sauce, spicy or otherwise, and, served with a sprig of lemon and some slices of red pepper, it lacked both character and substance.
My curry was a better bet, a dish that had some bite to it. It would have been much improved had the chef used chicken thighs rather than breast fillets that were on the verge of being overcooked, but the thick gravy that accompanied the cubes of meat was infused with the taste of peanuts and made for a great dish on its own. It was certainly substantial, and after that we didn't have enough space left for the house speciality, banana fritters.
Ruan Siam is much changed since I last went there, and virtually all for the better. Granted, it took an age for our bill to come, and the fact that mobiles now work in there (we sat next to a bloke in a suit who was eating on his own but who clearly has many friends or clients wanting to ring him late in the evening) was a little tiresome, but those are minor points – as, I realised, were the headroom issue and the rooms' history, which are irritants that only intrude if you are unimpressed by the quality of the food.
Thankfully, Ruan Siam just about passed muster on that score this time round.
VITAL STATISTICSRuan Siam48 Howe Street, Edinburgh (0131 226 3675,
www.ruanthai.co.uk)
Out of pocket Starters £4.50–£6.95; mains £8.95–£17.95 (rice and noodles £2–£3.95)
Rating 6/10
The full article contains 853 words and appears in Scotland On Sunday newspaper.
