After searching for a great Thai in Hemel the surrounding area for what seemed like forever, we were lucky to find the excellent Chang Mai in Hemel. We were pretty happy that our Thai craving had been satisfied, but a ton of you got in touch to insist our next port of call should be Berkhamsted Thai Cottage - and we gotta say we're pleased as now we have two go-to Thai places.
Thai Cottage has been a Berko institution since it opened in 2004. The head chef was also taken from Bangkok - where he ran one of the best restaurants in town so that bodes well! It looks like a great dining-in experience with incredibly friendly staff and gorgeous teak covered interior, but due to our on-going dining-out limitations (toddlers are great fun), we went for a takeaway instead. We had to collect, but happily there's 10% off when you do outside of peak days.
We deliberately over-ordered as we were eyeing up a leftover dinner the next day (which we had); we went for Thai fish cakes, green curry, a Goong Ob Woon Sen (which is a prawn noodle dish), Pad Thai and some rice and prawn crackers. That came to £44 - which is really decent value for money.
All the food was really good - my favourite was the green curry. Green curries are often over-spiced, usually to hide poor ingredients or flavour, but this was spiced really well, it had heat but was not overpowering, with well cooked tender chicken and great fresh vegetables.
C really liked the fish cakes - they were bouncy, juicy and had a had lovely kaffir lime and lemongrass hints to them. The Pad Thai had a sweetness to it from the tamari and a nuttiness from the peanuts, which was sweet without feeling sickly or artificial.
Overall this is just a really solid Thai meal. Along with Chang Mai, we'd happily recommend Thai Cottage as your go to Thai place in, or within striking distance of, Hemel hempstead.
Service:
Not on any delivery sites (that we're aware of) so it's dine in or collection only. That said they were friendly on the phone and the food was hot and ready when we arrived.
Quality:
All the veg and meat was cooked really nicely, everything felt fresh, with good flavours and texture through all the food.
Value & Price:
We paid just over £44 for a lot of food. That was plenty and did us for dinner the next night too.
Overall:
VERY GOOD- We would happily recommend Thai Cottage to anyone happy to go to Berko to collect it. All the food felt like it had received real love and care when it was being made and that shone through.
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