Amused by the name – which we ranked right up there with Thai Tanic and Pita Pan – my boyfriend and I decided to pay Thai 1 a visit.

The restaurant claims to be the longest established Thai in Colchester and offering authentic Thai food.

Staff were very welcoming and friendly and the place was quite busy for early evening on a Wednesday night.

The drink selection was diverse and there were a variety of Thai beers on offer as well.

A small basket of poppadoms was quickly demolished while we studied the menu which was well laid out.

It included a variety of items for vegetarians and the chef’s specialities were numerous and easily identified.

We chose the starter for two, which was described as a variety of starters.

I’m still not sure what some of the items were – duck or chicken wrapped in vine leaves and some sort of deep fried vegetables were among the items piled high on the plate.

This did make it more interesting and the presentation was good.

The satay chicken was cooked to perfection but I have had better prawn toast.

There was a slight wait for the mains to arrive, although the waiting staff were very apologetic and the food more than made up for it.

We had fried squid with ginger and spring onions, fried rice noodles with prawns and one of the specials of supreme chicken with butter and peanut sauce.

The specials board was a nice touch, but unfortunately it wasn’t pointed out to us and it was only by chance we spotted it.

The chicken was our favourite dish by far so it was a shame that we could have missed out on the opportunity to try it.

There were a number of items on the board and they are changed frequently.

The food was all well-presented and very flavoursome.

The squid was cooked perfectly, cooked without being chewy - and the noodle dish had a range of flavours that made it go down very well indeed.

I did think it was a tad on the expensive side as portions weren’t that large.

Unfortunately we weren’t offered a dessert board which was a shame as – although we were both reasonably full – I am sure I would have found some room for dessert.

The decor of the restaurant was spot-on and the male member of waiting staff was very friendly without being overbearing.

KIRSTY HOUGH