Tony Morel

I've been trying to write up my experience at Marc Wilkinson's Fraiche last night and I've deleted three posts in a row now.

If Marc's masterpieces in the kitchen are the heart, then Gemma's running of the front of house is the soul, but I just don't have the vocabulary to do either of them justice. Each time it just reads like some nerdy fanwank.

I think we should stick to what we do best, Anne Benson can write about food, and I'll sit here drooling at the memories.

It was a Saturday night and we didn't have a reservation, which judging by the waitress's expression wasn't a good way to start the evening.
We were shuffled into the corner by the bar while they tried to make room for us, but before we had even taken our coats off they had cleaned and relaid a vacant table and we were being escorted upstairs - can't complain at all about the wait.

The waitress had returned with our drinks in an infeasibly short time but there was no rush from her for us to open the menu let alone make a decision - which was handy as when we did we were confronted with an excellent selection.

We did have a bit of a language problem as I was the only English person in my group so I was having to relay messages between my two French and one New Yorker friends and the poor stressed out waitress so I was actually fairly surprised that only one dish failed to arrive as ordered.

With the exception of one meal, all the other main dishes were excellent, large portions, exceptionally well presented and extremely scrummy tasting.
The one that didn't hit the spot can't really be complained about either. I thought it was spot on, my friend from New York found it a bit mild tasting and the young lady from France who had actually ordered it found it too spicy to be able to eat - although the waitress was quick enough to provide extra rice so she could fish out the prawns and mushrooms and leave the "fire water" as we roughly translated it.

When the bill arrived at the end of the evening I had to double check everything as I was that sure that something had been missed off. Granted, I do have a habit of eating at obscenely expensive places, but even so, The Thai Orchid seemed really great value for money.

The only thing I wish had been different was how little the waitress smiled, which wasn't even once, but then as I said, it was a busy Saturday night and she really was rushed off her feet.

Definitely a place worth returning to.