Restaurant Review - Achara
Wednesday 07 August 2024
In the early noughties, a man wrote to me from London following my review of a new Thai restaurant here saying that we’d soon have aircraft hangar-size units producing mundane Thai food. He wasn’t far wrong. In 2002, the Thai government, in a ‘gastrodiplomacy’ move, launched the Global Thai programme, providing training, grants, and loans to Thai investors wanting to open restaurants abroad. Though we were familiar with Chinese and Indian food, we didn’t have the array of Asian restaurants we now have on virtually every corner, but we took to Thai food like ducks to water.
However, in due course people realised that much of what was being served in the name of Thailand, with more sauce than substance, was little other than slosh and eventually those places were weeded out. We were, however, left with some great Thai restaurants, which have stood the test of time, such the Saba restaurants in South William Street, Upper Baggot Street and Kildare Village, plus Saba To Go outlets in Rathmines, Deansgrange and Windy Arbour. If you want to knock up trouble-free Thai food at home, executive chef Taweesak Trakoolwattana and founder Paul Cadden have recently developed a range of 12 Thai curry pastes, sauces and condiments for Dunnes Stores Simply Better range.
lucindaosullivan.com
First Published In The Sunday Independent