Review of 'Rosa's Greenwich'

While wandering around the Greenwich Market we found ourselves looking for somewhere to eat. Nowadays Greenwich has a good selection of places to eat with a number of smaller chains and restaurants including “Rosa's Thai Café” which we eventually settled on. The small interior had a few tables of relaxed diners that were enjoying talking to themselves. We chose a table at the window so we could look across the busy Nelson Road towards the market (well, “Noodle Time” and “Honest Burgers”, but you get the picture). Our small table was a bit sticky in places but otherwise perfectly fine as we were given the “All Day Menu” and “Drinks” menus to peruse.

The menu is split into “Starters & Snacks”, “Noodles” (pad thai and the like), “Curries”, “Wok Stars” (stir fries), “Salad” (just Papaya Salad), “Soup” (just Tom Yum Soup), and “Sides”. Prices are quite reasonable though it is important to remember that most items are “a la carte”, with no item more than £13. The menu is heavily skewed to the smaller “Starters & Snacks” which is the longest section, encouraging sitting and nibbling. The drinks menu has the normal suspects but with a few Thai-options such as the “Thai Iced Drinks”, lemongrass tea and a couple of other items, otherwise, order your Coke, beer, coffee, or whatever you can get anywhere else.

We decided to start with the “Sharing Platter” consisting of “Chicken satay”, “Rosa’s homemade spring rolls”, “Honey-marinated pork skewers”, and “Prawn Crackers” (£7 per person, minimum of two people) which had separate dipping sauces for each element. The “Chicken Satay” was juicy but the chicken generally tasteless though the sauce was delicious, the spring rolls were overly greasy and unmemorable, the pork skewers here were the highlight - Delicious and juicy, perfectly grilled. The prawn crackers were the darker brown (and more fishy) variety which was perfectly fine by us - Very nice.

My companion had the chicken version of their “Tom Yum Soup”, “Light & refreshing with a warming hit of chilli, Thailand’s best-loved soup balances the sharpness of lime with sweet tomatoes, mushrooms & aromatic herbs” (Asian Mushrooms £7; Chicken £7.75; King prawns £8.50) which was served in a fairly small bowl and ok but not amazing, only suggesting Thailand in the heavy use of lemongrass, otherwise it would be a rather bland chicken broth.

I decided to go a bit off-piste and had the “Papaya Salad” (“Som Tum”), “Sweet, sour, salty, spicy & dangerously addictive. A vibrant salad of finely sliced Thai green papaya with green beans, tomatoes & cashew nuts.” (£9.50) which was a good sized portion full of fresh beans, tomatoes and sprinkled with the nuts. It was a lot spicier than you might expect, but very fresh and tasty with a heck of a lot of dressing. Wonderful.

I ordered the “Thai lemonade” (Nam Manao; £3) which caused a bit of a stir as the waitress needed to return to the table to confirm what I had ordered (no, not the normal “lemonade” soft-drink, no). This was incredibly sweet but quite good, cutting through the spice in the food very nicely.

The service was good but not amazing, with our having to wait a few times for the chatting staff to see we were asking for their help.

Generally disappointing despite the promise of the menu: Good food, but not amazing and fairly expensive with a total of £38.53 for lunch for the two of us (including a £4.28 service charge). Looking at the other diners trying other dishes, nothing particularly looked very good either. There are better Thai options, for example consider “Busaba” for more innovative dishes.

Rating: “It is OK but I have some issues”

Review Date: 2021-12-18

Cuisine: Thai

Address: 16 Nelson Road, Greenwich, London, SE10 9JB ENGLAND

Public Transport: Cutty Sark Greenwich

Location: London (England) - Greenwich

Map:

Telephone: +44 (0) 20 3870 9117

URL: https://www.rosasthaicafe.com/