One amazing Thai restaurant in North Leeds is a treat – two is a tease! For this reason, after being long-term fans of Jino’s, we simply had to check out the other Thai offering in Headingly: Sukhothai.

Since we were heading to Sukhothai to celebrate some good news, one plus (or negative depending on your budget) is the fact that you don’t have to head out to an off license in advance. Obviously Jino’s is BYOB, which is great, but here you can enjoy a tipple just by asking your waiter. In line with this, the traditional commercial Thai beers such as Chang were all on offer as well as more traditional cocktails and wines. Not a bad selection at all.

On to the real reason for coming – the food! Having a bit of a weakness for seafood in batter I have to confess that I was sucked in by the gung chup pang tod (prawns in batter to you and me!), which really did the trick in terms of whetting my appetite for the feast ahead. Beautifully crispy and really good-sized tiger prawns meant that the quality of ingredients shone through.

Prawns begging to be eaten!

My wife chose to go with poh piah phed (duck spring rolls) which I am reliably informed were crispy, had tender pieces of duck in, and went really nicely with the vegetables inside the rolls. As we have often been let down in other Chinese or Thai restaurants by very soggy or flavourless spring rolls, it was a joy to see spring rolls done really well.

Tasty and crunchy!

Moving on to the main event we again chose different routes as Charlotte chose to go for gang ped with chicken (Thai red curry) and I chose a dish that I had previously been recommended. This was pad ga prao with a rather intriguing proposition of adding a fried egg, which again had been recommended as the best way to have the dish! As well as our main events, we chose to go for khao niew (jasmine rice) and soft rice noodles.

The beautiful noodles

With expectations high and our tastebuds still tingling from our delicious starters I felt that the excellent service we had received so far, coupled with the relaxed atmosphere in the restaurant meant that we were unlikely to be disappointed when it came to the main event and I can say now (sorry for the spoiler!) that the main courses were delicious.

My fried egg came separately and I was advised to pop it over my beautiful pad ga prao with the bamboo shoots, basil and chilli somehow enhanced by the egg’s texture, with the lamb becoming even more tender and flavoursome.

Just waiting for the egg on top!

Charlotte was equally impressed by the red curry, which she has tried at a decent number of Thai restaurants over the years and believes this version to be in the top three she has ever eaten.

Thai red curry!

All in all, Jino’s and Sukhothai are like two different types of fine wine: both are fantastic and worth trying but how you judge your favourite will come down to your own little taste differences. I have to confess, though, at the moment I am leaning towards Sukhothai, if only for that egg!