Jin Da Thai

Jin Da Thai is just off the busy King Street in Hammersmith, a quite small restaurant with closely packed tables. Vegetarian gyoza dumplings were harmless enough, though the filling was rather bland (12/20). Salt and pepper squid was decent, with squid that largely avoided chewiness, but with coating that was rather heavy, and with rather too much salt, even to my taste (12/20). The best of the starters were duck spring rolls, which had crisp filo pastry coatings and meat fillings with quite good flavour (13/20).

Red prawn curry was harmless but a little on the watery side, the prawns cooked all right but the curry sauce lacking much in the way of distinct flavour (11/20). Better was panang curry, which had a punchier curry sauce with a pleasant taste of Thai basil (13/20). Crab rice was fine, the rice grains reasonably distinct, though more crab would have been nice (12/20). The best dish was duck with tamarind sauce, the duck having plenty of flavour, the greens with it being delicate and the sweetness of the tamarind balanced by some vinegar and the sauce having a pleasant spicy kick (14/20). Pad Thai noodles were also good, the noodles having good texture (13/20). 

Service was pretty slack, with the table left unswept after the main course, and a suggestion that we should keep our dirty cutlery after the starters. Getting drinks replenished was quite laborious, with the waitresses huddled around the bar at some points chatting rather than checking on the dining room. I know that this was a neighbourhood restaurant rather than The Ritz, but plenty of simple establishments in the area manage to produce very good service, so it is not a function of the price level, but just sloppiness.  I don’t recall this issue on my previous visit. The bill came to £40 per person with beer to drink, which was fine. The meal tonight was very pleasant in terms of the food, though the service tonight was distinctly lacking. 

Further reviews: 15th Mar 2022