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On the 1st June 2022, Rosa’s Thai opened the doors of their York restaurant. Rosa’s Thai York has opened on Coney Street, in the building which was previously home to another restaurant – Joe’s Kitchen. Coney street is a main shopping street in York city centre, making this a great location for Rosa’s Thai York. I was invited to their launch event with a plus one, so my fiancé (Tom) agreed to accompany me. My friend Natalie (who is also a local blogger) and her plus one, Emily, also joined us at the table. From looking at the menu and experiencing the samples at the launch event, I can see Rosa’s Thai York offers plenty of options, whether you’re vegetarian, a meat eater, or have other dietary requirements.
Once we were seated, Prawn Crackers and Pumpkin Crackers were placed in front of us on the table. They had a sweet chilli dipping sauce on the side. I’m not a fan of chilli sauce, but Tom is – he told me the chilli sauce was one of nicest he’d ever had. We also had a choice of drink upon arrival, so I chose a glass of prosecco and Tom had an orange juice because he was driving.
The food soon then started to appear! The first sample to be served were sweetcorn balls, which after looking at the menu seemed to be a small sample of the Sweetcorn Patties. I didn’t try these (pictured below) as I can’t eat sweetcorn, but Tom, Natalie and Emily all did. This was sweetcorn fried until crispy and golden, in a light batter flavoured with kaffir lime leaves and red curry paste.
I tried the chilli beef (pictured above), which our server warned us was spicy! There was quite a kick, but I liked it. Our server did tell me the name of this dish but I can’t find it on the menu, I think it could have been one of the beef dishes on the curry menu.
Next was a sample of the Drunken Noodles served with a king prawn (pictured below) – again, our server warned us on how spicy this one would be. It’s described on the menu as “fiery and fragrant with Thai basil, lesser galangal and fresh chillies. This spicy noodle dish is traditionally eaten at the end of a big night out. There’s no booze in the dish itself but it’s possibly the best hangover cure in the world.” I personally found the spice to be manageable and I’m a fan of king prawns which was delicious.
I am a huge Thai Green Curry fan and will usually always opt for that rather than a Thai Red Curry, but it was nice to have a change and sample Rosa’s Red Curry with chicken. It’s a red curry laced with bamboo shoots, fresh chillies and basil leaves. I think this was my favourite of everything I sampled during the launch event!
Some of the samples I had duplicates of, due to me not trying the sweetcorn patties/balls. I’ve never tried tofu before, but all of us seemed to really enjoy it. The Tofu was served in a sauce (our server did tell us the name of the sauce but I don’t recognise it from looking at the menu now). The texture was melting in my mouth (in a good way) and it had absorbed all of the tasty flavours.
Finally, for dessert we were served sticky rice and mango, wrapped in a banana leaf. I only knew what the leaf was because I used to have a favourite seabass meal from a supermarket in the past and the seabass used to be wrapped in a banana leaf during cooking. The dessert was simple, but filling.
As people started to leave, we stayed for one more drink. We’d seen some people enjoying cocktails, so Natalie ordered us a Coconut Cocktail. It was surprisingly nice and not too overpowering with the coconut. I felt like it was the perfect way to end our evening.
Would we return? Absolutely. As we were leaving we were also gifted a copy of (Rosa’s Thai owner) Saiphin Moore’s cookbook. I received the vegetarian version, which is great as I want to try cook more vegetarian dishes at home. Thank you so much to Rosa’s Thai York and their PR company for inviting us. We will be back! Visit the Rosa’s Thai website for more information on the menu and opening times.
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