I have been to the Numjai Thai Restaurant, in Durham, on several occasions and it never fails to impress.
My girlfriend, Fran, had just received the news that she was off to work with the high and mighty at a well-known broadcasting corporation and we decided to celebrate in style.
Our celebrations usually result in some feast of Oriental tucker and this night was no exception.
Although we didn't need to book a table, the restaurant was still full for a Wednesday evening, with a mix of work parties, couples and groups.
The great thing about Numjai is there are a host of set menus on offer which give you a great range of Thai cuisine to sample.
And the good thing is you don't get full up after the first course, unlike similar restaurants. But you will definitely not go home hungry.
We chose a very palatable bottle of Chilean white wine (£11.95) and opted for the set meal Royal Banquet A (£19.95 per person).
This kicked off with a selection of hors d'oeuvres to share, including skewered chicken, spring roll, spare ribs and chicken wrapped in pandan leaf. All were accompanied by chilli, peanut and sweet and sour dips.
These nibbles really got the tastebuds going and if there weren't another three courses to follow I would have quite happily eaten a few more.
Next up was sour and spicy chicken soup. This contained huge chunks of chicken in coconut milk and tons of Thai herbs.
It was really warming on a cold spring night and, unlike our previous visit, Fran managed to avoid spilling it all over the table cloth.
Our main course consisted of stir-fried duck with ginger and spring onions, beef in oyster sauce and the classic Thai green chicken curry. All were accompanied by boiled rice.
This was where the amount we had eaten started to bite, but I managed to plough my way through the vast proportion of it.
The dishes were cracking and really set the restaurant apart from the opposition, through the flavours and quality of ingredients.
Finally, there was ice cream to cool the mouth, before coffee and jasmine tea to round the meal off.
Numjai never fails to impress and although there are no bargain basement offers to take advantage of, you certainly get value for money.
– Chris Young