York seems to have lots of Thai restaurants and to be honest we'd normally skip eating at any of them because we are a half-Thai family and we eat a lot of good Thai food at home. We brought a lot of the "special" ingredients over from Thailand, and have a found a few shops selling things we need - Morrisons has oyster sauce, soy sauce, fish sauce all imported from Thailand. We found bits in various Thai/Chinese/Asian shops. I was very happy to find jars of Thai chili paste (Nam Prik Pao) here in York! So we'd normally eat at home and are wary of Thai food in the UK being watered down, but then our daughter was working part time at Zaap so we thought we'd better try it - and I have actually been 3 times!
Zaap Thai has several restaurants in York, Leeds, Newcastle and Nottingham - check the website. It's meant to be a "street food" experience rather than a fancy restaurant. Prices are decent, for sure more than you'd pay for street food in Thailand, but pretty good for the UK! I have enjoyed the food on our visits - and the cold beer Chang!
The place in York can be pretty busy and it's quite packed with all kinds of tables and seating arrangements. The kitchen is right in the middle on the ground floor like a small local restaurant in Thailand would be, right where you can see meals being made. We have been when it was hard to get a table and also when there was more space.
The menu is pretty big, maybe bigger than it needs to be - most street food places in Thailand keep it simple. Some only do a handful of different dishes and most noodle places do only noodles. My daughter says the Som Tum is good. But first time we went I knew exactly what I wanted - it had to be Pad Gaprao. The king of Thai street food. A very common, simple dish. And so tasty.
(above) Pad Gaprao with a fried egg (Kai Dao) - you gotta have the kai dao.
(above) Pad Gaprao again, but made with crispy pork belly. Oh yes.
(above) Tom Yum, always a good bet! Another common Thai dish, so full of flavour.
(above) And my son enjoyed this rather spicy bowl of noodles "Zaap Style".
Zaap Thai is located close to the west end of Lendal not far from the York Museum Gardens. Good Thai food, as recommended by us. (and we know Thai food!)
Zaap Thai - Location Map
Zaap Thai has several restaurants in York, Leeds, Newcastle and Nottingham - check the website. It's meant to be a "street food" experience rather than a fancy restaurant. Prices are decent, for sure more than you'd pay for street food in Thailand, but pretty good for the UK! I have enjoyed the food on our visits - and the cold beer Chang!
The place in York can be pretty busy and it's quite packed with all kinds of tables and seating arrangements. The kitchen is right in the middle on the ground floor like a small local restaurant in Thailand would be, right where you can see meals being made. We have been when it was hard to get a table and also when there was more space.
The menu is pretty big, maybe bigger than it needs to be - most street food places in Thailand keep it simple. Some only do a handful of different dishes and most noodle places do only noodles. My daughter says the Som Tum is good. But first time we went I knew exactly what I wanted - it had to be Pad Gaprao. The king of Thai street food. A very common, simple dish. And so tasty.
(above) Pad Gaprao with a fried egg (Kai Dao) - you gotta have the kai dao.
(above) Pad Gaprao again, but made with crispy pork belly. Oh yes.
(above) Tom Yum, always a good bet! Another common Thai dish, so full of flavour.
(above) And my son enjoyed this rather spicy bowl of noodles "Zaap Style".
Zaap Thai is located close to the west end of Lendal not far from the York Museum Gardens. Good Thai food, as recommended by us. (and we know Thai food!)
Zaap Thai - Location Map
Hi Jamie, thanks for your blog. We are shortly moving from Thailand (Chiang Mai) to York and glad to see there will be some good Thai food options so we don't feel too homesick! :)
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