Ting Thai is a street food restaurant that began as a pop-up during Edinburgh Festival Fringe and then appeared at various addresses, including nearby Forrest Road in recent years. The soot-colored exterior is dark, the signage is understated. The menu divided into categories including Rice & Noodle, Soup Bowl, Other Box, Sides, Beer/Wine Snacks and Small Box.
Cool and low-key inside, with communal wooden tables, a wall of gig posters and The Stooges, The Undertones and Nick Drake on the stereo one time and some early 90’s hip hop the next time. We have always found it to be home to a real mixed crowd of people from students to office workers and everyone in between.
Ting Thai Caravan recently won the List Magazine best newcomer award and it is very well deserved! Strangely in this day and age though it does not have a website or god forbid twitter, although their facebook page is pretty good for any information you need.
We settled on three of the latter to share between the two of us as starters, and a main course each. These arrived all at the same time, each in a cardboard take-away box. Nestled on a salad of lettuce, chilli and shallots, the bubble prawns are my favourite. You get 3 in the box and they are really well priced at £3.60. Sweet potato crispies were just perfect as were our chilli squid and crispy pork.
Onto main courses and my Steak and prawn was really tender and tasty. A little on the spicy side but just how I like it! I had it with a coconut rice and the boy had the moo yang (£7.80, also available as a smaller portion for £5.20). Though the pair of pork cutlets were huge with a caramelised coating of sesame, honey and palm sugar. Singha beer topped off our meal and it was very reasonable at £20 per person.
I love this place for its exciting tasty food at such affordable prices in a really fun easy going atmosphere – please don’t let the caravan leave town!
Submitted by Carol Wilkin
