Thai Edge Restaurant

The Birmingham outpost of this modern Thai restaurant chain (with siblings in Cardiff, Leeds and Bristol) looks smart with its glass partitions, tiled floor, plentiful Thai artefacts and orchids on the tables. Thai music plays in the background (unobtrusively so) and waitresses are dressed in traditional garb. The charming staff can advise about the heat of the dishes and can get them tweaked up or down according to your liking. The expansive menu runs the gamut of set banquets, soups and salads with familiar and not so familiar choices along the way; toro mun khoa pod is sweetcorn cakes with sweet plum sauce (light and packed with flavour) and phed nam makam is pan-fried duck with sweet-and-sour tamarind sauce (tender and sticky). Tago and Woon Ka Ti sees coconut cream with taro, sweetcorn and sago wrapped in pandanus leaf and served with coconut jelly cubes topped with water chestnut jelly.