Yum Yum Thai, Kingsmead Square, Bath

I’m not sure which one of us arrived in Bath first: Yum Yum Thai or me.

What I am sure of, though, is that we’ve both been very happy here for around 26 years, which probably earns us both Bath institution status… and could lead to discussions about which one of us has aged best. To answer that latter question: Yum Yum Thai definitely has fewer wrinkles than I do. 

We’re blessed, in Bath, with myriad Thai restaurants — and when I say blessed I really mean it, as Thai food ranks very highly on my go-to choice for food I crave, want and need on a very regular basis.

I’ve got my favourites Thai hangouts, you’ll have yours, and opinions are subject to fluctuation on a regular basis; yes? But this pristine, efficient little canteen/diner-style haven of classic Thai yum yum has hovered at the top of my Thai charts ever since I first stumbled across it in my earliest days as a wannabe ‘proper’ Bathonian, probably because, unlike me, it hasn’t changed much down the years.

There’s a bit more colour dotted hither and thither to lift and soften the restaurant’s erstwhile plain white countenance and menus are definitely more ‘sprawling’ than they used to be back in the day, with daily specials and complex specialities supplementing the classic stir fry/curry/sides format. But the overall recipe for menu success here remains pretty much the same: most dishes can be assembled around your choice of tofu, chicken, beef, prawn, pork or vegan options, and few soar past the £16.95 mark. You’ll pay a bit more for certain ‘speciality’ dishes, but my guess is they’ll be special enough to justify the hike. 

Sides, however, are a bit more prosaic than than the rest of the menu might suggest: the pork and prawn dumplings are really tasty, but they’re hidden amongst an array of mostly crispy or deep-fried this and thats alongside barbecued spare ribs, chicken satay and a coupla salads. Apart from the soups that we always tend to opt for there’s little to capture your attention in this section, which comes as a surprise on a menu that, elsewhere, reads like a foodie tour of Kho Samui or Chiang Mai. 

One Thai Matcha Iced Tea (think, a creamy, pistachio-laden milkshake — lovely!) and one glass of Shiraz Rose duly delivered and we were off on a whistlestop exploration that moves at a speedy pace. Service at YTT is brisk without being brusque; expect your food order to arrive in around 7 minutes max, with sides served simultaneously unless you eschew Thai tradition and strongly specify your preference for the British starter/main course format.

Knowing that, I attempted, this time around, to do the ‘British’ thing when I put my order in: “I’ll have the Tom Kah Kai followed by the Prawn Rendang, please”. But I must have been too meek about it, ‘cos both dishes still arrived at pretty much the same time, as did his (also soup — Tom Yum Kung — and Prad Kra Praw).

As it turned out — and am I surprised, given that British people still very rarely ‘know best’ when they veer away from British pub menu format? — both my vibrantly fragrant chicken and coconut broth and his hot/sour/spicy prawn variation proved to be a satisfyingly agreeable enhancement to both my rich, thick, deeply savoury Favourite Thai Curry in the World (that’ll be the Rendang, then) and his boldly aromatic, Thai/holy basil-centric stir fry, the generous heap of steamy rice that accompanied both positively yelling out to be souped up. So, don’t even attempt to ‘do British’ here; the kitchen definitely knows best.

Overall, we enjoyed a cheerful, speedy refuel in cheerful, gently buzzing surroundings, the view across Kingsmead Square and its imposing London Plane tree — fairy lit, post-sunset — always a pleasure, and the total tally for our feast hovering around the £70 mark: not bad for a city centre supper these days… and not too far removed from what it would have cost back in the days before my ‘proper’ Bathonian status application was still pending approval.