Ikan Baby

Ikan Baby advertises itself as a Bar Cafe Restaurant. It has areas for all these and cheap beer as well.

Yet again, my map remembering skills were called upon last night and yet again, failed admirably. After another route march around some quite strange streets (at least they seemed strange to country folk like me) we found IKAN advertised in the shape of a huge blue fish. It sits on top of a SPAR which seemed quite bizarre.

The waitresses were extremely pleasant and helpful (especially Gluay – it means banana – I didn’t ask). Smiley people all. It was very quiet. I can only assume that this place is stacked at the weekends because it deserves to be. The atmosphere is light and very relaxed and I can see me spending a few schekels here in the future. Dining tables were small and interspersed with sofas for the bar element.

The menus are small with a few daily specials up on the boards. We went for the platter for two and then a green curry and a pad thai. We had steamed rice and a green salad as accompaniments.

The platter was small but very tasty. It was made up of prawn crackers, a couple of spare ribs, four dainty spring rolls and a couple of chicken satays. the sweet ‘n’ sour sauce and the peanut sauce very very good. the latter was very thick and more of a paste. lovely. all the starters were scoffed in short time. very tasty and just gave us an appetite for the main courses.

My pad thai was a little bit astringent but still excellent. Lots of chicken and tofu. The green salad was huge, fresh and crisp. Troy wolfed his green curry in short time and could only say that it was delicious.

For puddings we went for that peculiar Thai speciality, Key Lime Pie. Again, a little bit tart for me but really lovely and well presented. I wonder which region of Thailand it comes from.

Throughout, the waitresses kept the beers coming. At £2.20 a bottle it has to be one of the cheapest places to drink in Manchester. Listen up Blu and Odd.

They may have been bored because there weren’t many people in but the waitresses were happy to discuss whether we’d been to Thailand or whether we could cook the food. I obviously can, a mean green curry and a to-die-for Key Lime Pie.

It cost us £42.00 for two including drinks and excluding tip. A thumbs up.