Restaurant Review: Rosa's

I don't like writing bad reviews, which is why it's taken me so long to get around to writing this one because its going to be really bad.  Time Out gave Rosa's, a small Thai restaurant in Spitalfields four stars, saying it was almost up there with Busaba Ethai for fast high quality Thai food.  I can only assume that the review was an old one and that Rosa's has changed beyond all recognition, either that or it's the classic Time Out syndrome of saying everything in East London is great because someone told them it was trendy once and they need to look like they know these things.


First the positives, it looked okay inside, wood benches and that kind of thing, all very cliched for a place like this.  Okay now that I'm done with the qualified plus side I'll talk about the food.  My beef mussaman, which should be a lovely, unctuous slow cooked affair with melt in the mouth soft meat and potatoes soaked in the spicy gravy, was an unmitigated disaster.  The beef's texture was terrible as was that of the potatoes.  The problem, apart from horrible beef and potato - problem enough in a beef and potato curry - is that the meat added little flavour to a sauce, which though okay had no chance to thicken and intensify.  My girlfriends pumpkin curry had the same problem, the pumpkin had barely cooked and the sauce lacked any kind of punch.

The price for this a couple of glasses of wine and a portion of chicken satay (which were fine to be fair): £40!! For somewhere that's meant to be a cheap local eatery.  Absolute rubbish - avoid.