I love evenings in Surrey, driving around the country lanes and looking at the amazing home I can’t quiet afford. There is another positive for Surrey, it’s full of little gems to dine in such as The Greedy Elephant. Rumored to have the best Thai food in Surrey, well I had to put my fork to the test to see just how true this was. So off I went to Weybridge to find The Greedy Elephant.

Entering The Greedy Elephant you know immediately that you are in a Thai restaurant with all the gold statues and carvings. I fell in love with the crystal chandeliers they had all over the place, ideas for my own home decor started to spark. However, my excitement and wonder ended when I came face to face with the most sarcastic and rude hostess you could possibly find. Reminding myself to breath I continued to sit down and told myself how worse could she possibly get (the answer was very, however I will not focus on the incidents that took place and focus on the food)

The menu is huge!!!! So it does take a while to go through it all. The complimentary prawn crackers helped to sooth the process.  We were so confused about which of the 50 starters to pick that we decided to go for the selection platter with: fishcakes, spring rolls, prawn toast, chicken satay and prawn parcel thing which wasn’t on the menu but tasted amazing. For the price of £16.95 I had to question whether it was really value for money at all, it was definitely a nice dish but not worth the hefty price tag which is ridiculous when you compare the price to the rest of the dishes on the menu. On the plus side chicken satay has to be the best I have ever tasted, tender and it actually tastes of something, spicy with a tender texture. The fish cakes where juicy and chewy and packed full of flavour, you could see and taste the fresh herbs in each cake. With regards to presentation I always think that the Thai have the most incredible presentation with knife craft and use of fresh flowers in the aesthetics of the piece but here the presence of that Thai attention to detail was lacking. Again this make you question the price tag of this dish.

The mains are more reasonably priced and the quantities are far more generous than your average Thai restaurant. Each curry could be shared by two. This definitely made up for the excessive spend on the starters. We ordered the jungle curry with chicken and the roast duck curry. OMG, usually the duck curry is never something that I would have considered but boy was this a good choice. It was creamy with all that coconut milk and the duck pieces had crispy skin and tender meat which just melted in the mouth. The vegetables were soft and I am a fan of the baby Thai aubergines. The menu stated it had pineapple in the dish wish I wasn’t keen on that idea but I think it was blended into the sauce as there were no chunks.

The jungle curry was nice but nothing to rave about. A very watery consistency and the chicken itself was rather pale and unloved with flavours, so if you had a mouthful of chicken without the gravy it was rather bland. The beans and baby corn were lovely and crisp and added wonderful colours to the dish.

To go with our mains we ordered some good old egg fried rice which was fluffy and tasty and went really well with the mains.

I’m not sure how I feel about The Greedy Elephant as the food is fabulous however the rudeness of the hostess was disgusting. I must mention the incident that took place as we paid and left. We asked the hostess if my friend and I could split the bill to which she smiled and said ‘If you want to split it, you work it out’, nicely we did and got up to leave and she just stared us out the door without a farewell sentiment. If you don’t mind feeling like you should be grateful for dining in the presence of the hostess for some good food then this is a great place. However, if you prefer service with a genuine smile (not the kind from the lady in Fatal Attraction) and a friendly atmosphere then this is not the place for you.

Such a shame, The Greedy Elephant could be amazing if they just sort the service out.

The Greedy Elephant
57 Queen’s Rd, Weybridge, Surrey
thegreedyelephant.co.uk