Diep le Shaker
Saturday night I was out with ex-coworkers in a last blast to the company. Also we had a bit of cash in the social club coffers so used it up on food and drink in Diep le Shaker. A few of us met up in the Pembroke beforehand and the rest waited in the bar of the restaurant where they ordered cocktails.
The organizer had booked us in for the ‘Taste of Phuket’ menu which involved a buffet of somewhere upwards of 10 dishes. The restaurant is small and intimate although our seating arrangements weren’t terribly good. One large round table (8 top) shoved together with a smaller round 4-top does not make for much room for 15 guests – especially those unlucky enough to be seated in the odd curved space between the two. In addition the tables were at the back of the room beside the kitchen. At times I thought that a few on the other side of the table were going to end up with a plate of crispy duck all over their heads.
The service was fine although perhaps a little too attentive as the waiter was around every five minutes to refresh our glasses. All well and good except that the second bottle of Shiraz appeared to have some horrible tangy aftertaste that the first bottle did not, but it was too late to save anything as the waiter had already topped up our glasses with the second bottle. If it had been a smaller group I would have asked for fresh glasses. Also we never did figure out what accent the Maitre’D was trying to imitate.
The food itself was good, although with ten-plus dishes it was hard to tell which might be your favourite. There was simply too much choice. Crispy fried duck with plum sauce and pancakes, chicken, beef and prawn satay. Spring rolls, fish goujons and Chicken Pandan - cubes of chicken baked in lime leaves (‘Don’t eat the leaves’ warned our waiter.) The main course was even more meat-laden. Roast duck with pineapples and plum sauce. A hot and spicy prawn and scallop curry that snuck up on those who dared to try it. ‘Sure that’s not so bad’ was heard a couple of times and five minutes later there were gasps for water. The always popular green chicken curry, a beef curry of some sort, a spicy vegetable thing, another seafood curry with mussels and prawns, and a yellow prawn curry. Served with noodles and rice (steamed or fried.)
A third course of crispy banana fritters served with ice cream –which many had to chase around the plate - and a coffee finished the meal. Our booking was for 7pm and we were supposed to be out of there by nine for the second seating, but the staff let us finish off our meal and stagger wearily away at about 9.30.
Kudos to them for putting up with us.
