Chang Thai, Market Place, Bishop Auckland (From The Northern Echo)

Captial cuisine

6:01pm Thursday 2nd February 2012 in Reviews By Scott Wilson

Scott Wilson returns to old haunts and sets out to discover if Bishop Auckland’s Chang Thai restaurant can live up to its reputation.

WHEN I was a young lad growing up in Wolsingham, Bishop Auckland was regarded as the capital.

It was where we went for the Friday big shop. It was the gateway to the rest of the world, or at least to Morecambe, where my gran and grandad would visit every summer courtesy of a coach trip that began in the bus shelter behind Newgate Street.

Don’t tell my mam and dad, but it was also where I would sporadically sneak off to on a Friday night as a sixth former to further my education in the weird and wonderful world of drinking.

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It was not, however, where we would go to eat.

There were pubs scattered on the outskirts that would be visited for family dinners – the Red Lion at North Bitchburn in particular – but the town itself always felt like something of a culinary no-go zone. So it was with a degree of trepidation that I ventured back to Bishop to see if things had improved.

The range of eating establishments remains fairly limited for a town of Bishop’s size, but I’d heard good things about Chang Thai, a longstanding restaurant of more than a decade that occupies a prime spot in the Market Place.

Was this the place to make eating in Auckland less awkward? Sadly not. While it served up food that was more than passable, Chang Thai offered little that was out of the ordinary.

Solid, but utterly unspectacular.

The venue itself didn’t help, an imposing building spread over two floors that lacked the kind of intimacy that is required of a restaurant that, perfectly understandably in the current climate, was struggling to attract more than a handful of diners in the middle of the week.

The interior decoration added to the sense of disconnection, with the floral wallpaper conjuring up visions of an old-fashioned country hotel rather than a vibrant oriental restaurant.

The menu was comprehensive enough mind, combining a range of traditional thai curry dishes with some more adventurous offerings.

The range of fresh fish dishes was particularly impressive.

Wanting to get a rounded view of what was on offer, we went for the four-course Royal Thai Banquet priced at £27.45 a head. Sadly, the quality was not quite as elevated as the price.

THE starters were excellent, but they proved to be a high point that was never quite matched. A selection of four different dishes was offered, with the best being Kai Haw Bai Teoy, marinated pieces of chicken wrapped in a pandan leaf and served with sweet chilli sauce. The presentation was well thought out, the marinading of the chicken even better.

Other starters included Satay Koong, skewered prawn served with a home-made peanut sauce that was infinitely better than the ones you might find in a supermarket, and Krathong Thawng, stir-fried minced chicken and sweetcorn.

So far, so good.

Sadly, though, things started to go downhill with the soup course. Tom Yam Koong was billed as sour and spicy prawn soup with mushrooms.

In truth, it was more like minestrone with a couple of deep fried prawns dropped in.

Having travelled around South-East Asia reasonably extensively last autumn, it was hard to detect much that was authentically Thai about the dish. Unfortunately, the same could be said about the selection of four main courses that followed. One of them – Pla Pad Phrick, deep fried sea bass topped with chilli and pineapple sauce – was superb. The fish was cooked perfectly and the stickiness of the sauce combined well with the meatiness of the sea bass.

It seemed more Cantonese than Thai though, a charge that could also be levelled at a dish of stir-fried chicken with cashew nuts, pineapples and vegetables.

The curried king prawn with coconut milk was unquestionably a Thai staple, but was neither as delicate nor as balanced as similar dishes I’ve had in other Thai restaurants.

The final main, stir-fried duck with seasonal vegetables, was equally unremarkable. You certainly couldn’t quibble about the amount of food that was provided, but it felt as though quantity had trumped quality in the final reckoning.

The only dessert offered was ice cream, and when it came it was a couple of scoops of chocolate ice cream with some nuts sprinkled on top.

Desserts are rarely the highlight in an oriental restaurant, but this really did feel like an afterthought.

With a coffee and a couple of bottles of Tiger beer – a draught bitter and lager are available – the total bill came to just under £34-a-head. For that, I don’t think it’s unfair to expect a little bit more polish, even if it means a little less food.

Capital punishment? It’s nowhere near as bad as that. But Bishop remains a regional centre in need of some finer food.