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Sister restaurant to the AT Box on Cowley Road
Wheelchair friendly.
Wifi access available.
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129 High St (upstairs) Ads by Daily Info:   
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First impressions: the place is nice, if a little rough around the edges, and staff are welcoming and friendly. The menu is rather good, covering everything you might expect to see on a Thai menu and more. We both opted for the two-course set menu, priced according to the main component of your choice of main: £7.95 with a vegetarian main course, £8.95 for meat, and £9.95 for seafood/duck. The starter is an individual mixed platter of tempura battered vegetables, vegetable spring rolls, sesame prawn on toast and wonton. The waitress, when my friend ordered a vegetarian main course, asked if she was vegetarian, and, when she said yes, arranged for her starter to be all-vegetarian. This was the first indicator of the frankly excellent service - I've very rarely known this happen anywhere else without having to ask first. We also asked for a glass of tap water each, and far from being difficult about this as some restaurants can be, they were happy to oblige, even coming round with a jug of water and filling our glasses up in between courses without having to be asked. The food: the starters were good, if nothing mindblowing – the meat items outdid the vegetarian ones somewhat. For main courses, I opted for the red chicken curry, which was excellent, both creamy and spicy and served with delicious jasmine rice. My friend had bean curd chilli which was also received very well. The only criticism I could make of the otherwise faultless service was that they were a little slow in clearing away at the end. There was, however, no compulsory 10% service charge others have mentioned. Summary - Food: great; service: excellent; surroundings: ok; value for money (£16.90 for two courses for two people): very good. We will definitely be returning. WTD, 02/03/10 I’d have to agree with Oxo – the food at AT Thai is perfectly reasonable and fairly well priced but it’s no contender for Oxford’s heavyweight Thai champion. I’ve eaten there twice for lunch in the past month, finding the lunch menu (which is priced roughly around £6.95 for most dishes) a pretty fair price for what you get. I dined alone on my first visit and sampled their Spicy Noodles which were good, thick noodles with a generous scattering of chicken through them and some hefty pieces of red chilli. The portion was an excellent size and I could only manage to eat a little over half of it! I had a Thai beer with my lunch which was expensive coming in at over £3 a bottle – beware; AT Thai’s cheap prices rise quickly when you add in drinks. On my second visit, I had lunch with a friend and we both opted to have the two course set lunch menu which comes with a mixed starter and a main dish, rising in price from £6.95 for vegetarian dishes to £7.95 for meat dishes and £8.95 for duck and fish dishes (if my memory serves me correctly). My friend rather charmingly thought that ‘meat’ meant you would be served a random selection of meat as a main dish and was slightly disturbed by the thought of mixing duck and fish. He looked suitably embarrassed and relieved when I reassured him that he just needed to pick one main course and that the price would correlate to the main component of the dish! The mixed starter was, to be frank, pretty awful. The spring roll was by far the best item on the plate and the prawn toast was edible but oily. The rest of it, well, I left it all. Expect a poor excuse for a prawn wonton (heavy on the batter with a tiny filling of prawn) and large slices of vegetables (peppers, carrot and onion) to be thickly battered and very greasy. My companion battled through his but declined the offer to finish up mine. Rather shamefacedly, I hid nearly the entire platter under my napkin and cheerfully reassured the waitress that it was very good, thank you. My red chicken curry was delicious – the feisty chilli kick complementing the creamy coconut curry sauce perfectly with large pieces of chicken and bamboo shoots floating in it. Again, portions were large and I could finish neither my curry nor my rice! My friend went for the chicken and cashew nut stir-fry which looked nice and he polished it all off, so I must presume he enjoyed it. We had a soft drink each with our meal and the bill came to £22.10, which both of us felt was a little steep for lunch, considering what we’d been served. I wouldn’t recommend having the two courses – you won’t need it and with a drink of any kind, it increases the price quite dramatically. Service is friendly and attentive, if a little slow when it comes to bringing the bill. Overall, a welcome addition to the High and somewhere I would certainly eat again but order wisely and ask for tap water. Dr Mukti, 06/10/09 We fancied a thai meal one saturday night and went through the usual process of working out which places you might be able to get into and how much we wanted to pay. In the end we decided to try out this Thai next door to Chiang Mai. We were certainly pleasantly surprised. Having been to Thailand several times I'm usually disappointed by the blandness of most Thai restaurants. We had the Chicken Tom Yum, Spicy Noodles, Prawn Salad, Beer and Irish Coffee and it was all authentic, fully flavoured genuine Thai food (except for the Irish Coffee obviously). The decor is fine and the biggest bonus you can actually get in without pre-booking or having to wait on Saturday night. The service was too attentive for our tastes and what we found quite annoying was that they kept trying to fill up our glasses with more beer, even after we'd asked them not to. This aside, good, cheap, genuine Thai food. Overzealous service is better than the usual experience of being ignored for aeons or the arrogant dismissive attitude we usually find elsewhere. It's about time there was decent competition to Chiang Mai. What a result for the meagre but improving Oxford restaurant scene. Maybe next we'll get a decent Japanese place? King of Tie-land, 28/08/09 Decided to try AT Thai for dinner, as I'd been asking myself for months why anyone would want to open a new Thai restaurant slap-bang next to the best Thai in town. The eating experience here was defined by the friendly waiter who seemed to be wanting to do a comedy routine for us - eccentric and amusing to begin with, but getting a little bit irritating by the end of the meal. Food was decent and value ok, but the flavours seemed muted - aimed at English palates, perhaps, rather than offering authentic spiciness. To be honest I'd opt for Chiang Mai every time, but if it was full (which is likely!) and I was hankering for Thai food, I'd give AT Thai another go. Oxo, 15/07/09 A little disappointing having read the previous review. The portion was a little small, the food tasted ok but must have had high monosodium glutamate content as I woke in the night with a raging thirst. The waitresses' limited English was also a bit of a problem but we did just about get what we ordered. I was a little put out that a service charge was automatically added, bringing over 2 drinks and handing down 2 plates should not constitute 10% of the bill. I will not be rushing back, which is a shame as town could do with this sort of a restaurant. BigGav, 11/07/09 Fantastic food and the service as well. Leo, 24/06/09 Located next to venerable Oxford standard, established Thai eatery Chiang-mai, you'd think this unassuming upstairs venue wouldn't have a chance. But somehow, since its opening in early 2009, this casual, minimalist Thai venue has won our hearts with its extraordinarily friendly service, reasonable prices, and above all, addictive Thai food that blends spice and savour in just the right amounts to leave every diner at once satisfied with the food and craving even more. Isabella, 29/05/09 Fantastic service and delicious food - the green curry is legendary - I almost prefer this minimalist, inexpensive place to the next door Chiang Mai. Tara, 17/05/09 Delightful service. The pad thai was wonderful - better than the incumbents for the same price (or even slightly cheaper). Generous portions a real welcome. Only one drawback: interior could do with some redecorating but a gem otherwise. Sawasdee, 12/05/09
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