Thiptara, The Palace Hotel

Thiptara
The Palace Hotel, Old town

Tel: 04 428 7888


The Palace Hotel in Old Town at night is a very special place. I love all the cleverly placed spotlights, the palm trees, the warm yellow-ey colour of the brickwork, the paths all lit up and the flickering flames. Of course getting to the Palace Hotel still requires hard hats and steel toecaps for the area is one big building site.

The Thai restaurant in the hotel is set apart in its own building and after you have navigated your way through the hotel and through the gardens you’ll enter a wonderfully decorated and cosy room. Don’t, whatever you do, follow the signs for the restaurant in the hotel because you will end up wandering aimless up and down empty corridors. Er, apparently.

The menu has nothing very adventurous on it, just all the usual Thai staples that you would expect to find. The staff are mainly Thai which, whilst this sounds strange, is a refreshing change in Dubai. And, a couple of minor ‘lost in translation’ moments aside the service was polite, friendly and professional.

Food was offered ‘Thai spicy’ or medium, we ordered the food medium and I personally found it a little bit tame. However, pots of the ubiquitous prik nam pla helped to set things afire.

The food was good though, we had a couple of salads to start, noodles, curries and a stir fry dish to follow, all well presented, good strong flavours and fresh tasting salads. This was good Thai food done very well, in a lovely setting and served by polite friendly staff. Prices are what we have come to expect in this town; ie about 100 times more than what you would pay for the same fare in Thailand.