I'VE often thought that Chinese food is a touch over-rated. Over the years, we've all got caught up in the hype.

At first, Chinese was something different - something new for the taste-buds. But think back to the Chinese meals you have devoured - Oriental "delights" straight out of foil containers whose blandness left you with an empty feel afterwards. Now you don't hear of too many Thai takeways, but maybe that is the way forward.

If you like Chinese, but have never tried Thai, then you're guaranteed to be pleasantly surprised. Thai food is devoid of all those horrible thickening agents. The meals are rich in flavour, dressed in an array of spices and bursting with variety.

One of the best Thai restaurants about is The Taste of Thailand. This is a snug little place off Castle Street which has been run for the past six years by Rene Heaume and his Thai wife Lak, who does the cooking. What you have got is authentic classical Thai cuisine.

If it is your first time, then try one of the set menus just to get a sense of the culinary delights on offer. The set menu for two is pretty awesome. For starters there is kung hom pla - dressed prawns in spring roll skins and deep-fried. The accompanying sweet chilli sauce is dynamite.

There is also keow grob, made up of minced pork, prawn egg and spices, deepfried in a wan ton skin. Soup to follow was chicken with lemon grass and lime leaves called tom yam kai. A bit too salty for my liking.

But that was forgotten with a selection of main dishes including gaeng ped kai (chicken curry), mua pud pak (pork fried with vegetables), nua pud nummam hoi (beef, mushroom and spring onions with oyster-flavoured sauce), put thai (fried rice noodles with shrimp, crabmeat, beansprouts, ground peanuts, egg and chopped, salted turnip), plus kao pud (fried rice with peas and soya sauce).

Pudding? Forget it! I was too full and needed the coffee and mints to recover.

The bill for two, including drinks, came to £47.90.

Try Thai - you won't be disappointed.

DK

The Taste of Thailand Castle Way, Southampton

Reservations: 023 8063 0670