 While Birmingham may be most famous for its Balti Triangle, it can't be long before the number of Oriental restaurants starts to give it a run for its money. As well as Chinatown itself, there's a healthy string of Chinese, Cantonese and Thai places springing up across the city - The Oriental, Dragon BBQ and Tanoshi three of the most recent. The latter (pronounced Tan-nush-ee) is a Thai-Chinese hybrid based at Five Ways in what used to The Lazt Word pub and, before that (if you're over the age of 30) The Unspoilt By Progress. It's a little too tucked away to get much passing trade - unlike the myriad of places to eat on the nearby Broad Street - which is a great shame, as while it may not quite be five-star dining, it's certainly worth a look. We called in on a midweek night, and to say it was quiet is like saying Bruce Lee was quite good at self-defence. Downstairs - where some of the seats are eyecatching bench swings which may be more of a novelty than anything else - there was one other couple, while upstairs my mate Dave and I were only joined by the staff. It's furnished in a traditional if rather quirky design - the tables, for instance, had wheels at each end so they looked like offcuts from a Hansom cab or covered wagon. Odd, but I rather liked them. Now Dave likes his food - so there'd better be plenty of it. We weren't disappointed. The menu is vast; pages and pages of dishes that sound like one-liners off Wayne's World - Tom Yam Gai, Hoy Ob, Poh Piah Tod - but are in fact some of the yummiest dishes you could imagine. I mean, even Dragon Phoenix Balls doesn't sound that great, but is in fact minced prawn in shredded pancake pastry. Yum. We couldn't decide, so opted for the easy way out, one of the extensive list of set menus, our choice £17.95 per person. First up was a bowl of Tom Yam Goong - traditional Thai spicy sour prawn soup. Spicy is right - the kind that catches the back of your throat and temporarily takes away your ability to speak. Delicious but quite a challenge, even for two die-hard curry lovers. The second course was a generous selection platter of mixed hors d'oeuvres; yuk sung, spare ribs, Jil Yim chicken wings and fish cake - all of which apart from the latter were great. The Thai fish cake was that slightly rubbery variety that neither of us were too keen about. The main course - which really finished us off - was so big there was only just enough room on the taste for all the dishes. The sauteed tiger prawns with chilli oil and basil were nice and moist but not greasy as they could so easily have been, while the roasted duck curry (with tropical fruits and aubergine basil leaves) was a dark, rich watery sauce and sizeable chunks of meat. On top of that was a large plate of stir-fried vegetables in oyster sauce, fried noodles with chicken and a huge basket container of fragrant steamed rice. There was a fair bit left - not least rice, even after we'd had several portions each - but not because it was inedible, simply too much of it. And Dave - as his wife will testify - eats like a horse. Great value, just a shame not more people know about Tanoshi to make the atmosphere a little livelier. Hopefully reviews like this might change that. Tanoshi, 32/33 Edgbaston Shopping Centre, Hagley Road, Edgbaston B16 8SH. 0121 454 8282. Email: info@tanoshi.co.uk
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