Challenge: Part 4 of 5 in Gorgeous lunch for a fiver

pad Thai at Tuk Tuk -- delicious!

Deep in the heart of Soho, about halfway down Old Compton Street, nestled amongst pants stores and sex shops, is a little Thai joint called Tuk Tuk. It’s easy enough to miss, marked by just a tiny orange awning, but well worth a visit.

I treated a friend to Tuk Tuk last week and ours was a typical Tuk Tuk experience: briskly seated, we were handed well-loved, plasticised menus, and given a minute or two (no longer, please) to order. Service is polite, but it’s also efficient. This is not a place to dawdle.

I chose pad Thai with prawns (£4.60) and a cup of Jasmine tea (£1.00), whilst my date opted for pad Thai with chicken (£3.90) and a coke (£1.20). With tip, lunch for two came in at just under £12.00. (Strictly speaking, this is meant to be lunch for under a fiver, but a plate of pad Thai for £3.90 surely checks that box!)

Great, steaming bowls of Tuk Tuk noodles are the Friday lunchtime lifesaver of many a hungover media type, but the food (so delish!) and the prices (so low!) make this little canteen more than just a guilty pleasure.

Sure, the florescent lighting doesn’t really do my skin all that much justice, and the plastic bowls and cups take me right back to student life, but that’s part of the charm. Tuk Tuk’s not the place to woo your love or impress the boss. It’s a place to slide into a booth, gratefully tuck into a shatterproof bowl of saucy goodness, and walk away with change of a fiver.

For that, Tuk Tuk, me love you long time.

56 Old Compton Street
Soho
London
W1D 4UE