Thai River in County Durham

Amazing view of the castle and river. Food was lovely would recommend.

Amazing ! Great service, lots of dairy free and gluten-free options, good size portions and fresh, brilliantly balanced, flavoursome food. One of my favourites across the country.

Don't have the Pad Thai. I've had less sweet deserts.

This place serves beautiful food I have been here a few of times and the food is always hot and tasty. The staff are very good. I really can't believe that the restaurant is only half full, the place is really clean and well presented. I would definitely recommend any of the seafood dishes.

First time trying Thai food and I was very impressed! Amazing meal, very nice food,

Food is beautiful, and the price is great 👍

we came in last minute and it was pretty busy, but we immediately seated and served. it did take quite a while for the food to come out with others being brought their food before us, but again we didn't book so we didn't mind. the waitresses were very apologetic and the food was well worth the wait. it was a bit rowdy but it was a Saturday night

I eat a lot of Thai food in the UK and in Thailand where I travel regularly. There are a few great places in the north east who have passion for their craft. This is truly awful Thai food. It reminded me of someone at home cooking Thai food for the first time. There was no balance of flavours. I ordered penang curry and it didn’t come with one of the main toppings and it was really salty. Also asked for a hot Thai tea but they can’t be bothered to make it so had to have an iced one that batch make and chill. My girlfriend ordered pad kra pao which was edible but her egg was raw inside. £1.40 for one egg that we wouldn’t eat. The person who served us had a terrible attitude and was very abrupt. I would never go back.

Absolutely beautiful food in a gorgeous setting

This is my second visit and although I enjoyed it last time, this was definitely not the case when we visited tonight. There was only one other table in tonight when we arrived and we waited what seemed like a lifetime for drinks. Which the waiter managed to get wrong. I ordered one still mineral water and he brought a soda water and two glasses of lukewarm tap water which tasted odd. The starters were good. I ordered the wonton soup and my friend ordered the chicken on toast. Unfortunately, this is where the positives ended. I order a seafood mixed platter for main course. When it arrive I was impressed with the quantity of seafood but there was a very peculiar smell. As I had a bite of the first prawn I noticed that it had two separate temperatures. It was hot and the outside and slimy and cold on the inside and the taste was rancid! I investigated the other prawns by pulling them apart and discovered that they were all raw and the peculiar smell from earlier was in fact coming from the prawns. This immediately made me feel ill. The water returned with our second round of drinks and I told him about the undercooked prawns. He said he would change it right away. No apology. After that I ran straight to the toilet as I felt physically sick. There was no way I would attempted to eat anything else. I was on the verge of vomiting and have been all night at the thought of smelly, slimy, half cooked prawn I ate. Upon paying I tried to get the attention of our waiter but he avoided eye contact. The woman who was taking payment didn’t seem to speak much English. They had taken off my main meal but the entire experience was ruined by the raw prawns. My friend also left her full main meal as she didn’t have much of an appetite after I chucked up my wonton soup in the toilets. I understand that accidents happen but our meal was totally ruined by something that was completely the chefs fault. He should be probing all food for internal temperatures and recording them for their hygiene records. I paid £65 for food that we didn’t eat or was eaten but thrown up in the gents toilets. I will never go back and if I’m ill over the next few days I will be seeking legal action!

Starters : satay and dumplings - see pics, were an unhealthy temperature: tepid, more cool than cold, and definitely not hot. Rice - egg fried - was hot and delicious as was the red curry. Thai man - presumably the owner - was making a noisy racket at a table very near us. Looked like they were watching snooker on his phone. Very rude. Place was empty. No atmosphere. Girl serving us was lovely though. Wouldn't go back.

Visited for the first time and absolutely loved this authentic Thai food. Shared the stater platter and each item was very tasty. Had the beef salad and it was up there with the best I’ve had. Highly recommended

This place has never changed in quality. Every now and then you go somewhere and you think, hmm not as good as it was. Been here numerous times never changed. Great food and location if you get a window seat is impressive.

Really wanted to dine here when we visited Durham as I love Thai food. Emailed to book as their website suggested but I didn't get a response. As we stayed on a Saturday night we where then limited with other restaurants availability when I realised they probably wasn't going to respond. Shame, looked to be in a good location too

Really wanted to dine here when we visited Durham as I love Thai food. Emailed to book as their website suggested but I didn't get a response. As we stayed on a Saturday night we where then limited with other restaurants availability when I realised they probably wasn't going to respond. Shame, looked to be in a good location too

i'm a thai food lover. As usual soups was refreshing and delecious. i would recommend to try their soups. And view from restaurant was fabulous.

With the exception of 1 meal, all (party of 5) others where excellent. Management remedied this, will definitely return.

First time for us and certainly won’t be the last! Food was amazing! As was the service. We went for the set menu for two. Excellent value and huge portions.

Nice place to enjoy quality Thai food.

Worst Thai food in my life. please don’t eat here if you know what Thai food is. My gf and I ordered the Thai Ocean grill and Tom Yum soup which were unacceptably bad. The grilled sea food was totally cold, fishy, stinky and in such a small portion compared to its price of £30. Furthermore, they didn’t even clean the dirt from the back of the prawn (see pic below). The Tomyum soup is salty doesn’t taste like Tom Yum at all.

Please read this 🥲 (first time putting bad review) We ordered Prawn Tomyum, Seafood Grill and Pineapple fried rice in a total of 60 pounds. None of them are good🤦🏼‍♀️ 1. Prawn tomyum: clear sour and super salty soup without any tomyum taste 😫 2. Seafood grill: unfresh and chewy squid, unclean prawn and mussels served. Seafood was not fully grilled and it’s cold when served. Such a small portion that obviously didn’t worth 30 quid 😫 3. Pineapple fried rice: Very blend just like white rice with yellow colouring 😫 *not just the food is bad but importantly unhygienic🥹. I had a bad stomach kick after having the seafood 🥹

1st time eating here and will be the last, food below par, was bland and way overpriced for what you get.

Lovely place, tried this place for the first time, service was good food was lovely too definitely will be back.

Waited a while for drinks order to come , starter came soup was lovely fishcakes weren't nice at all. Mains came beef was dry and chewy Chicken was awful My partner isn't fussy and he couldn't eat either meals. We won't be returning and definitely wouldn't recommend this restaurant

Really enjoyed our Saturday lunch at Thai River. Very attentive staff. Nice ambience. Superb food and not at all pricey considering the quality of the food and service. Highly recommended.

If you order a set, you must asked for your drink. They won’t serve you the drink written on your set menu if you did not ask for it. This is very different from other restaurants. Usually when your set include drinks, the waiter or waitress would serve you without you asking for it. Wouldn’t recommend, if you forget to ask for your drink in the set and pay , they won’t remind you, and they think it is your own problem not getting your drink.

Me and my wife went here for our anniversary. Got to say we went in there blind not knowing what our choices were and made a lucky guess. Got to say we guessed perfect I had crispy squid for starter with salad and chilli sauce was amazing with a generous starter portion. And if you like a bit spice but not too much then definitely go for the Duck Curry (as written on the menu) best meal out for a long time excellent service and nice pint of Stella. Reasonable prices also.

I will start off by saying we normally LOVE this restaurant. Tonight we sat for 25mins with no drinks or no menus. After an hour when our food came it wasn’t edible. I normally love the Panang from here but there was so much salt in my partner and I couldn’t physically eat it. I hate complaining but I had to say something. Our plates were full we had a couple of mouthfuls each. The staff said they would give me a discount. They discounted 10% (£5). We paid £42 for a bottle of water and a bottle of Singha. So disappointed as this was our favourite Thai.

I will start off by saying we normally LOVE this restaurant. Tonight we sat for 25mins with no drinks or no menus. After an hour when our food came it wasn’t edible. I normally love the Panang from here but there was so much salt in my partner and I couldn’t physically eat it. I hate complaining but I had to say something. Our plates were full we had a couple of mouthfuls each. The staff said they would give me a discount. They discounted 10% (£5). We paid £42 for a bottle of water and a bottle of Singha. So disappointed as this was our favourite Thai.

I ordered Pad kha phauw which it came with rice, taste was good , only rice seemed to be left over and warm with microwave as It's quite dry.

The food was amazing with quite big portions me and my daughter couldn't finish it all so staff popped it in take away containers for us to take home. Staff were lovely, polite and helpful. Nice atmosphere. We finished off with an amazing special green tea. Thoroughly recommend this Thai restaurant.

Don’t no we’re to start shocking Went in for lunch order wine delivered started to order food to be told it all needs to co s out together soup apitizer and mains as short staffed should have told us when we were seated hence got up and left went some were else been 6/7 times no more just lost &100 pound no wonder places go bust will not be going back and please don’t respond as it’s a waste of time you are either open or not as simple as that

The Chicken Teriyaki at Thai River Durham was delicious 😋 Great food, good service, friendly staff together with a beautiful view of Durham Castle and Cathedral. Well worth a visit if your in the area 😎👌 I will visit again in the future 🐲🍗 Take a walk along Durham Riverside full of amazing things to see along way.. Enjoy! 🤩👌🐲👣 Also surrounded by lots of lovely bars to call into if your thirsty 😋🥃

Good food, large portions, and polite waiters. If you are a fan of thai food, you should try them for sure. It was too sweet for my taste, but my friends enjoyed it.

Great place for food. Loads to choose from and there was loads of flavour. Beautiful place right on the water and all the staff were really friendly. Will definitely be returning.

Delicious food, I ordered the lovely duck on the rice menu. Very generous portion and I Ieft feeling very full. Service was great, we were showed to our table straight away by a friendly waiter and he also took our drinks order and food order as soon as we were ready. Food was ready relatively quickly and was very tasty. Would recommend to friends and will definitely return.

Very generous portions of authentic Thai food served in a wonderful location.

Beautiful views of the river in Durham. We enjoyed Kai Satay, Singapore Noodels, Red Chicken, and Pad Thai Chicken. Our final meal in the city was excellent!

This place is one of the few gems in terms of aesthetics actually matching the taste. Must eat.

Absolutely delicious meal. Wonderful dishes, excellently presented and very generous. Quality ingredients. Friendly service. If you are ever in Durham I recommend a meal here.

The best Thai food in durham! I had chicken on toast and spicy basil! It’s was so good. I will return again for sure! The staffs were lovely.

So glad my friend and I picked Thai River for a much needed meal after a long day out. The food and service are excellent. After sharing a starter, I had the chicken red curry with steamed rice, my friend the green. Both were cooked to perfection. With wine the bill was good value at £60. Our servers were friendly and attentive from the moment we arrived. When my friend enquired whether there was yoghurt or similar to complement her curry it isn't usually part of the cuisine. Miraculously, a few minutes later, our server reappeared with a little dish of plain yogurt. She or someone must have nipped out to the nearest shop to get this. My friend was delighted. Full marks to Thai River for such thoughtful service and lovely food in a very pleasant dining room. Thank you.

We love, love, LOVE this place! Durham has become our firm favourite place to visit, for either a day out or a stop over. Thai River is part of the reason why! Always great food with lovely staff. It always offers a very calm and quiet atmosphere while dining. Lovely window seats make the Castle and Cathedral a beautiful backdrop. The food is always delicious and very reasonably priced in our opinion. Thank you as always, I can guarantee that we will be back very soon!

Quiet when we arrived, lovely staff, food was good quality and tasty. Very good service. Worth a visit for sure

A great Thai in the heart of Durham. Food was excellent and good size portions. If you’re lucky you can get seating overlooking the river with the Castle up to your left. Staff were brill, lots of help with the dishes if required. It is on the river bank so could be an issue if in a wheelchair. Another restaurant to add to our must visit again list.

What a great evening we had on our second visit here. The food as ever was delcious and brought in a timely manner. The staff were polite and ever helpful. We cant reommend visiting this Durham Gem highly enough. As with our previous visit the Thai River delivers a quality dining experience few can match.

The service and the atmosphere were top notch. We ordered the steamed sea bass, fried rice, and pad Thai. The sea bass and the fried rice were excellent, would recommend to anyone trying the restaurant for the first time. The pad Thai however, was a bit disappointing. I could tell before tasting it that it was too soggy, and that the sauce was not authentic. It reminded me of the ketchup pad Thai you would find in American Thai kitchens.

So had dinner. Bit limited on the menu in terms of Vegi, but when asked, happy to adapt multiple dishes to accom. We had an early dinner after a graduation ceremony, so it was quiet, but it got busy by the time we left....would suggest booking. It has good food, it was good enough to get 5stars, and would not object to going there again, it was not mind blowing though....it's not burnt into my brain as a place I have to go and eat at again....but then again, no place is ...

The meal started off well, the starter was lovely. However there were issues after this, the service was very slow it took about 10/15 mins to receive our drinks, which may be understandable if the staff were rushed off their feet however we were 1...

We went to the restaurant for opening, 12pm. We were the only customers during our whole meal, so it was very quiet. The good was very nice and full of flavour. For starters, we chose the sharing platter, which was nice. However, I believe it is overpriced for what you get on the platter. Our mains were Singapore noodles (chicken) and Weeping Tiger. The Singapore noodles were very filling and tasteful. I'd recommend trying these. The Weeping Tiger is a sirloin steak cut up on some salad. The steak was cooked well, but I was expecting a little more than steak on some lettuce leaves. For drink, we had a glass of Sprite and a bottle of Singha beer, as the draught pumps had a gas issue, so they were off. The premises were clean and tidy, few high-level cob webs but nothing major. Fantastic views of the castle and Durham City. The bill came to around £62.

Lovely table looking out over castle. Service was OK, food nice but nothing special.

Great food, delicious & not overpriced. Would definitely come back. And right next to the river. If you want authentic Thai - make sure to visit this place

The chicken pad thai is not stir fry. It is a sauce stir with rice stick noodle only. Never again

Loved it. Been several times, once being today ☺️

A wide variety of outstanding Thai Food. Large portions. Friendly Staff. Highly recommended.

Food ok but not much of a Thai feel to the place. Said Hello in Thai to which they didn't understand. English pop music playing in background,not the best.

Great place to eat and not overly expensive £20 with drinks for all you can eat.

The Tom yum tasted more of oil than anything else and then I had a lobster pad Thai which was basically a whole cooked lobster cut in half and placed on top of the meal. It had all of the bits of lobster you can’t eat as well as the bits you can. It was then covered in a bbq like sauce over both the edible and non edible parts. I must have had a non edible part as I had the worst stomach ache in my left the following days. Strangely enough my wife ordered the pho and loved it!

Food used to be a lot better. Had the pineapple fried today - the seafood was under-seasoned/overcooked. Rice also overcooked. What a shame.

Lovely friendly service. Tempura vegetables starter, delicious and huge and also chicken satay was well tasty. We then shared a green curry which was 2 chilli hot and so nice, with coconut rice. Portion was plenty big enough to share. Nice bottle of rosé wine....

Good service but the food tastes vanilla and inauthentic. Defo able to make better ones at home. Pad Kra Pao with two chilli sign was not even spicy at all. Thai milk tea tastes made from sachets with too much water. Fish Fancier tastes like fish and chips without chips but with soy sauce.

Me up with some friends from Sunderland we’ve not seen in a while & they fancied Thai food. We had a nice chat over a decent meal June had Pad Thai Ian had Spicy Pork Mel had Yellow Curry I had Chicken Satay My only...

Good portions, reasonably priced and friendly staff in a great location. Having lived for many years in Thailand, l know Thai food and this is good, authentic food with a little less spice.

Nice location. Good prompt service. Excellent choice on menu. Quality food. Broad selection of drinks. Poor acoustics doesn’t take many people talking to make it loud. Some soft furnishings should resolve that. Best Thai food I have had in U.K.

Found this little beauty by accident and so pleased we did! Food was amazingly tasty and just the right about of spice (depending what you order).

Awesome - really enjoyed the food, great service, very close to the taste we experienced in Thailand!

Had my 30th here and I was not disappointed it was an absolutely wonderful experience. It’s a lovely restaurant in a great location over looking Durham river and the decor in the restaurant is perfect. I had squid and Thai red curry exactly the same quality as in Thailand 🇹🇭 itself. Had few people with me who hadn’t had Thai food before but were won over I definitely recommend and will be back. Big shout out to staff they are very friendly and quick service. Brilliant

Lovely little restaurant with great food and good value.

The food was great. We had pineapple fried rice and roast duck, it was delicious. 10/10

Had a lovely meal out with friends. Very busy on a Saturday night but the staff were efficient and attentive. The food was tasty and plentiful. The views across the river to the Cathedral on the opposite bank are fab.

Great experience, nice busy restaurant, great food and chusak, the owner was very accommodating introducing himself. Thanks, can't wait to visit again. Very nice family ran buisness.

An interesting and varied menu and perhaps i made the wrong choice but the food was average. Chicken tasted pre packed and arrived very very quickly so didn’t taste freshly cooked. My partner has the crispy pork which was described as a speciality - didn’t...

Beautiful food, and great service...would recommend a visit.

Relaxing, lovely staff, delicious food and lots of choice on menu. Recommend.

Our 4th visit. All at different times of the day. Fabulous food and great service

After two previous low score visits. The team got it right tonight. Lovely tasty food. Reasonable prices and very good service by very beautiful Thai people! Well done .

Great service friendly. Lovely food and good size portions. Good value for money. Would visit again.

Beautiful place, delicious food, great service!

Our party of 4 strangers to Durham, pre booked this restaurant on the advice of a friend. The restaurant was fairly easy to find, nicely located adjacent to the River Wear. Upon arrival at the allotted time, we’re were greeted and shown straight to our...

My food was tasty but was cold my partner had Thai green curry and he said was very tasty and hot

I've had the pad kra pao (moo) and it left me speechless. It's just divine. The service was without flaws and the ambience couldn't have been better. I will be back soon, thank you for the meal.

Best Thai food in the area, best outside of Thailand. Fast service excellent menu.

Good thai food, at great value. Would recommend!

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Staff always friendly and polite. Fantastic food. Thank you!

Best Thai in Durham. Great menu and attentive staff. Lovely views of Durham. We visit the restaurant often and is our default lunchtime dining option. The Crispy Pork is delicious.

Great place to go to but can be extremely noisy

Excelente comida tailandesa con sabor extraordinario y a un precio razonable. El curri es sabroso y abundante, la sopa tom...

冬阴功汤很开胃！！第一次吃绿咖喱，配蒸饭也很好吃。炒河粉有点番茄的味道，我觉得是全场最佳！！烧烤猪排有点像糖醋排骨，但没炸过的那种

绿咖喱和炒鸡肉河粉真是绝绝子，Green Curry and Pad Thai chicken are absolutely marvelous.

Taste is ok, nevertheless I find the owner is not honest, we have a group of three, and ordered a set for two as we have one lady and one girl who do not have big appetite, somehow the owner never explained and in stead just served us set for three, we ended up only managed to finished perhaps half of the whole portion and the balance was just wasted, and to make things worse, we we charged for set of three, closed to a hundred quids, that was the most expensive dinner we had. The owner should have explained to us and make sure we can finished before taking orders, in stead he only interested in making money. Will never return to this restaurant!

It's always a worry to go to a restaurant with some bad reviews, even though they are inevitable. But we gave it a go during a brief visit to Durham. It was really really tasty. Service was excellent. A very pleasant experience. Don't be put...

Very very busy on Saturday night so service suffered. Pleasant staff but food slow and also disappointing, especially Pad Thai which was too sticky, spicy and tomatoey maybe? Portions huge so don’t over order. Jasmine tea a bag rather than loose tea so tasteless. Nice...

Absolutely delicious. Where do I start. Lots of choice, lots of amazing tasty food and served with that Thai smile and hospitality. I’d so highly recommend this place if you’re visiting

We ate a late lunch here on a trip to Durham. Nice spot by the river, quick service, and great food. The tamarind duck was nicely theatrical in its presentation. We'd definitely eat here again.

We ate here for a late lunch whilst visiting Durham, because we love Thai food, so why not. The restaurant was quiet, service was good and fairly quick. A shared chicken satay, then tamarind duck, duck curry and coconut rice. The tamarind duck was nicely...

Had a wonderful dinner here last night. Completely faultless! It was interesting hearing the tables around us saying pretty much the same. There can’t be a better Thai/Asian restaurant in town. Give it a go.

Never been here before but decided to book for a Friday night. Nice decor inside, welcoming staff. Drinks order taken quickly and brought out quickly. There's lots of choice on the menu. Starters and mains came out in good time. The food is absolutely lovely,...

Lovely food, great selection of Thai beers too, including Chang😋

Food is amazing, great flavours and tasty.