WHEN it a came to a Thursday out with the girls we decided to head over to Worcester's newest Thai restaurant.

Looking forward to an evening of gossip, giggles and exotic food we booked a table at Tom Yum Kung in Foregate Street, opposite the Shirehall.

Inside the restaurant is smart, cool and airy, but a little lacking in intimacy.

No experts on Thai food, two of us opted for one of the set menus - landmark manus - at £18.95 a head.

To start we each had a spring roll, a spare rib, chicken satay, prawn on toast and toong long all served with a selection of dipping sauces.

This was a good way of tasting several different starters and there was certainly plenty of it.

A number of the dishes were fried, so it was lucky we hadn't started our bikini diets just yet. My only disappointment was that the spare ribs were cold, although the rest of the food was hot.

My other guest chose pophia - vegetable spring rolls - priced £3.95 and a selection of vegetables in batter, (£4.95) and again both dishes came with spicy dipping sauces.

The starters were generously portioned and tasty.

For main course, those of us sticking to the set menu were served chicken red curry, neau pad num mum hoi (stir fried beef with oyster sauce, green pepper and spring onion), gai pad prik pow (stir fried chicken with chilli oil, mushroom, green pepper and Thai sweet basil).

The dishes came with a bowl of egg fried rice and a bowl of boiled rice. We both agreed the chicken red curry was our favourite, but all the dishes were delicious and there was more than enough for the two of us.

My vegetarian friend chose the gang keiw wan - Thai green curry, coconut, long green beans and bamboo shoots, topped with sweet basil.

A good number of dishes on the menu come with a choice of chicken, beef, pork or tofu so vegetarians are well catered for. She said her tofu dish was fresh and bursting with oriental flavours.

None of the dishes we chose were too hot or spicy and the ingredients were fresh and well presented. Our waitress offered friendly help with our menu choices.

To accompany our meal, we chose a bottle of Versare pinot grigio, priced £12.95 - well, actually we had two, but we did have a lot to catch up on.

HOW IT RATEDTom Tum Kung Thai Brasserie, 34 Foregate Street, Worcester 01905 22190Food **** Value for money *** Ambience ** Service ****