Lockdown food review: Perfect score for terrific Suree's Kitchen

That’s the most accurate forecast from industry experts as the effects of Covid-19 continue to unfold. Restaurants, bistros and pubs in Shropshire and Mid-Wales will be decimated as many lose their jobs.

When the lockdown is lifted, new physically-distanced seating arrangements will make it harder and harder to accommodate the numbers that keep businesses afloat. Business models will be redesigned and fewer workers will be required to make businesses work.

There will be other challenges. Consumer confidence will be at rock bottom as people become fearful about leaving their homes. The number of people who’ve learned how to cook well will mitigate against high numbers of restaurant guests. And the deep economic shock, the worst for several centuries, will mean not many people have sufficient cash to go out for dinner.

Amid the gloom, restaurateurs can be divided into two camps. There are those who are letting the grass grow beneath their feet, who imagine that this will all blow over, who imagine lockdown will be lifted and everything will be fine. Then there are the realists who understand that this is the greatest business challenge of their lifetime and they have to adapt if they are to survive.

Suree Coates, at Suree’s Kitchen, in Ironbridge, is firmly in the latter camp. Her family has rallied behind her as she’s created a small take-away service, that also provides home delivery.

Husband Simon hits the road, placing takeaway cartons on people’s doorsteps. Son Ross takes cash in the restaurant when locals collect. Suree stays where she’s always been happiest – at the stove, creating otherworldly food that is big on flavour and provides an authentic taste of Thailand. There’s enough money coming in to ensure that they’ll still be there when all this passes. And the quality of the food is a joy to behold.

Suree Coates is one of the region’s most distinguished chefs. Frequently featured in these pages, she’s a former UK Asian Chef of the Year, UK Thai Chef of the Year and a Good Food Guide entryist. She has been unphased by the new era of physical distancing, unperturbed by the idea of cooking food that people will eat in their own homes.

In many ways, the new normal is Suree’s old normal. When she arrived in the UK from Thailand, having learned how to cook beautiful food from her grandmother, she replicated favourite dishes.

Friends and family soon got to hear about her food and she took to cooking for them. Orders increased and with the support of the family that continues to back her, she began to cook professionally.

The rest, as they say, is history. Her own book, an impressive CV, a raft of awards: her quality has consistently been evident.

She continues to cook at a higher standard than almost any other chef in the region. And while a number of cooks are dithering, toying with the idea of doing take-away, wondering how to make the logistics work and get the offer right, Suree and her family are rolling up their sleeves and getting on with it.

There is enough money in the local economy – just – to make things work. And so they provide a popular and much-loved food service on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays.

It’s not as cheap as the food provided by some of the competition. While curry houses bang out a main for £7, Suree charges twice that amount. There’s a reason for the disparity.

While some are using low-cost, frozen ingredients and adopting the pile-it-high-sell-it-cheap maxim, Suree is pursing quality. She’s done that all her life, using ingredients that cost a little more but taste a whole lot better.

My partner and I ordered a Thursday takeaway, collecting rather than making the most of Simon’s home deliveries.

The tables of Suree’s restaurant were strewn with anti-bac hand gel and disinfectant wipes rather than vases of flowers; a nod to the times in which we live. Simon was busy ferrying orders to and from his car while a queue of three customers were standing far enough apart to remain safe. Son Ross was processing contactless payments while Suree was cooking up a storm.

We ordered a simple supper: two starters, two mains and a rice to share. She ate fat spring rolls with a sweet chilli sauce. They were delicious.

Crisp filo pastry, a filling of crunchy vegetables and a dip that combined gentle heat with subtle sweetness, they were masterly.

My chicken satay sticks were equally good. Scorched so that the outside was caramelised while the inside remained tender and moist, they were served with Suree’s own satay sauce, a punchy, crunchy affair that was big on texture and flavour.

Our mains were chicken curries with vegetables; a spicy green for her and a mild red for me.

Both were filled with an array of vegetables, aubergine, mange tout, capsicum, Asian vegetables and more.

The green curry was wonderfully hot, the chicken deliciously tender and the rice aromatic and plump.

The red curry was thrilling. Creamy and full of coconut flavours, tender chunks of stewed pineapple had been added to provide balance. It takes a special chef to combine pineapple, aubergine and chicken in a single dish. Suree is that chef. And the dish was delicious.

For many chefs and restaurants in Shropshire and Mid-Wales, the die is already cast.

It’s becoming pretty easy to predict the ones that will survive and the ones that will fold. Those who are too timid, too reticent or too blasé will struggle to return – many simply won’t. Those who have skill, who are sufficiently humble to accept our new normal and who are willing to work will stay the course.

Buying takeaways isn’t just about enjoying great food – and boy oh boy, Suree’s was just that; the finest this critic has eaten in the past two months – it’s also an act of solidarity.

Stick with your local restaurants, support them when you can afford to, it may be the difference between failure or success.

If you know of a food business that’s offering a brilliant take-away/delivery service, let us know.

Email arichardson@shropshirestar.co.uk with the details, so we can check it out.

Sample menu

Mains

Chicken red curry with vegetables, £14.95

Chicken green curry with vegetables, £14.95

Stir-fried chicken with sweet and sour sauce, £14.95

King prawn green curry with vegetables, £16.95

Sirloin beef stir fry with mushroom and pepper in oyster sayce, £16.95

Chicken pad Thai stir fried noodles with tamarind sauce, £14.95

Slow cooked beef in Massaman curry with potatoes, £14.95

Sides

Steamed Jasmin rice, £2.95

Chips, £2.50

Stir-fried rice noodles with bean sprouts, £3

Contact information

SUREE’S KITCHEN

9, Wharfage, Ironbridge, Telford

TF8 7AW

07468 534638

Further details on Facebook