Fulham’s Blue Elephant is London’s answer to a luxurious holiday in Thailand. It might be a bit over the top, but sometimes you just need to treat yourself.

The Venue
Part of a chain of Thai restaurants around the world, London's Blue Elephant is deceptively enormous, and the drab grey outside of the building betrays nothing of what’s in store inside. Through the cloakroom area and up a couple of steps and you’re literally crossing a bridge into a tropical Thai paradise. To the left is the outlandishly glittery Blue Bar, with hundreds of sparkly mosaic pieces built into the shape of an enormous dragon. The rest of the restaurant is made up into several large areas. Blue Elephant seats hundreds but because of the different rooms if feels much smaller – a large party could take up a quarter of the restaurant and you probably wouldn’t notice.

What you do notice though is the decor, which is made to look like you’re in a jungle – there’s greenery everywhere you look, with trees either growing from pots or plants wrapped around columns and dividers. To get to your table you’ll probably have to pass a rocky waterfall and cross a wooden bridge that runs over a miniature river – complete with bright and shiny koi of all sizes wriggling along. If possible, try to get one of the tables on the bridge that overlooks the river, by the little boat piled high with fruits, vegetables and spices. The koi seem to be on a track around the restaurant, and by the end of your meal you’ll be on the lookout for a familiar fish face or two as it glides past.

The Atmosphere
Despite its size and the fact that it’s over half full on a weeknight, the restaurant doesn’t feel crowded or rushed. Tables are well spaced and there are enough staff on hand to ensure that you want for nothing, although they are a bit too eager to fill up your glasses. The running water covers up most of the background noise and leaves a hush of relaxation behind. Most of the diners seem to be young couples or groups of friends, as this is probably not the best place to have a serious business meeting. There are a few families with children eating as well, no doubt attracted to the jungle-like setting – this is like Rainforest Cafe, but without the robotic animals and with a bit more class.

The Food
Unfortunately with many restaurants where the decor is a talking point, the food leaves much to be desired. Luckily this isn’t the case here, although to experience the best the chefs can do the a la carte menu is recommended. And like the actual venue, the menu is enormous, with plenty of choices no matter what you eat. Eating Thai style is recommended, with a few dishes to share and some noodles or rice as an accompaniment. Prices are decent as well, with most plates at about £13, although be careful how many dishes you order it can quickly add up.

One of the recommended starters is called Pearls of the Blue Elephant, a sharing platter of some of their classic starters along with dipping sauces, including a soft and tender piece of chicken satay, crisp chicken and prawn spring rolls, a succulent little dim sim (a dim sum-esque noodle dumpling of pork and prawns), a well cooked fishcake and som tam, a sharp and spicy salad of sliced papaya, dried shrimp and tart lemon sauce. If you don’t like spicy dishes, a good starter to try is the unusually textured Yam Hua Plee, shredded banana flowers mixed with grated coconut and prawns. Although it looks a bit like a bird’s nest and the grated leaves can be a bit harsh to chew, the taste is sweet and creamy – good for cooling down your mouth.

Two to three courses and an accompaniment should be plenty two share between two people. If you like sea bass, the bamboo fish has to be seen to believed. Although the menu says that it comes in a bamboo case, you’re not quite prepared for the fact that the fish is actually served, resting on a banana leaf, in a huge piece of hollowed out bamboo. The fish is a thin fillet, but it’s meaty and filling; it comes with two sauces, a spicy red sauce and a milder, tamarind. Another seafood dish is black pepper tiger prawns, with several large prawns (complete with their heads) in sauce complete with whole black peppercorns. Although it’s slightly spicy it shouldn’t be too much to handle, and the sauce is thick and warming and the prawns plump and juicy. As for meat dishes, it’s not hard to see where the Emerald Chicken gets its name: pieces of chicken are wrapped in deep green pandan leaves so that it looks like a big triangular emerald – if you use a bit of imagination, anyway. You don’t eat the leaves, just unhook one edge and unwrap the chicken inside. The meat is free range and you can definitely taste it as the pieces are really succulent, surely helped by the leaf wrapping, with hardly any fat on them. The bowl of wild rice is a good accompaniment, with a bit of a rough texture and a mild flavour the complements the dishes without overwhelming them.

Like the starter sharing platter, a good choice if you’re not familiar with Thai desserts is the Kanom Thai platter, which is made up of three of the restaurant’s specialty desserts, two of which come wrapped in a cone of leaves, similar to Japanese temaki hand rolls. The Ta-Ko is made with a dense and sugary dessert of rice flour, water chestnuts and coconut cream whilst the Sodsai is more coconut milk and rice flour, this time with the addition of feathery and sweet caramelised coconut. The Kanom Kluai is served in a little cup made of banana leaves – more rice flour and coconut milk, but this time with thick slices of sweet banana. A bit simpler of a dessert, but still traditional, is the mango and sticky rice, which comes with a large portion of juicy mango alongside a little basket of delicate and refreshing coconut ice cream and a hefty scoop of glutinous sticky rice. To keep the texture varied, tiny crisp sprinkles sit atop the mound of rice.

The Drink
When you walk in, chances are you’ll be persuaded to have a seat in the bar area, where you can indulge in their extensive cocktail list. The house special is, of course, the tropical Mai Tai, but there’s a host of non-alcoholic ones as well. There’s also a surprising amount of premium spirits available – you don’t really expect to see a £4,000 bottle of Bowmore whisky at a Thai restaurant. There’s also a refreshingly large list of wines available by the glass as well, in case you don’t feel like making your way through a full bottle. If you do opt for wine though, bottles of house range from £17 - £19.50 and include a clean and crisp Cuvee Royal Thai, made by Alsace winemaker Josmeyer. There are plenty of other choices though, with most of the choices around the £30 mark.

The Last Word
This is a destination restaurant, quite literally. It’s a bit outside the Central London comfort zone and once you walk in it’s not that hard to imagine you’re somewhere much further away entirely. Whether it’s for a full meal, a birthday party or even just a drink at the glittering bar, every Londoner should make the trip to Blue Elephant at least once.

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