The Giggling Squid on West Street in Marlow is a low-ceilinged, cosy haunt that offers more interesting Thai fare than your standard high street chain.
Each dish ordered by a friend and I at the Giggling Squid's Marlow restaurant - virgin cocktails, prawn crackers, sticky chicken, sea bass and ice cream - is injected with a hearty Thai flavour and sense of the experimental.
A central feature of the Thai tapas restaurant, founded by a husband and wife in Brighton twenty years ago, is a celebration of the rich and flavoursome food culture in Thailand, with each dish layering spice and sweetness in unusual ways.
Our drinks - a virgin mojito (£5.95) and a lychee angel (£6.50) - are refreshing and sweet, with the mojito in particular packing an unexpected punch thanks to its jamaican ginger beer base.
The sharing basket of prawn crackers (£3.75) we choose as a starter are also predictably tasty. Lightly spice-infused, they're so moreish that they don't stay on the table for long!
For my main course, I ordered the turmeric sea bass parcel (£16.50), a fillet that's neatly wrapped in banana leaves and served alongside a stir fry of broccoli, sweetheart cabbage and shallots.
While the cabbage was a little bland and contrasted sharply with the intensely flavoured fish - which was doused in turmeric among other spices - it made for a light and satisfying meal albeit not quite a symphony of flavour.
My friend, who ordered the sticky chicken main (£13.50), was also satisfied with her meal - which easily ticked the boxes of crispy and sweetness and was presented prettily, with a garnish of sesame seeds and spring onions.
For dessert, we each ordered a serving of ice cream (£4.95), also arranged delicately among mint leaves and slices of fruit.
The intriguing jasmine and toasted rice ice cream was arresting in its likeness to a refined white chocolate flavour, while the black sesame had a curious but appealing nutty taste.
The starter and dessert were the perfect bookends to what was an interesting, if not jaw-dropping, main course and the atmosphere in the Marlow restaurant was warm and bustling, with the staff welcoming despite being a little rushed off their feet.
With a menu packed full of experimentative dishes and interesting food combinations, the Giggling Squid in Marlow is a safe bet for an evening out that offers more interesting cultural variety than some of its big-name competitors.
