Situated on the outskirts of Puerto Banús, sandwiched between one of the Costa del Sol's best nightclubs and a beautiful decoration store, the Thai Gallery is a little slice of Oriental heaven. With a large bamboo terrace, perfect to while away the warm evenings the restaurant can seat up to 150 people and will cater to celebrations of any kind. The kitchen will also handle outside catering requirements should you wish to impress your dinner party guests!
Opened two years ago by Lani Zimmerman and Mr Lo, of Sukhothai fame, the restaurant combines both tasteful décor and tasty food. Lani's ideas for the restaurant stem from her studying interior design in her native Phuket, Thailand and also from her love of art - the walls of the restaurant as the name suggests are an ever changing gallery, at the time of our visit, huge paintings, work of an Indian artist, were gracing the walls. The décor throughout the Thai Gallery is modern but not overbearing and still maintains an air of the oriental. The staff all wear traditional Thai sarongs and blouses and are both attentive and professional.
Thai food is famous the world over forr combining flavours and we began our culinary journey with a plate of assorted appetizers. Delicate spring rolls and delicious Thai prawn cakes shared the plate with grilled chicken, beef and prawn satay served with special peanut sauce for dipping. Two more sauces accompanied the plate; one called nam prik in Thai - a light vinegar with sliced chillies, the other a sweet chilli, both simply delightful. Next came two wonderful salads. The first, a prawn salad which fused ginger, chilli and lemongrass was presented in a heart of sliced tomatoes and cucumber. The flavours had our taste buds screaming for more as with every mouthful the different ingredients combined to produce a light bite bursting  with flavour. Our other salad was a Thai beef salad. This is a personal favourite of mine, having spent many happy times in Thailand, this salad or yam neau as it is known there is fantastic. Hot chilli merges with the refreshing taste of fresh mint leaves both complimenting the rare beef fantastically. I couldn't rave about these salads enough; all of our party were really impressed and as one of my guests has spent many years living in South East Asia, this was praise indeed. Every dish in the Thai Gallery is served with real panache and the kitchen prides itself on its artistic flair. Fruit and vegetables are sculpted into flowers and each plate is presented in an innovative way or adorned with something special. The herbs and spices are all grown organically in Lani's garden giving each dish its distinctive flavour.
For our main courses, we first shared Salmon fillets served with a red Thai curry sauce and basil leaves. The salmon was cooked to perfection, slightly rare, mouth wateringly great. The sauce was spicy but like much Thai food, the spicyness is set off by sweet undertones. If you are worried about the heat of the food, the Thai Gallery menu has chillies painted alongside each dish, one for mild, two for medium or three for hot. You can also inform your waiter of your preference so you can have your food as hot and spicy or as mild as you require.
The piece de la resistance of our meal was our final dish, lobster Kapraw. This typical Thai dish is deliciously aromatic using Thai basil predominantly amongst the other herbs and spices. Served in its shell, this dish was superb. We drank a fruity rosé with our meal which went well with all the courses - even our dessert of rambutans, a typical fruit of the orient and fluffy mango sorbet.
It is hardly surprising that loyal clientele call well in advance from as far a field as Chicago and London to reserve a table here. During coffee I asked the table to sum up our meal, my eloquent father simply said "Exquisitely oriental". That phrase sums up the Thai Gallery, oriental yet modern with exquisite décor and food and service second to none.
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