Art Kitchen, The

This restaurant, situated in the heart of the historic town of Warwick, is one which breaks all the normal rules, by presenting Thai food in a most unusual way, all within an Art Gallery setting. Though it only opened in the spring of 2004, it has already gained an excellent reputation for Thai cuisine, in the view of some matched only by places in London and a few elsewhere.

The Art Kitchen specialises in contemporary Thai food, using a large choice of freshly made appetisers. This allows diners to sample a variety of tastes and eat as little or as much as they like. Coffee, croissants and pastries are also served in the morning.

A Thai Tapas Bar ambience has been created in the bar area to provide a different angle from local pubs. The Art Kitchen benefits from a full on-licence and an extension supper licence. Alcoholic beverages are sold on weekdays from 11.00am until 12.00 midnight, also giving an opportunity to try the new cocktail menu that gains its inspiration from the heady flavours of Thailand.

Ingredients are invariably of the highest quality and the freshest available. The beef is Aberdeen Angus and the fish arrives daily from the Birmingham fish market. Eggs come from a Stoneleigh small-holding specialising in rare French hens that have the run of the fields.

The menu is an accommodating one and musters the tapas into a bite, or 'bytes', according to stature and status. Amongst the one byte brigade are the traditional vegetable spring roll, a trio of chicken, prawn and crab cake, and diced prawn and chicken cooked in coconut milk.

Two bytes include chicory leaves filled with chopped chicken, prawn or duck and dressed with lime juice, chillis and shallots or strips of tender beef fillet served with coriander, fresh mint, onion and lime juice. Bigger bytes offer from amongst twelve or so choices a traditional stir-fry, with aromatic basil leaves and fresh chilli. Vegetables, rice and noodles offer good choices, and amongst the desserts expect to find fruit spring rolls.

On a separate daily specials board, dishes such as fresh mussels in mild yellow curry sauce are given a higher public awareness, allowing a welcome degree of flexibility to be brought into the menu, a gesture much appreciated by the regular customers at Art Kitchen.

Nowadays customers attach increased importance to the provision of reliable table water. Art Kitchen has met this need by installing a sophisticated filtration tank system which offers virtually unlimited supplies of fresh purified water, a move that has proved popular with an ever more health-concerned public.

A community of local artists create contemporary artwork that is displayed around the restaurant and offered for sale. The Art Kitchen also offers the possibility of bespoke artwork and photograph canvases.

The relationship between good eating and visual art is an historic ones which goes back through the rich canvasses that adorn the walls of many a stately home to the caves of our ancestors who just used the walls, canvas not being available. Dining at the Art Kitchen carries this process forwards and undoubtedly offers an interesting and different experience, combining as it does the pleasures of both good Thai food and accessible art.

More information is available on their attractively presented Website.