Dinner with Elvis

From the outside it looks just like any other Thai restaurant in suburbia. In fact it looks a bit down market for such an affluent area as West Didsbury, lined with Porsches and trendy chrome-and-wood ‘style’ bars.

It’s the giant picture of Elvis adorning the window that gives it away, for this is no ordinary Thai restaurant. This is where Elvis lives with Shirley Bassey and they serve up some lovely grub.

“Oh, no” cringes my dinner date, “not here. I hate Elvis”. I won’t listen. How could anyone hate Elvis? More to the point, how could anyone not be intrigued by a Thai Elvis impersonator?

“Look, there’s Eileen from “Coronation Street” I say on entering. “And that guy who used to read the news. See, all the celebrities come here, it’s the place to be.”

He’s not amused, least of all by the prospect of the drunken Elvis karaoke I will subject him to later on.

The owner Peanporn Beddard, or Crazy Wendy as she is otherwise known, dresses as another of her idols, Welsh singer Shirley Bassey.

Apparently she tried dressing up as Elvis the once. “But I think a Thai woman dressed as Elvis looks a bit funny.” Not a Thai man, though. Oh no, she employs a professional to do the dressing up now and he has become the main attraction.

However this doesn’t stop Wendy from belting out a few of the greats and I happily eat my Pad Thai Taow Hoo and Kao Pad Pak (bean curd and noodles with vegetable rice, yum yum) to her strains of “Are You Lonesome Tonight?”

How could I ever be Wendy, with such a wonderful host?

I leave wanting to tell everyone about my camp, tiny and utterly charming discovery but then realise that the fact it is so small and intimate is part of that appeal.

So shh! The King is alive and well… down the Wilmslow Road. But let’s just keep that between you and me.

Thai E-Sarn Classic, 210 Burton Road, West Didsbury, Manchester
0161 445 5200