A word of warning to start with. On a Tuesday lunchtime last week, Papa Don was full, not a single spare table going, always a good sign. So if you’re planning to go, and you really should, maybe see if you can book first because the other options nearby are pretty scarce, unless you like bog standard fried chicken (I do, to be fair) or the type of pizza that tastes like cheese and tomato have been melted onto a car wash sponge (again, I sort of do).
Much like the recently reviewed That’s Thai, this place is rather out on a limb, making the fact that it’s packed even more intriguing. This isn’t passing trade. Nope. People are clearly travelling to come here, another good sign.
There are some other odd parallels too. Both places sit buried down back streets, off the beaten track, That’s Thai in the looming shadow of Strangeways prison and Papa Don’s at the edge of Gorse Hill on the way to Old Trafford.
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Both are also, weirdly, next door to MOT garages. A few more, and it’ll be a trend. And both do blazingly good Thai food, though the owners of Papa Don’s are actually from Hong Kong, and also do Korean food too.
Anyway, that’s the background. On paper, the menu looks like nothing too exciting, stuff you’d see in plenty of other places - a Pad Thai, salt and pepper chicken wings, tom yum soup, various fried rice dishes. It’s a bit underwhelming even.
The execution is something else completely. Everything at this cute little café with a wonky roof is more or less the perfect example, your dream version of a dish you’ve likely had many times before.
Take the chicken wings. Chicken wings aren’t just chicken wings, and I for one take them very seriously indeed. These have been properly brined, fried, covered with a thick coating of crispiness and showered with onions of all kinds - dried crispy ones, spring and sliced red - and they’re all gone in an instant. I’d come back for these alone, and they’re an absolute bargain at £6.
‘Thai street braised pork rice’ (£12) doesn’t sound like much. But it is. A generous hunk of cured pork, almost like gammon, that’s been braised low and slow in a dark, sticky aniseed broth. It falls to pieces at a glance. The dipping sauce it comes with is sharp and fragrant and just thinking about it again makes me want to jump in the car and tear down Chester Road.
There’s Korean-style sushi, ‘kimbap’, rice wrapped around soft pieces of beef, and served with kimchi. It’s another generous plate for £7.50.
A tom yum soup (£12) is placed down, a huge poppadom-like crisp poking out of the bowl like a dorsal fin. It’s soothing, sharp and warm all at the same time, and gets more and more intense the deeper down the bowl you go. It’s laden with plump head-on prawns and egg noodles. It may have some Hong Kong influences, upsetting the purists. I loved it.
This is enough food, easily. But the Korean brisket (£12) is looking at us suggestively from the menu, so despite a look of concern and confusion from the waiting staff, it gets ordered, and thank heavens it did.
It wins the day, the best dish on a very messy table of sauce spillages, hastily abandoned chicken bones, and stray noodles. Like the braised pork, it falls to pieces and is coated in a sauce made of purest joy. A picture was not taken, because it didn’t last long enough.
On reflection, I would struggle to find a duff note in any of it, and despite the lack of fanfare on the menu, I want to come back and explore it all. Finding hidden spots like this is what makes Manchester’s food scene so exciting right now - it’s not fancy, it’s not expensive, it’s not shouting about how good it is. It’s just good.
And next time, I’m having the kimchi cheese prawn garlic bread because it sounds nuts.
Papa Don, 2 Longford Rd, Stretford, Manchester M32 0HQ
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