The owner of one of the city's most popular restaurants "always wanted to come to Liverpool."
This year, Rosa's Thai, known for its red curry and 'drunken noodles' dishes, is celebrating 15 years since it was first founded. Headed by husband and wife duo Alex and Saiphin Moore, who combined modern London with modern Bangkok by starting out on a Sunday market, the first restaurant opened on the site of a popular East End cafe on Hanbury Street in 2008.
An institution to locals, out of respect for its previous owner the name of the business was kept and from there the Rosa's Thai name has spread across the UK, opening its first site out of London in Liverpool in 2018 and now having branches in Manchester, Nottingham, Cardiff and more. Co-founder Saiphin, originally from Thailand, said she never thought the business would be as busy as it is now and that she was very excited when the opportunity arose to come to Liverpool five years ago.
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Saiphin, 55, told the ECHO: "I love to make food and I found my love of making food when I used to help my parents cook back in my hometown of Khaokor, a mountain village in the north of Thailand. Liverpool football club is very famous in Thailand and I always wanted to come to Liverpool, so I was very excited when the opportunity arose to open Rosa’s at Royal Albert Dock.
"The city itself is very lively, everyone visits the Liverpool stadium and the Beatles museum, so when I found out that Rosa’s was next door to the Beatles museum, I was over the moon. I love that it’s located right by the waterfront at the dock and customers are so lovely and friendly."
Saiphin said the business has grown a lot and that the team may have plans to open more restaurants on Merseyside, but that "it's a secret." To mark the occasion, Rosa Thai's has also created a summer celebration menu for loyal customers in Liverpool and beyond.
Saiphin said: "The dishes on the summer specials menu are mostly what I eat at home in Thailand with my parents. They were also on Rosa’s menu from the first week that we opened.
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"We are also celebrating this special occasion by donating every 15p sold from this menu to Action Against Hunger, a cause very close to my heart." Available across all sites throughout summer, the menu will offer guests a trip down memory lane - bringing back favourite recipes from Rosa's history.
Customers will be able to enjoy a staple from Saiphin's first restaurant - Fried soft shell crab, with a salad of grapefruit, fresh Thai herbs and lettuce, topped with a creamy Sriracha dressing.
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The summer menu also includes Thai fish cakes - spiced with red curry paste and kaffir lime leaves, served with a sweet chilli dip, Pandan chicken with spicy Sriracha dip, combining two of Thailand’s most celebrated ingredients, Crispy duck salad, topped with sticky tamarind sauce for a sweet-savoury punch and Thai churros, a distinctly Thai take on the Spanish classic
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