Ocean & Earth Thai Restaurant — Restaurant in England

This is a fantastic, if somewhat quirky, Thai restaurant. We arrived to Looe with nowhere booked for dinner and many places seemingly full unless we could wait until 8pm or later. Phoned the Ocean & Earth Thai Restaurant and was told a table was just about to leave so the owner would hold it for us until we got there. From the street, we were having second thoughts, and when you go in its a very small space with alot of tables crammed in very close to each other. The owner is an interesting character and, whilst English, had clearly travelled extensively in Thailand based on the photos all over the walls. I could see how other reviewers might not have taken to him or had brusque responses from him but that was quite charming in a way. His wife does all of the cooking on her own and is an amazing chef - the food was really quite excellent. Despite how busy the restaurant was and the warning on the menu that food may take a while, it was actually quite quick. I can see why others would say its the best Thai they have ever had, it really was good, but I dont feel that I eat Thai food often enough to make that bold a statement. I would have no hesitation in recommending to anyone though. You can order many dishes in mild, medium or hot but just be aware that the menu and the owner constantly tell people their medium is like other restaurants hot. I can believe that because we went for mild after being told that and it was still quite spicy! I dont understand why they dont adjust their descriptions to match what people expect rather than having to tell every single customer that the ratings are not what they would normally be everywhere else. Not a criticism, just something that would seemingly make life easier for them... Superb, if I am back this way I may...

A lovely little place with well deserved reviews. The menu does warn that their idea of medium spice would be most restaurants idea of hot so with this in mind we ordered mild, if you'd usually order a medium spicy dish I'd recommend going for mild as it still had plenty of kick but only so much as to enhance the flavour, I'd imagine that ordering hot is for this who really do love a bit of pain! The mixed starter for two was huge with a great selection and beautifully done. The prawn pat thai was gorgeous as was the haddock shu shee and chicken green curry, all leagues above other Thai paces we've tried before.

Everything is cooked fresh to order by one chef and the restaurant is on a basis of first come, first served so there may be a wait but it is so worth waiting for! Perfection cannot be rushed!

Bearing in mind that we visited in September 2020 so during the covid 19 crisis, we felt quite safe with every other table being kept unoccupied for social distancing purposes, surely a harsh blow for such a small establishment. Hand sanitizer was provided at the door and all staff wore masks or visors.

All in an absolute gem of a place. We'd love...

I booked this restaurant via direct email with the owner. The email I sent was headed “reservation” and was as follows: “Can I book a table for 4 people, for 8pm Sunday 31st August please?”. 12 minutes later I received a response from the owner saying “many thanks for your email. Is it all adults?” 20 minutes later I replied “yes, thanks”. That was, as I understood it, a reservation made. The owner had not said “we don’t have a table” he simply sought clarification as to the make up of the party. Any reasonable person in the business of running a restaurant would have actually stated if there was no availability. Fast forward to the evening of the booking at the appointed time and an astonishingly surly individual, being the “owner” with whom I had corresponded, stated that “ you can’t just email the owner for a reservation” and produced the email correspondence in order to join issue with whether it constituted an actual booking. In other words there was no booking made as far as he was concerned. So beware, that’s the attitude you get here, rude and surly. Negative stars were they...