Get to Know… Mantra Thai

Any locals with a taste for authentic Thai cuisine will know of Mantra Thai, but what they might not know is the heartwarming story behind how owner Jeab came to own the restaurant.

Formerly a police officer in his native Thailand, Jeab came to the city in the late 1990s to study at Newcastle University and further his career in law enforcement. As many students do, he looked for a job to support his studies and soon found work as a waiter at Waterside Palace – the Chinese restaurant nestled a stone’s throw from Newcastle’s Quayside known for its eye-catching pagoda-style front and owned by Alec Lau of Lau’s Buffet fame.

It was there that Jeab met Alec’s daughter Sun Ye and it wasn’t long before the pair fell in love and went on to tie the knot at Matfen Hall in 2003 ( followed by a traditional Chinese wedding at Waterside Palace, naturally!).

Though they planned to return Thailand, Jeab and Sun Ye decided to stay in Newcastle and when Alec eventually decided to retire and sell Waterside Palace, it seemed like fate to Jeab.

“This place is special for me, my wife and my father-in-law” he explains. “It’s where my family started and I’d always wanted to open a Thai restaurant in Newcastle as there weren’t that many at the time, so I asked my father-in-law to sell the restaurant to me so that I can fulfil my dream and preserve his legacy.”

And so Mantra Thai was born, officially opening in October of 2014 and establishing itself a culinary hotspot for fine Thai food. Ten years year later, the restaurant remains a popular place to head on special occasions and that’s no doubt down to the restaurant’s own mantra “Food is an art, cook from the heart” which, as Jeab explains, is about celebrating the heritage and culture of food and its journey to the plate.

“For me, food isn’t just about filling your stomach but something more meaningful,” he says. “You don’t just eat food, you eat culture. Some recipes have been passed down from family to family over 100 or 200 years.”

“It’s the whole journey and how it all comes together with knowledge, with culture, with emotion and mood,” he continues. “All different cultures cook in different ways which I think makes it an art – and people paint in different ways.”

Of course, it hasn’t all been plain sailing for Mantra Thai. When the COVID pandemic forced the nation into lockdown and restaurants across the country to shutter their doors, Mantra’s future looked uncertain. Luckily, the restaurant weathered the COVID storm but reopening was a nerve-wracking time for Jeab.

“We’d been in lockdown for almost two years and I was worried our customers might forget us, but when we reopened a lot of bookings came in thankfully!” he remembers.

The Mantra Thai team haven’t looked back since their successful reopening either, undergoing a gorgeous makeover in 2023 and introducing a limited-edition, eight-course tasting menu earlier this year that proved very popular with diners.

“I wanted to do something different from our normal menu because a tasting menu allows us to tell a story about Thailand and its food and creativity in a more modern way,” Jeab explains.

“Hopefully we’ll continue it next year, but the thing with the tasting menu is that you have to keep adding new dishes otherwise people get bored,” he adds. “It’s a challenge but the team are excited to be doing new things.”

Fingers crossed we see the return of their tasting menu soon, but in the meantime at least there’s Mantra Thai’s 10^th birthday bash to look forward to – an exclusive, ticketed event featuring a six-course feast, Thai boxing and massage and even advice on where to travel in Thailand.

As Jeab explains, it’s a celebration of not only Mantra’s milestone but the city’s Thai community too and Thai culture as a whole too.

“We really want to connect the people of Newcastle with the people and culture of Thailand and promote fellow Thai businesses already here in the city,” he says. “Not a lot of people know that we have a Thai boxing gym in Newcastle, and we want to shout about those kinds of places as we celebrate our 10^th year.”

Looking ahead to what’s hopefully another successful decade in business, Jeab has big plans for the restaurant that holds such a special place in his heart.

“I want Mantra Thai to be one of those places in Newcastle that you absolutely have to visit,” he says. “I want it to be a landmark. That’s the dream and in the next ten years we’ll hopefully achieve that!”

Mantra Thai is located at 29 Forth Banks, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 3SG and is open daily from 12pm. For more information, visit the Mantra Thai website.

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