A touch of Thai

Finding the time for a mini spa weekend can be hard for busy urbanistas. Enter Thai Square Spa in Covent Garden; a cool and quirky day spa retreat designed to make you feel a million miles away from home – even on a school night…

The Spa

You’re not supposed to go to a spa when you’re under the weather (yes, there are rules to spa-ing, but only so that you get best out of your experience and extend basic rules in politeness to your therapist). So I waited for my week-long cold – one of many I’d experience over the last few months – to pass before booking my appointment.

The sniffles were of course a sign I’d been running on empty for a while; as was the severe knottage in my upper back and shoulders. What I needed was a well seasoned nemesis to take care of my muscular aches; a treatment and therapist who’d break up that savage stiffness on a mid-week twilight escape after work.

So here I am at Thai Square Spa, Covent Garden. A receptionist greets me with folded hands and a beatific smile before taking my coat and leading me downstairs. And here’s the thing I love: the spa is far from run-of-the-mill.

Built beneath street level and under the bustling Thai Square restaurant in Shelton Street, this is a new addition to the chain’s brand. Upstairs you have this light and airy pre-theatre jaunt, but downstairs is a tranquil getaway with dimmed lighting, soft music, golden Buddha statues and lotus flowers adding to the dark wood interiors. I take in both the concept and the incense in the air at the seating area, as a therapist helps me out of my boots and into a warm foot bath filled with flower petals.

Treatments to cherish

The treatment list is the heart of Thai Square Spa and is designed to have you leaving in tip-top condition. And if, like me, you really are too lazy, tired and indecisive, a quick consultation with the therapists means they’ll choose something specific for you. There are seven treatment rooms including two with Thai massage couches and a Mosaic Steam Rasul Suite. Soon guests will be able to enjoy a couples treatment room too.

I’m ushered into a room that houses a freestanding copper relaxation bath, making the décor an eclectic mix of Zen and Victoriana London. I’m advised to opt for the Thai Herbal Healer massage, which is a popular treatment not least because it’s based on the kind of pampering old Thai Royal families used to have, but because it allows the therapist to work on target areas.

Tanya, my therapist – having recently moved to London from Thailand – informs me while recipients of traditional oil-free and energetic Thai massages usually wear loose-fitted clothes, the Herbal Healer incorporates gentler Swedish techniques while using oils and a steamed compress made up of herbs, roots and flowers to soothe tension.

She’s perceptive of what areas need honing in on – even going over the allocated time slot and adding heat by applying Tiger Balm on my shoulders – and combines ancient rituals of rhythmic deep tissue compression and assisted stretching with gentle rocking and pressure point techniques. At one point she has me sitting upright while she works on stretches with me.

It was like striking lazy girl’s yoga gold. The results are impressive: after eventually dozing off on the table, I wake up post-treatment in a curiously meditative yet energised state, feeling lighter and limber than when I’d arrived.

Afterwards, wrapped up in my cotton gown, I recline on a lounger in the relaxation area and savour a cup of aromatic fresh herbal tea. It’s not long before I’ve dozed off again and a Marie Claire magazine has ended up on my face.

Apres spa dining

Post massage, I headed for dinner with a friend at Thai Square Trafalgar Square (www.thaisquare.net) – the chain’s flagship restaurant. The décor is gilded and sumptuous and the location is spot on for anyone with enough time after a spa treatment to pop into The National Portrait Gallery just before eating.

The cuisine is authentic – you come here for serious no-surprises food and a relaxed atmosphere. Our monkfish green curry merited its colouring the proper way with lots of fresh and spicy green chillies and we ordered extensively (I must have been making up for a diet of soup and rolls the previous week).

Starters of classic crab cakes, chicken satay and prawn dumplings were executed well, and the seabass with lemongrass, vegetable Mussamun curry and pad Thai mains were tasty, comforting and cooked with attention.

The dinner was an impressive ending to a chilled out experience. At 11pm, I’m in a taxi homeward bound and already planning my next school night pick-me-up treat.

For more information visit Thai Square Spa (0207 240 6090, www.thaisquarespa.com) 25 Shelton Street, Covent Garden, London  WC2 9HW. To book a post spa meal at the Thai Square restaurant call Trafalgar Square (17 Cockspur Street, Trafalgar Square, London,  SW1Y 5BL) or visit www.thaisq.com.