If you want to make an impact as a restaurant, why not cook up a storm inside a motionless red double-decker bus?

It’s an idea Margate has embraced to the extent there are two such vehicles bookending its golden sandy beach doing just that.

I’ve reviewed the one next to the decaying Nayland Rock Hotel in the past (spoiler alert: it was fantastic) so it was about time I bought a ticket to ride the one nestled inside the Old Kent Market.

Especially as it has recently morphed from a previous, more traditional offering to Thai grub.

Quite aside from the logistical issue - how on earth did they get a bus in here? - it creates a glorious focal point inside what has always been a very aesthetically pleasing place for a drink and something to eat.

The Old Kent Market, for the uninitiated, is literally across the road from the Turner Contemporary - a pinky-red building which is hard to miss. Once a cinema, today it hosts a range of food outlets from bakers to hot dogs, pizza to poke bowls and much more besides. It is, in short, a perfect one-stop shop for the foodie wanting to try something a bit different than, say, fish and chips, and perch on one of its communal tables.

Above, the place is ringed with little stores ranging from a record shop to somewhere specialising in collectable football and Pokémon cards (gloriously called Got, Got, Need - remember that from the playground?), plus tattoos and clothing.

And right inside the door, yelling for attention, is that bus. Or, Tic’s Bus Cafe to give it its name, promising a taste of Asia.

You order at the window on ground level then climb aboard, clamber up the steps and take a pew on its open-topped summit. The seats are, as you would expect, authentically bus-like, albeit in a ‘tables of four’ configuration. They should do that on real buses. But there are a few splashes of colour courtesy of the occasional comfy additional cushion and tasteful flowers.

The lighting is rather subdued given your elevated position - check out the photos of the food to see what I mean - but it does create a rather romantic little spot.

The views from up here, it must be said, are impressive.

No, you’re not looking out over Margate’s glorious seafront - but you are at some carefully curated interior design courtesy of the Old Kent Market. The food and drink places look like someone’s squeezed an approximation of Diagon Alley into this place.

As you peer down at lanterns strung below near the entrance, or the strings of white lights above the communal tables, you can only admire the lighting choices for this place - it is, for those of you young enough to do such things, an Instagram paradise.

But let’s get back to the food.

We order a panang curry - you can have chicken or tofu (I opt for the latter) - cooked in coconut milk, lime leaves and garnished with crispy onions and jasmine rice. Oh, and there’s also a pickle salad of red cabbage, onions and carrots. Sounds good and well-priced for £11.

But what really catches my eye is something I last tasted on the streets of Bangkok - mango with sticky rice. A dish in Thailand you struggle not to trip over, such is its omnipresence on the capital’s street food scene. Could it, possibly, live up to a taste which I adored? We’ll find out. It’s a couple of quid in Bangkok - £8 here. But isn’t that always the way?

We, boringly, opt for soft drinks, but there’s booze too. A big bottle of Asahi, for example (and which, from previous experience, delivers you a smidge over a pint) is £5. A reasonably-priced treat.

It takes next to no time for the food to arrive - decent portions on both plates - and we dig in.

I’ve said it before, but tofu is either my friend or enemy - this time, we are on good terms. It’s tasty and tender, while the onions provide a nice crunch to elevate it.

The sauce is rich and creamy, with lime leaves providing a little citrus kick.

The spice is bang on too - warming but not grab-a-bottle-of-water-and-put-that-fire-out-in-my-mouth hot. But what really makes this worthy of wholesome praise is the pickle salad. The red cabbage and onion add some real zing, while the jasmine rice is fluffy, sticky and, as you would expect, subtly fragrant. A fine dish all round.

But, in truth, I’m here for the mango sticky rice. It looks right and smells right…can it whisk me back to the intoxicating chaos of Bangkok?

In short, yes. If ever you wanted a faithful reproduction of the dish, ladies and gentlemen, it is here on a repurposed double-decker bus in a former Margate cinema. Weird, huh?

The sweetness of the mango perfectly complements the rice while the coconut milk acts as the glorious glue which unites the two seemingly odd elements in a marriage of God-I-need-to-order-many-more-dishes-of-that-right-now-ness.

It’s a simple dish but this is perfectly executed.

And, if you’ve never tried it before, I heartily recommend you climb on board Tic’s Bus Cafe and order some (especially as the dish is only offered while mangos are in season - which means you have until July to indulge). You will thank me for it.

Ratings out of five:

Food: Purely for the mango sticky rice, this is getting five stars, such was my love of the dish. The panang curry was good too and its other dishes would suggest a second visit is a necessity *****

Staff: Friendly, quick service and easy to find a seat. *****

Drink: There is a wide range of soft drinks and booze to order on the bus - but you could also purchase a tipple from the other places in the Old Kent Market and sit atop the bus too. Variety is alive here, folks ****

Decor: While the top of the bus is, well, like sitting in a repurposed open-top bus with tables, the Old Kent Market really is a thing of well-designed beauty. It’s hard not to take a good photo, put it like that ****

Price: In a world of soaring prices for those who like to eat out, the total cost of the two dishes, plus a couple of soft drinks, was a mere £22. Solid value and £8 for that sticky rice? Well, it’s a lot more than back in Thailand, but it was worth every penny ****