There’s always something a little special about a restaurant that leaves you feeling like you’ve been let in on a little secret, like you’ve stumbled across somewhere on the culinary path less travelled.

That is definitely the feeling we experienced when we walked in from the gathering darkness of an autumnal Tuesday evening and into the warm and welcoming embrace of Daow’s Kitchen, a tiny backstreet Thai restaurant that definitely counts as something of a hidden gem when it comes to the much-heralded Folkestone food scene.

The dining room is small, maybe five or six tightly packed tables, and, as it was still early, we were the only people in when we arrived. In some circumstances, a lack of fellow diners might be a cause for alarm bells, but the fresh and fragrant aromas wafting through from the kitchen were all the reassurance we needed that something good was on the horizon.

We were greeted by a cheery waitress who promptly furnished us with a concise menu and a drinks list, which featured bottles selected by local wine guru Zeren Wilson, one of the team behind the John Dory wine shop in nearby Sandgate.

It is the kind of menu that tempts you to try everything, with curries, stir-fries and noodles dishes vying for our attention alongside a range of appealing appetisers.

We opted for three of the smaller starters to kick things off – the classic chicken satay (£6.50) and spring rolls (£6.50), as well as the Khanom Jeeb (£7), traditional pork and shrimp dumplings.

The crispy pastry of the spring rolls was perfect, cracking to reveal the glass noodles and vegetables within. Although the chicken was perhaps a little drier than I would have liked, the satay sauce was rich with peanut flavour. And the steamed dumplings were incredibly moreish, the two elements of the filling mingling to create a superb depth of taste.

Next up was a dish of beef pad see ew (£11), a popular Thai street food consisting of wide-cut rice noodles stir-fried with broccoli, dark soy sauce, garlic and spring onions, which we chose alongside a zesty mango salad (£8). The two dishes paired perfectly, set off by the excellent bottle of French white we’d selected to accompany the meal.

The word we kept coming back to was ‘balance’. There was an awful lot of complexity packed into these dishes, but playing the umami richness of the pad see ew off against the brightness of the salad made for the perfect combination of flavours. And the soft noodles contrasted beautifully against the multi-textured salad, rich with roasted cashews and adorned with crispy fried onions.

My dining companion was in raptures about the salad, proclaiming she could happily eat it every day for the rest of her life. High praise indeed, from someone who often teases me for the fact I could happily consume a bog-standard cheese and ham sandwich for my lunch every day and never tire of it.

Room for a little more? Why not, when the going is this good. We opted to share one final dish, a traditional pad kra pao stir-fry (£11) to which we opted to add prawns. We decided against a rice dish to accompany it, and instead just dived in with our spoons to pluck out the seafood and pieces of fresh, crunchy green beans, mangetout, mushrooms, peppers and carrots.

Apologies to the couple who had since occupied the adjacent table if we were a little too enthusiastic in our slurping down of the fiery sauce in the bottom of the dish. We were not in the mood to let any of it go to waste.

And breathe. We were extremely pleased to have finally got round to trying this almost-perfect neighbourhood joint, which I am ashamed to admit we had never visited before, despite it being only a short stroll from our front door. Cheriton may not be the beating heart of Folkestone’s foodie renaissance, but we are blessed to have this hidden gem on our doorstep.

I just hope that – having let the secret out – tables are as easy to come by next time we decide to drop in for a lovingly-prepared taste of Thailand. Because we’ll surely be back for more.

Out of five:

Food: The chicken satay was the only slight disappointment, saved by the sauce, but everything else was fantastic – packed with fresh, fragrant flavours ****

Drink: Definitely elevated by having a wine expert write the list, the bottle we tried was above and beyond what you might expect in this homely setting ****

Decor: Everything you’d expect from a down-to-earth destination where the food is the star, it does the job ***

Staff: We received a warm welcome, and the service was very attentive ****

Price: At £25 a head for a delicious and filling meal for two, it provides good value in the current climate ****