Sometimes in life there’s a clear winner, but in the case of these restaurants, it has to be a Thai.
Because when you have a pad kra pao itch to scratch, London has plenty of top-quality choices. You can choose between buzzy counter dining in Soho; a leafy, glass-enclosed terrace in Peckham; and the sensory overload of a dazzling ode to Bangkok’s Chinatown… in the centre of our very own Chinatown.
London is jam-packed full of Thai heavy-weights, all offering up knock-out meals worthy of your time. Which one you choose will likely depend on the day of the week. So we’ve worked them all down to a list of eight and are leaving it up to you to crown your winner…
*Ding, ding.*
Kolae | London Bridge
Figuratively and literally one of London’s hottest restaurants right now. Kolae is the long-anticipated follow-up from the Som Saa team (another of the city’s best Thai restaurants, more on which below). Taking over a former coach house on a cobbled alley leading off Borough Market, the place is primo date territory: cosy tables for two, soft lighting, magnificent cocktails. Just make sure your date’s idea of a good time is having their tastebuds mercilessly spanked, by everything from the Phuket-style soy-braised pork to the innocuous-sounding but utterly volcanic sour mango salad.
Details: 6 Park Street, London SE1 9AB | Make a reservation at Kolae
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Kiln | Soho | Michelin Bib Gourmand
This buzzy Soho eatery comes courtesy of the same folks behind Thai BBQ joint Smoking Goat, however this time around the focus is specifically Northern Thai cooking (the type you’d find in the regions boarding Burma, Laos and Yunnan) crafted using locally-sourced, British ingredients. The best seats in the house are upstairs facing the massive open kitchen – you can sit and sip a cocktail (made with the same herbs and spices found in the kitchen) and watch the chefs work the flames at the massive charcoal grill. The menu – designed to share – changes regularly, however you’ll always find a mix of smaller bits (cumin-spiced aged cull yaw skewers or northern style laap sausage) as well as larger curries or claypots packed full of spicy soups and noodles.
Details: 58 Brewer Street, Soho, W1F 9TL | Make a reservation at Kiln
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Khao Bird | London Bridge
Rebecca Dickson Photography
The team behind Brighton’s Lucky Khao have brought their immensely popular take on Northern Thai BBQ to London. Which makes for a lucky you. You’ll find Khao Bird nestled in a neon-drenched dining room above The Globe Tavern in Borough Market, where head chef Luke Larsson serves up a menu of fiery, inventive dishes that draw on both traditional recipes, and brilliantly oddball inventions from his own head. Try the Ikea-style Shan meatballs, fried in a mouthwatering cola glaze, and the triple-cooked fries topped with curried mutton alongside more classic stone bass salads and a fantastic Chiang Mai-style curry with BBQ chicken.
Details: Upstairs at The Globe Tavern, 8 Bedale Street, London SE1 9AL | Book a table at Khao Bird
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Speedboat Bar | Soho
Speedboat Bar is quite the transportive experience, taking you from London’s Chinatown to Bangkok’s Chinatown. It’s an ode to the Thai capital’s neon-lit Yaowarat Road, and they’ve got the look down to a tee with low red plastic stools outside, retro tiling wrapped around the dining room, and a pool table on the second floor. The kitchen’s frenzy of flaming woks pumps out fiery drunken noodles, fragrant soups and earthy curries at a rapid rate, and the flavours are next-level – chef-founder Luke Farrell has attempted to recreate his own miniature Thai rainforest in a greenhouse in Dorset, where he grows all his own herbs for the restaurant. It’s spicy stuff so expect to be necking beer slushies and snakeblood negronis like there’s no tomorrow (which if you do, you’ll be writing off anyway…).
Details: 30 Rupert Street, W1D 6DL | Make a reservation at Speedboat Bar
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Som Saa | Spitalfields
Som Saa is fast becoming the patron saint of the East London Thai scene. Having opened back in 2016 to broad acclaim, it’s somehow held firmly onto both its standards and its crown in the years since. The food is fiery, fragrant, and packed with flavour, and the cocktails make creative use of the more exotic ingredients from the kitchen – no surprise that it’s still packed out every night…
Details: 43A Commercial Street, E1 6BD | Make a reservation at Som Saa
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Farang | Highbury | Michelin Bib Gourmand
After stints at both The Begging Bowl and Smoking Goat, whizz kid Seb Holmes decided to take the leap and set up on his own. He took to the street food markets and hosted a couple of sell-out supper clubs, before taking over his step dad’s old pizza restaurant. Years after settling here it still gives more Italian trattoria than Thai restaurant, but the food – even with its modern twists – is packed full of Thai soul.
The menu rotates regularly, but stand out dishes include the whole crispy seabass with coconut chilli jam, as well as an aromatic beef cheek curry with green peppercorns and ginger. Farang also serves some amazing salads – full of fresh, zingy flavours that help to cut through all the meat and spices. Helped along, of course by an ice cold beer.
Details: 72 Highbury Park, Highbury, N5 2XE | Make a reservation at Farang
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The Begging Bowl | Peckham
This leafy neighbourhood eatery serves up serves up authentic, regional Thai food, alongside house-made cocktails, beer and wine. Forget green curry and pad Thai here. Instead, you’ll find a regularly rotating menu of sharing dishes that look at lot like this: chive cakes with chilli and dark soy dip; grilled Barbary duck salad with pear, peanuts and ginger; whole deep-fried sea bass, with green mango, physalis, roasted rice, tamarind and chilli dressing. It’s been drawing crowds since 2012, and has been a springboard for dozens of London’s best Thai chefs since.
Details: 168 Bellenden Road, London, SE15 4BW | Make a reservation at The Begging Bowl
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Singburi | Leytonstone
Living by the motto ‘if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’, this frenetic, cash-only Thai restaurant hasn’t changed at all since it landed in Leytonstone over 20 years ago. Along with it’s informal appeal and devil-may-care attitude, the secret to Singburi’s cult status is getting the simple things right, from bubbling soups that seethe with spice, fragrant curries, part-time blackboard specials that you wish were permanent, and a BYOB policy that sees most punters stumbling merrily out the door.
NOTE: Singburi has gone on hiatus until the end of 2024 at least. Watch this space…
Details: 593 High Road Leytonstone, E11 4PA | To book call 0208 281 4801 (but be warned, they usually have a month-long waiting list)
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Smoking Goat | Shoreditch
Smoking Goat offers Bangkok-style revelry in this gritty, industrial-style space serving up ice cold beers, Southeast Asian cocktails and a raft of barbecue bites that go hand in hand with the booze. Think fish-sauce chicken wings, lardo fried rice, pork-fat skewers and and a damn good duck laab that’ll send you sideways with its heat. One of London’s all-time greats when it comes to Thai restaurants, for sure.
Details: 64 Shoreditch High Street, E1 6JJ | Make a reservation at Smoking Goat
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Plaza Khao Gaeng | Tottenham Court Road | Michelin Bib Gourmand
Topping off the excellent Arcade Food Hall (courtesy of JKS Restaurants – the same folks behind Gymkhana, Hoppers, and Brigadiers), is a little slice of Thailand – the epitome of a laid-back, road-side eatery down south, where the tablecloths are plastic and the cutlery is piled up in a communal silver tray. The food, however, is exquisite – red hot Miang Kham wrapped in bright green betel leaves; crispy chicken wings marinated in turmeric and long pepper; a rich beef shoulder massaman curry with potatoes & shallots; and fiery plates of stir-fried morning glory with fermented soy beans. All of which you can knock back with electric pink Thai-inspired cocktails or, of course, a bucket of ice cold Singh beers.
Details: Arcade, 101-103 New Oxford Street, WC1A 1DD | Make a reservation at Plaza Khao Gaeng
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Supawan | King’s Cross
If you’re looking for a knockout Thai restaurant in King’s Cross, then here’s a supawan… especially if you like the idea of getting a proper taste of the South, with dishes like tom yum seafood soup; grilled prawns served on cah-pruu leaves; moo hong (slow-cooked pork belly with Chinese five spices) and pla tod naam pla (a fillet of crispy seabass laced with fish sauce and palm sugar).
Details: 38 Caledonian Road,London, N1 9DT | Make a reservation at Supawan
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Chet’s | Shepherd’s Bush
When you want to see Thai cuisine from a different angle, head to Chet’s. It’s the stylish West London canteen run by Kris Yenbamroong, who runs LA’s cult Thai restaurant NIGHT + MARKET. That means you’re getting a taste of glorious Thai-Californian fusion, a crossover which sees fried chicken served with both ranch sauce and birds eye chilli; bodega-style subs with homemade sai uah sausage; a toastie mingling tuna larb with American cheese; and the deeply comforting Chiang Mai curried noodles with katsu-style fried chicken.
Details: The Hoxton Shepherd’s Bush, 65 Shepherd’s Bush Green, W12 8QE | Make a reservation at Chet’s
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Kin & Deum | London Bridge
Literally translating to Eat + Drink, this thriving family-run restaurant in London Bridge goes far beyond covering your basic needs. There’s something for parties on either end of the Scoville scale: heat-seekers in need of kick can test the limits of their tongues in spice-laden dishes like the prawn pad kee mao and the kitchen’s signature gra pow (a beloved Bangkok dish of minced pork and bird’s eye chilies) while for the milder folk, the roasted honey duck slices and tamarind crispy eggs hit the spot. Cocktails are something that everyone can agree on and the bar mixes up five of them; the Bangkok Negroni being the pick of the bunch.
Details: 2 Crucifix Lane, Bermondsey, SE1 3JW | Make a reservation at Kin + Deum
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Phed Power | Battersea
Everybody wins at the follow-up Arcade Food Hall in Battersea Power Station, where your group will have to deliberate between Thomas Straker’s famous flatbreads, Manna’s legendary burgers, and steak sarnies from the TĀTĀ team. You, however, will be making a beeline for Phed Power, another Luke Farrell outfit. There’s a couple of smaller dishes on offer, but the signature here is Thailand’s gift to the world: chicken pad grapow, rustled up in record time over the wok and served with a lacy-edged fried egg. When you’re after Thai food in a casual setting, you’re guaranteed to leave here well-phed.
Details: Arcade Battersea, 1st Floor Battersea Power Station, London SW11 8DD | No reservations
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