Evening Standard
David Ellis visited the new, modernised incarnation of a Thai canteen that won cult status as a “national treasure” for ultra-cheap and tasty cooking at its former Leytonstone address. David, who never visited the original, pronounced a double verdict on its successor: “For food alone, it is a triumph. As a restaurant? A shitshow.”
So what went wrong? Mostly “temporary, could-be-improved things, like the lost orders and repeated requests for water and wine, or no one asking dietaries. The wildly different portion sizes; the spilled plates. The rice turning up 20 minutes before there was anything to join it. The wrong bill.”
As for the food, “there is nothing to say of it other than it was mostly stunningly good… As good a Thai as anywhere. Well, almost.”
David Ellis - 2025-07-13The Times
Jay Rayner was impressed by the new incarnation of a legendary Thai canteen in Leytonstone, recently relaunched in a more central location by head chef Sirichai Kularbwong following the retirement of his parents. Jay confessed he had never visited the original – and worried that its cult was partly a function of location, the “schlep to east London” acting as “its own flavour enhancer”.
He need not have worried, finding “vivid, brilliant food, a long way from the obvious repertoire of the generic British Thai restaurant”. There was a fiery larb made with finely chopped raw beef that left him sweating and blinking; shell-on prawns in a “fabulously pungent curry”; nuggets of smoked pork belly, “caramelised outside, melting within”.
Here in central London, though, regional Thai cooking seems less original, with Smoking Goat across the road, Som Saa nearby, and others not too far away. Never mind, Jay declared, it’s not a competition: “Singburi is dead. Long live Singburi.”
Jay Rayner - 2025-07-27Daily Mail
Tom Parker Bowles made clear that he had eaten at and “loved” the original of this legendary Thai canteen in Leytonstone, so was well qualified to be disappointed by its second incarnation. He was too polite, though, to point out that fellow critics David Ellis and Jay Rayner have recently praised the cooking at the newbie without have previously visited the OG.
There were, he conceded, some good dishes on the new menu: watermelon salad with strawberries; charred chicken thighs; smoked pork belly; a punchy ka prow. But there were also plenty of misses: raw beef larb lacked acidity; stir-fried Malabar spinach was “drab and watery”; lamb ribs were “all but inedible”; and, “strangest of all, we’re refused prik nam pla (fish sauce, lime juice and chillies) that comes as standard in any Thai restaurant on earth. The chef simply refuses to send any out.”
The new Singburi, Tom pronounced magnanimously, was “still a work in progress, but there’s brilliance behind the burners. Have faith, and watch this space.”
Tom Parker Bowles - 2025-08-03
