Dartford, Thai Restaurant Guide

2023 Review: After 10 years, this “lively” Peckham neighbourhood Thai remains a “consistently terrific place” that “delivers great food that’s as good as you get in Bangkok, but with a twist”. Co-owner Jane Alty, who makes regular trips to Thailand to research recipes and ingredients, discovered the cuisine while working in the kitchen at David Thompson’s Nahm (long RIP).

“Stunning Thai food (some dishes will blow your pants off!)” inspires plenty of superlatives for this “vibrant” destination near Spitalfields Market, which celebrates its 10th anniversary this year. “An early innovator in London’s Thai food world” when it opened, its menu is “truly authentic and constantly changing”, delivering “unusual flavours that make it a standout from the herd” (and “the highly knowledgeable team guides new guests on how to choose their dishes”). Top Menu Tip – “the signature deep-fried sea bass is a wonderful beast, curled up on the plate and staring up at you like an angry horror-film monster”.

2022 Review: Originally a stall on Brick Lane (which started in 2009), this 20-seater, a short walk north of Aldgate, is the first permanent home of this experienced Bangkok-style street food vendor. Enjoy dishes (with lots of choice for vegans) on a bed of rice, wrapped tight in a tortilla, or accompanied with salad.

2024 Review: “Great, modern Thai food” is to be had at this stylish (although “rather cramped and noisy”) pub conversion a short walk from the Shard by London Bridge station – “the kind of Thai you wish was just around the corner”. It’s run by siblings Roselyn, Shakris & Bank Inngern, the new generation of the family that operated Thai restaurant Suchard on nearby Tooley Street for more than 20 years, which has recently been re-opened as veggie specialist Plants of Roselyn.

“Fab every time… love it here!” – Ben Chapman’s “buzzy, friendly” Thai BBQ in a converted Shoreditch pub still inspires adulation, a decade on from its founding (originally in Soho). “Distinctive menus and really strong value” are the bedrock of its appeal. Any downsides? – some reckon “it’s noisy and oh-so-trendy”. Top Menu Tip – “exceptional chicken wings”.

“You do feel like you are in your mad aunt’s front room but the food is amazing, and it’s a great hideaway”, say fans of this “cosy” and eclectic Thai-Malay venue in the dead area near Guy’s Hospital. Trading for over a quarter of a century now, the food can still be “exceptional” and even one or two diners who found it more of a “mixed bag” acclaimed its “great flavours” and the “lovely service”.

This legendary Thai canteen has quit Leytonstone and reopened in summer 2025 at this less easterly site in Shoreditch’s new Montacute Yards development. It’s not so much a move as a new incarnation as the owner’s father retires and hands the reins to his son, chef Sirichai Kularbwong, who is now joined by ex-Kiln head chef Nick Molyviatis and restaurateur Alexander Gkikas. The new team aims to ‘reimagine the restaurant for a new chapter’ – this involves a grill and an end to BYO (the new venue will be licensed).

A “buzzy yet cosy space above a busy pub in Borough market” (The Globe Tavern), opened in September 2024 as a ‘Thai-in-a-pub’; inspired by the night markets of Chiang Mai. Early reports are enthusiastic, hailing cuisine “a distinct cut above the normal Thai, with some interesting, mostly well-judged, fusion-elements going on”, resulting in “some really excellent dishes from an eclectic menu (albeit with some misses as well as hits) that leave you wanting to go back and try more!”. Top Menu Tips – “very good curried noodles with BBQ chicken; good bamboo curry and rice and dessert bao”.

“A new angle on Thai cooking!” is often applauded at this “excellent addition to the food scene in Borough Market” from “the team behind Som Saa” – now two years old and one of the more popular entries in our annual diners’ poll. “Sitting at the bar watching these guys work is a great treat” and the result is “slightly unrefined, very spicy fusion dishes, some of which are genuinely unusual to British palates”. It helps that service is notably “warm and attentive” and the “bustling atmosphere” strikes just the right note. Top Menu Tips – “Mussel skewer is an incipient classic (it is the complex sauce flavors and grill char)”; “Crispy prawn heads, Kale fritters and Rice crackers are some of the best Thai dishes ever”.