Southwark, Thai Restaurant Guide

“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”.

“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”.

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”.