So despite this big “Thai food in pubs” trend here in London, we were a bit skeptical about trying this place and about the quality of food it would actually deliver. Nonetheless, we decided to give it a go mostly because it was in an area convenient to our after-dinner plans.
We had reservations on a Saturday night, and while I would recommend them so you can get prime seating, you definitely don’t need them. The pub is large and not all the tables will fill up, but if you make reservations, you can likely sit in a corner part of the pub away from the TVs and bar.
There was a lot of confusion in the beginning with our waiter. He actually didn’t seem to know all that much about Thai food, so we were quickly losing confidence. In fact, he wasn’t able to answer almost any question we had and even once we settled upon dishes, we were not confident he was going to convey our requests correctly to the chef. I finally asked whether the chefs were even Thai and he answered “yes every single one of them,” which actually did make me feel a lot better. We thought ok maybe he doesn’t know (he’s not Thai), but he’s not the one doing the cooking anyway, which is what matters.
So we ordered (1) the red curry with veggies and asked for it without added chilies to make it a bit milder than normal and (2) the pad grapraw (Thai basil) made extra hot. We emphasized the extra hot as much as we could, maybe about 5 separate times, and told our waiter to note that we wanted it literally “Thai hot” – as hot as he can make it.
Well, the dishes came out looking beautiful. Truly. The Thai basil was not swimming in oil and gloopy sauce like it so often does. There was just a modest amount of aromatic sauce at the bottom of the dish and the vegetables (which were broccoli heavy at my request) looked fresh and fantastic. The red curry came in a small pot with a lid and again the sauce was not oily at all and smelled great.
Upon trying the Thai basil, we realized that the inevitable happened. It was not spicy in the least. We didn’t have too much time, so we called the waiter over, pointed out the problem (we had emphasized it 5 times!) and just suggested that the chef re-toss the plate with some extra chilies instead of making the dish all over again. After some time passed, the waiter came back with an entirely new dish saying that the chef absolutely did not want to compromise the dish and wanted to make it right, so he remade the whole thing and ensured it would be proper Thai hot. Now that’s classy.
Here’s what I will say. This is the best Thai food in London. Hands down, no questions. The Thai basil was the best Thai dish I have had in London. Forget just being appropriately spicy (which is based on preference), the flavors were spot on. The basil came through spectacularly. The flavor of the sauce was so fantastic. The sauce was not sugary sweet like so many basil dishes are. It was not clumpy and corn-syrupy and starchy the way so many westernized restaurants make it. This was the real deal. Loved it.
The red curry was fantastic as well. Truly fantastic. It was one of the least sweet, least oily Thai curries we’ve ever tried and we couldn’t come up with a complaint if we tried.
Apparently, after we had sent the dish back for the chef to make it spicier, the chef inquired as to whether we were actually Thai as I guess he was surprised since most people cannot tolerate Thai hot. This happens all the time, annoyingly. We order something Thai hot and the chef simply concludes, on our behalf, that we don’t really mean it and gives us something not very spicy. I guess from their experience a lot of people complain it is too hot for them, but that certainly isn’t for a chef to decide prematurely when we’ve ordered it a certain way. While it wasn’t ideal for us to have to try twice to get the dish right, all is forgotten. The situation was rectified perfectly and we have officially discovered the best Thai food in London.
We highly recommend this place and will absolutely be back.
