One of the best Thai restaurants in London will make a grand return in November

The extremely good Som Saa will reopen next month, after closing in May due to a kitchen fire.

The much-loved Spitalfields-based Thai restaurant will open up again on November 11 with a revamped menu that includes a new selection of bar snacks such as pickled mango with fried shrimp paste relish, and rice crackers with grilled cockles and chilli jam. There will also be a brand new selection of specials, including glass noodle claypot with smoked duck and garlic chives, as well as red curry with grilled pork, holy basil and green banana, and a coconut palm heart, prawn and Thai peanut salad. They’ve also given the interiors a bit of a spruce. 

Chefs Andy Oliver and Mark Dobbie opened Som Saa on Commercial Street in 2016, after meeting at the now-closed Michelin starred Nahm in Belgravia. Som Saa started life as a residency in London Fields and opened its bricks and mortar restaurant thanks to crowdfunding. They opened a second space, Kolae in Borough Market, in 2023, and we gave it a five star review, praising its southern Thai cuisine and calling it ‘an immensely thoughtful restaurant’.

Our original review of Som Saa was equally effusive. We wrote: ‘The cooking at Som Saa will blow you away: literally and metaphorically. This is not somewhere you come for a cheeky green curry and a plate of pad thai. It’s food from Thailand’s north-eastern provinces, where nothing gets dumbed down and your tastebuds will be held up at gunpoint.’ 

Som Saa, 43a Commercial Street, Spitalfields, E1 6BD.

Want more Thai bangers? These are the 20 best Thai restaurants in London, according to experts at Time Out.

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