Chef Tom Geoffrey has opened a restaurant above a pub in Borough. Not just any pub. The pub that Bridget Jones used to live in. That pub. Having toured his Barang ‘concept’ around London for a while, the former Kiln man has settled down for a longer, more substantial stint in the tasteful dining room above the Globe Tavern.
This is Cambodian food but, much like its Thai almost-nakesake Farang in Highbury, Barang doesn’t make any pious claims about ‘authenticity’. Instead these are creative dishes designed by people with a healthy love and respect for Khmer recipes, but also a desire to confound expectations. And crucially: they want to do this while offering a menu that is (for Borough) relatively affordable.
Much like your favourite band’s discography, Barang’s menu hits hardest at the start. The snacks and small plates contain nary a dud. Prahok ktis (basically Cambodia’s fishy-porky national dipping sauce, served with a variety of scoop-shaped veggies) is an easy order: unpretentious and moreish, the minced meat has a pleasing heat that slowly makes itself known like a hidden but very surprisingly welcome houseguest. On the other end of the innovation spectrum is the blue fin tuna dish. Generous slices of raw, butter-soft fish, covered in a Kandinsky-esque arrangement of kumquat circles and compressed melon triangles, it is a triumph of texture and flavour.
Also demolished: fresh Carlingford oysters luxuriating in a greenish Cambodian sauce-mignonette hybrid; hogget chops grilled to smoky perfection over fire, served with some alluringly burned tomato relish; scallops perched on shells featuring loads of crispy bits, none of which (impressively) overwhelm the flavour of the seafood. Two people could eat all of what I have just described and it would come to about 30 quid each. For Borough Market in 2026, this is akin to a meal deal.
For slightly less than a tenner you can (and should) add a steaming plate of restorative and nicely tender winter greens, studded with crisp-edged pork jowl nuggets. Its soup-like liquid and Barang’s fragrant jasmine rice is a marriage made in culinary heaven.
Only a citrus salad - strangely explosive and forbodingly dark - proved so surprising as to be divisive. Meanwhile a saraman smoked chicken curry main was fine, but clearly lacking the same attention lavished on other dishes. In the end we ate 95 percent of the menu (including the huge and well-crusted sirloin) - something I bring up not as a boast but as an adjunct to the fact we were not uncomfortable or in any way poorly afterwards. This is filling, zesty, nourishing stuff. But it’s also deceptively light.
True, on our visit the service was a bit shaky, but their hearts were in the right place and it’s only just opened, so who cares, really? Barang more than deserves its spot in the heart of London’s oldest food hub.
The vibe A bright, stylish room, a fiery open kitchen and a feeling of superiority as you lord it over the Instagrammers milling around in the market below.
The food Aromatic Cambodian dishes, some given revolutionary tweaks, others faithful to the original recipes.
The drink A punchy cocktail lineup, courtesy of Swift’s Rachel Reid.
Time out tip Dessert isn’t skippable. Barang’s sorbet - pineapple and galangal - is a unique proposition. You’ll not forget the honey-like pineapple syrup and charred fruit chunks in a hurry.