London’s Thai food scene runs from a Michelin-starred Marylebone kitchen that won its star without serving rice to a near-legendary Leytonstone institution that spent 25 years without a website before finally moving into Shoreditch, and takes in everything from a Peckham railway arch with a vegetarian counterpart for every dish to a Borough Market grill from the team behind one of the city’s most respected Thai restaurants. Here are the eight best Thai restaurants in London worth seeking out in 2026.

AngloThai opened in its permanent Marylebone home on 22-24 Seymour Place on 11 November 2024, run by husband-and-wife team John and Desiree Chantarasak, and won a Michelin star just three months later. It’s one of the few Thai restaurants in the world built entirely around British ingredients rather than imported produce.

The menu filters Thai cooking techniques through seasonal British ingredients so thoroughly that the restaurant has become known for winning its star without a single rice dish on the menu. It’s a genuinely distinctive approach in a city with no shortage of more traditional Thai kitchens.

AngloThai — 22-24 Seymour Place, Marylebone, London W1H 7NL | anglothai.co.uk

Kiln opened on Brewer Street in Soho on 30 September 2016, founded by Ben Chapman, who also runs Smoking Goat. It quickly became one of the most talked-about Thai openings in London, built around live-fire grilling and a short, tightly edited menu rather than an exhaustive list of dishes.

The format centres on a wood and charcoal grill, clay pots and a rotating daily noodle dish, served fast and hot from a kitchen that runs the length of the narrow, counter-heavy dining room. It set the template that a wave of small-plate, grill-focused Thai restaurants across London have followed since.

Kiln — 58 Brewer Street, Soho, London W1F 9TL | kilnsoho.com

Farang started as a food market stall run out of the back of chef Sebby Holmes’ car before growing into a permanent restaurant on Highbury Park, and has held a Michelin Bib Gourmand for five consecutive years alongside a Thai SELECT two-star award. Holmes previously cooked at Begging Bowl and Smoking Goat before striking out on his own.

The menu changes seasonally and leans into quirkier, more personal takes on Thai cooking rather than a fixed set of classics, served in a genuinely local Highbury spot rather than a destination restaurant built for visitors. It remains one of the most consistently well-reviewed Thai kitchens in North London.

Farang — 72 Highbury Park, Islington, London N5 2XE | faranglondon.co.uk

Som Saa began as a year-long pop-up in London Fields in 2014 from founders Andy Oliver, Mark Dobbie and Tom George, before settling into a permanent home in a converted Spitalfields fabric warehouse. A kitchen fire forced it to close in May 2025, but it reopened that November with a refreshed dining room and its first-ever bar snacks menu.

The cooking focuses on Northern Thai dishes rarely found elsewhere in London, built for sharing across a table rather than individual mains, and the post-fire relaunch used the enforced break to refine several signature dishes rather than simply reopening as before. It remains one of the most respected Thai kitchens in the city.

Som Saa — 43a Commercial Street, Spitalfields, London E1 6BD | somsaa.com

Singburi first opened in 1999 as a modest, family-run restaurant in Leytonstone, helmed by chef Sirichai Kularbwong, and built a near-legendary reputation over 25 years without any branding, website or social media presence. It moved into a bigger, more central home in Shoreditch’s Montacute Yards in mid-2025, and picked up a Michelin Bib Gourmand in the 2026 guide.

The move brought Singburi’s exuberant, well-priced home-style cooking to a much wider audience without losing the qualities that built its cult following in the first place, and it now takes bookings for the first time in its history rather than relying purely on walk-ins. It’s a rare case of a beloved neighbourhood institution successfully scaling up.

Singburi — Unit 7, Montacute Yards, 185-186 Shoreditch High Street, London E1 6HU | singburi.london

Kolae opened in October 2023 in an old coach house at Borough Market, founded by Som Saa’s Mark Dobbie and Andy Oliver as a dedicated showcase for kolae grilling, a Southern Thai technique built around coconut-based curry marinades cooked over open flames. It’s a more focused concept than its sister restaurant, built around one style of cooking rather than a broad regional menu.

The bar-and-grill format suits Borough Market’s grazing, drop-in crowd, with grilled skewers and sharing plates designed to pair with the drinks list rather than a formal sit-down meal. It’s given Southern Thai cooking a rare dedicated spotlight in a London Thai scene still dominated by central and Isaan-style dishes.

Kolae — 6 Park Street, Borough Market, London SE1 9AB | kolae.com

Kruk opened under the railway arches of Peckham Rye, founded by chef Rob Willcox and front-of-house partner Josh Lyons, who met while both working at Farang and bonded over a shared taste for seriously spicy food. It won a Michelin Bib Gourmand within months of opening, a rare speed even by London’s competitive Thai scene.

Every dish on the short, rotating menu has a vegetarian counterpart built with equal care rather than as an afterthought, a genuinely unusual commitment for a restaurant built around fiery, meat-heavy Thai cooking. The railway arch setting keeps things properly casual, in keeping with the food’s uncompromising heat.

Kruk — 213 Blenheim Grove, Peckham, London SE15 4QL | krukthai.com

Rabieng Thai has been a fixture on Upper Street for well over a decade, trading quietly as a genuine neighbourhood restaurant rather than chasing the Bib Gourmands and Michelin stars that have gone to some of its flashier North London neighbours. It’s the kind of place regulars return to for years rather than a one-off destination booking.

The menu sticks to the classics that built Thai food’s popularity in the UK in the first place — tom yum, green curry, pad Thai — executed reliably rather than reinvented, in a relaxed dining room with genuinely welcoming service. It’s a solid, unpretentious counterpoint to the more chef-driven restaurants elsewhere on this list.

Rabieng Thai — 143 Upper Street, Islington, London N1 1QY | rabiengthai.co.uk