Kiln

There is a small insulated furnace behind the counter burning chestnut and oak logs, and the cooks reach into it for glowing embers to feed the grill (Time Out).

Why go

Ben Chapman and Brian Hannon opened this room in September 2016 with ten stools facing a stainless counter and an open kitchen the same length as it, and Meedu Saad runs the pass (National Restaurant Awards). The cooking draws on the northern Thai borderlands and on Laos, Myanmar and Yunnan, and the founders are direct that the dishes "aren't designed to be facsimiles of those found in Thailand" (National Restaurant Awards).

What holds it up is the buying. Fish comes off Cornish dayboats and reaches the grill inside eight hours of leaving the water, the pork is Tamworth, and the lemongrass and Szechuan pepper grow in a coastal polytunnel that Chapman helped fund (Time Out). Coconut milk barely appears, because none of it grows here.

The menu moves. Jake Missing, reviewing it for The Infatuation in March 2026, watched a research trip to Thailand put a grey mullet laap mee on the board and a sour curry of cockles replace it weeks later (The Infatuation). In 2018 it beat much larger and much more expensive restaurants to National Restaurant of the Year, and it now carries a Michelin Bib Gourmand at $$ prices (National Restaurant Awards, The Nudge).

Order this / avoid

• Order: the claypot baked glass noodles with Tamworth belly and brown crab, the one plate that never comes off, which Jake Missing says "simply never disappoints" (ref). The sai oua, northern sausage made with pork some weeks and mutton others. Whatever curry is running, since the fish in it follows the landing. The roasted shrimp relish with bitter leaves and raw radish if you want the heat you came for.
• Avoid: stopping at the gai yang. It is the entry-level plate, and the critic who gave the place a 9.0 says there are "much more flavourful and interesting things to order elsewhere on the menu" (ref). Arriving at eight on a weeknight and expecting a counter stool.

What locals & experts say

• Tomos Parry, chef-patron of Brat and Mountain, who cooks over fire himself: "Kiln is my go-to restaurant. It's a northern/rural Thai restaurant in Soho. I like to sit at the counter where you can watch over the fire and get a real sense of the energy behind the pass. Kiln's cooking is always really exciting and they have a constantly changing wine list, so I get to try a different wine every time I go." ref
• Budgie Montoya, chef-owner of Apoy, asked for the best curry in London: "I think the monkfish curry at [Kiln] is the one. It's just umami central." ref
• Kaneda Pen, chef-owner of Mamapen, asked for the best restaurant in London: "[Kiln]. Small yet mighty." ref
• Jake Missing, The Infatuation, March 2026, scoring it 9.0: "The recipe of a walk-in-only policy and an alway-evolving menu means that, on most weeknights, Kiln is a bunfight. Regulars smush beside tourists who politely shift for a friend of the chef who's grilling gai yang like his life depends on it." ref
• Tania Ballantine, Time Out, October 2024, four stars out of five, on where to sit: "Sit at the back for the pyromaniac seats: a view into the kiln itself. Inside this small, insulated furnace, chestnut and oak logs are sent to their fiery end, the glowing embers occasionally removed to 'feed the grill'." ref
• Nuno Mendes, chef of Lisboeta, in passing, while recommending the sister restaurant Smoking Goat: "Sister to one of the best Thai places in London, Kiln." His pick is for the sibling, so it is quoted here and counted there. ref

Good to know

• Where: 58 Brewer Street W1F 9TL, two minutes from Piccadilly Circus.
• Timing: kitchen Monday to Saturday noon to 11pm, Sunday noon to 9pm.
• Booking: upstairs is walk-in only, so arrive early for the counter. The basement is the quieter room and takes groups.
• Solo: the end of the bar is kept for people eating alone.
• Price: $$ and a Bib Gourmand. The Infatuation's own page marks it $$$$, which contradicts every other source including the award.
• Sister restaurant: Smoking Goat in Shoreditch, same founders.
• Hygiene: FSA rating 5, inspected 30 April 2025, Westminster. Hygiene, Structure and Confidence in Management all clean. FHRSID 904587. ref

Jeff's take (his words)

• Note: none. His raw saved-places export carries an empty Note against this row, so nothing on this page is in his voice. What is on the record is docs/RANKING.md, where he names Kiln as one of four London exemplars standing for big bold flavors with spice, heat and theater. That is a ranking instruction rather than a quote about a meal, and it is treated as one.

Verdict (Chef Jeff ladder)

must-visit — Build the evening around it, then go early because you cannot book the room you want. There is a small insulated furnace behind the counter burning chestnut and oak, and the cooks lift glowing embers out of it to charge the grill, which is where the name comes from and why the food tastes the way it does. Ten stools face that. Ben Chapman and Brian Hannon opened it in September 2016 with Meedu Saad running the kitchen, drawing on the northern Thai borderlands and Laos, Myanmar and Yunnan, and they say plainly that the dishes are not meant to be facsimiles of anything in Thailand. The sourcing is the tell: fish off Cornish dayboats and out of the water under eight hours, Tamworth pork, and lemongrass and Szechuan pepper from a Cornish polytunnel Chapman helped pay for. Three working London chefs name it unprompted, and one of them is Tomos Parry of Brat, who cooks over fire for a living and picks out the counter, the visible flame and the constantly changing list as his reasons. Jake Missing scored it 9.0 for The Infatuation in March 2026 and described the food as restless and always on the move. It took National Restaurant of the Year in 2018 against far more expensive rooms and it carries a Bib Gourmand at $$ prices. The claypot glass noodles with Tamworth belly and brown crab never leave the menu; almost everything else does.