Esarn Kheaw

Esarn Kheaw has become my favourite Thai restaurant in London, with food genuinely as good as in the famous food-markets in Bangkok. Run by a friendly Thai family the menu hasn't changed since I first went in ten years ago and one gets the feeling that the recipes haven't changed for generations. Esarn Kheaw creates food which encapsulates all that is good in Thai cuisine: light, spicy and very tasty dishes which will leave you feeling satisfied rather than heavy and sick. I cannot recommend this restaurant enough.

I went there after seeing SM's star for this place. The som tum had probably been prepared several hours earlier and was splashed on to a plate and dished out. Terrible. I returned it – to the shock of the waiter. The chicken satay was distinctly ordinary. They even managed to screw up a glass of coke! The drink has absolutely no fizz. I thought maybe they got an unluck y can but no, they use 1 litre bottles instead of individual cans and we got the dregs of one such bottle – and the CO2 in that had long gone up to the ozone layer. Disgusting and reckless attitude – tuned to making a buck as fast as possible. The mains – the pad thai, stank of something stale. The red curry – was very good – the only somewhat saving grace of the place. The service overall was a bit like what you'd expect at a roadside stall in Bangkok – which is fine if the food is equivalent! But it is not. Would never return and will take SM's reccomendations with a pinch of salt going forward.

To be laconic, I would rate it best Thai now in London . It is surpasses by far the Nahd, Mango and Patara (Kensington) an and others in terms of food quality and national speciality. Quite distinctive to this place I‘d put it friendliness without servility. I tried this place with a bit of suspision because of the One review only available, but it turned out to be really nice. (My friends connoisseurs were equally impressed, bit it is my review now) The place is actually (authentic) The food presentation (form) is avarage but the taste and substance was very different. There was ordered the following: papaya salad, prawn salad, grilled catfish, stir fried squid, tofu, (soup.rice and something else). The vegetables were fresh and not commercial. I enjoyed the freshness and composition of every dish I had. The style of the proper was to feel and to compare to the previous examles. Unusially authentic taste of papaya salad really encouraged me. I was not disappointed with the rest. I only disliked the bouquet of my grilled prawn salad ( the bitterrness of the grill was weghning over a bit too much for me) but that was just my taste I suppose. The food list is above average extensive (takes some time to read, but there was no rush). There is no extras you might look for, but their French wine was good (including sparkling) and was priced all right as well. The restaurant is really for connaisseurs (food lovers). The service however was proper, with linen napkins. Enjoy.

It's not much to look at and the location's a bit awkward but I often trek to the western fringes of Shepherd's Bush for an Easarn Kheaw fix. North-Eastern (isaan / easarn) food is one of the most popular regional cuisines in Thailand but you rarely find it as well represented abroad as here. The kitchen doesn't skimp on chillies so specialities like sausages, papaya or bamboo shoot salad and jungle curry are hot enough to make even the most hardened chilli fiends sweat. But it's not all about the heat: even the fieriest dishes display careful balance of flavours and you often find ourself surprised by notes of unusual aromatic herbs.