Kiln - London

The exit is cozy. friendly atmosphere. we're coming. the menu has mainly thai, grills and seafood. eating presentation is beautiful. we have ordered many different plates. all were delicious. good service.

Kiln is not for the faint hearted. It is a restaurant with fire at it’s core. Heat blazes from the clay kiln pots that are used to cook with here, and pop up from the dishes studded with chilli. From the raised seating around the food counter it whacks you direct to face like the first steps off the plane on a summer holiday abroad. It is the remover of clothing, the bead of sweat inducing exhilarating reason that we love obsess over fire. A meal here is not only an insight into the food of North Thailand, it is a celebration of heat and the results it brings with control and skill.

Kiln has been on my radar since I arrived. It's one of those places that I have to make the special trek to get to knowing that there will be a queue. The first and only other time I tried was a Saturday night with a 2 hour wait. I was surprised to find that Friday early evening was only 30mins quoted (actually about 50 in the end). Maybe the summer and daylight means noone is interested at 615pm.

After hearing this was related to the Smoking Goat I wasn't really looking forward to going. I needn't have worried as it was completely different in both atmosphere and food flavourings! Great sharing dishes full of flavour. Service was swift and helpful. And it was pretty inexpensive. Really enjoyed it.

I could nitpick about the relatively cramped bar seating on the ground floor or about the fact that the basement dining room only takes reservations for groups of four or more, but the bar stools are well-padded and the interior as a whole manages to escape the somewhat grungy feel of The Smoking Goat. Plus, the almost flawless menu trumps all of these niggly problems. I can’t think of a single dish that I wouldn’t want to have again and again.