As a sister to the successful family run business on Coldharbour Lane in Brixton, Kaosarn has quickly gained a reputation as an excellent Thai restaurant. Quality in abundance and flavours to match, this surprisingly good value restaurant will leave you with plenty of money left in your bank account and a giddy warm feeling to boot.

The best thing is it really holds a genuine authenticity of Thai cuisine. It doesn’t seem to placate to the Western ‘ideals’ of things like Prawn Crackers…“Oh no, we don’t do that here” as if to say, those awful crunchy things are far beneath us. We only cook the real-deal here.

And quite right they do, as we found out when our main courses arrived. The red Thai curry had all five elements of spicy, sour, sweet, salty and bitter present and correct to confuse the senses into delight. The Pad Thai was also a triumph. I’d have to stick my neck out and say it was the best I’ve had due to the succulent noodles, heavy dose of lime juice, perfectly cooked prawns, plus the pile of crushed peanuts and chillies to sprinkle on at your leisure.

Whenever we go out to eat, we’re eagerly looking around the room to look at what the rest of the clientèle have chosen; all portions for all dishes looked decent and smelt excellent.

Another other predominant theme of Kaosarn is urgency. The urgency reflects London as a whole perfectly. Fast, brash, in your face and glorious. Now this might not be to everyone’s tastes, but for a table of 2 you’re given 1 hour before you have to give it up, for parties of 4 or more you’re permitted an hour and a half. I personally had very little issue with it, if you are going to behave that way you better make darn sure the food is up to scratch, and it certainly is fantastic. Every table was taken and there were people queuing for the next sitting.

The starters are on average £6-7, and mains range from £7-13, all very affordable. As it is also BYOB place this keeps the final bills very low indeed.. we had two starters and two mains to share, and that came to less than £30. Bargain.

If there is a criticism, it was the starters; we had the battered prawns and fish cakes. The batter on the prawns was nice and light but the accompanying ginger sauce didn’t pack enough punch and so the overall effect was a little taste free in comparison to the rest of the dishes. The fish cakes were good and the sauce for this was the real winner for me with crushed peanuts and coriander in the mix.

I’ll definitely be going again however, and do highly recommend a visit.

Telephone: 020 7223 7888

110 St John’s Hill, Clapham, London, SW11 1SJ