The story
At 58 Brewer Street, just off the bustle of Soho, Kiln cooks with fire, clay, and conviction. The kitchen runs Monday to Saturday from noon to 11pm, and Sunday until 9pm, serving a tightly edited menu of South East Asian and Thai dishes built around the restaurant’s signature charcoal grill and clay pots.
The room is compact and counter-focused – diners sit close to the action, watching cooks work over glowing coals. There’s no fluff, no unnecessary theatre. Just the smell of smoke, the hiss of a clay pot, and the quiet hum of a kitchen that knows exactly what it’s doing.
Kiln’s food draws from the traditions of Thailand and the wider South East Asian region, but the cooking is its own. Dishes come straight from the fire: grilled meats, smoking vegetables, and curries that bubble in individual clay pots until they’re brought to the counter. The menu changes regularly, so what you eat depends on the season and the market.
The restaurant is part of the Super 8 group, which also runs other well-regarded London spots. In 2026, Kiln was awarded a Michelin Bib Gourmand, a recognition for good quality, good value cooking. It’s a fitting nod to a place that delivers precision and personality without pretence.
There are no bookings for small tables – it’s walk-in only, which adds to the easy, democratic energy. Come early, come late, but come ready to eat with your hands and order another clay pot before the first one is empty.
Recognition
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Details
History
good quality, good value cooking
If you want to gain access to Ben Chapman’s smoking-hot Soho homage to Thai regional cuisine (and much more besides), you have two choices: assemble a group of four friends (or more) and book a table in the basement dining room, where you can have a loud, noisy BBQ party, indoors; alternatively, go on spec, play the waiting game and queue outside for a slot at the stainless steel ground-floor counter (simply add your name and number to the list and grab a drink nearby until you are called). The pay-off is masterful cooking inspired and influenced by those regions where northern Thailand borders Myanmar, Laos and China's Yunnan province, but supplemented by regular supplies of British seasonal produce (notably day-boat fish and rare-breed meat). Intense, blisteringly hot dishes from the charcoal grill line up alongside slow-cooked claypots imbued with deep, dark, pungent flavours. On the one hand, that might mean skewers of aged ‘cull yaw’ mutton spiced with cumin or pounded hake with karashina (giant Japanese mustard leaves); on the other, perhaps monkfish liver curry with harlequin squash or the now-famous, sticky-rich baked glass noodles with specially reared Tamworth pork and brown crabmeat. Also, don’t forget to order some stir-fried Cornish greens and a bowl of brown jasmine rice on the side. ‘Sharing beers’, ferments and cocktails made with kitchen ingredients flow freely, but don't ignore Kiln's eclectic wine list – a short, intelligently chosen line-up that matches the spicy demands of the food.
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