Lucky_Admin 
A Trip to London
As foodies, we are always aiming to try some delicious food in any new city we visit. If you’ve read any of the previous restaurant or destination posts, I’m sure you can already tell that we love a bit of pre-trip research to find the best spots. We’re definitely not those people who just turn up and hope to find something. After all, we could be missing out on some serious scran! If we have enough time or a few options, we might leave our options open a little. However its rare we’ll turn up without an idea of where we fancy.
Before heading to London for a little weekend away to watch Penn & Teller at The London Palladium, we stumbled across Kiln. I have absolutely no idea how we’ve never come across this before. It’s just one of those places that you feel like you should know about and somehow its slipped through the net. After a few searches and my insta algorithm picking up on my desire to visit, therefore obviously increasing that need with more and more reels of incredible-looking food, I realised that this one might be a little tricky to actually visit. Kiln don’t take bookings, so you just have to turn up and hope for the best. Plus its pretty small and in quite a busy area. (However very conveniently located right by The Palladium for our show). This can present a bit of a risk! Its good enough that we know we want to go there for sure, but with limited time and then not really being able to book anywhere else if we were gonna commit, we might end up with no plan, a limited amount of time before the show, and a sub-average dinner.
Kiln Soho
However Kiln seemed worth the risk, so we took it. (Luckily) we decided to eat at a bit of an odd time because we wanted to make sure we left enough time for the rest of our plans. This ended up being a blessing in disguise! Upon arrival, there was no queue, but the petite restaurant was bustling with joyful chat and the delightful sounds of an open kitchen. Deliciously organised chaos at its finest. The seats are mostly ‘bar seats’ with some larger tables for bigger groups in the basement (I believe you can book these if you have a big enough party), but most of the restaurant is walk-ins.
I found Kiln to be really quite a unique concept. It describes itself as Thai Grill, Seafood and Claypots. The open kitchen displays masters at their craft; cooking up impressive dishes mostly over fire and embers, in a kitchen not much bigger than my own. It has very deservedly also been included in the Michelin guide for its fresh and fiery food. In the time we were seated and ordered ourselves a crisp glass of white wine, a queue for dinner had formed outside, and we were quite smugly surprised with how easy our experience had been so far.
What we ordered
- Aged Cull Yaw and Cumin Skewer
- Northern Laap Sausage
- Stir Fried Winter Greens and Soy
- A delicious oyster which was incredible but I cannot for the life of me remember what was on it!
- Grilled Rump Cap with Udon Relish
- Sticky Rice
- Tamworth Sai Oua
- Claypot Baked Glass Noodles with Tamworth Belly & Brown Crab Meat
I would imagine if you’re lucky enough to be visiting here, you’re probably not a picky eater. We spent the first 5 minutes googling a bunch of the brief dish descriptions, as there are some funky words on there. Exciting for us, but not for everyone! The menu is written as I’ve listed the items as above, so you might want to ask your server for a little description of anything unfamiliar.
We’d seen plenty of the Claypot Baked Glass Noodles with Tamworth Belly & Brown Crab Meat online. So we’d locked that dish in before we’d even sat down. This is a bigger dish, so we decided that, to maximise our eating experience, we’d order a whole bunch of smaller plates. This is probably our favourite style of dining. Allowing you to try a lot of the menu without over-ordering.. although who are we kidding, we always over-order!
Review
Not to sound biased but we genuinely couldn’t fault anything here. From being accommodated in the busy restaurant before the queue formed, the lovely service throughout, the atmosphere of the restaurant (that kind of feels like you’re sitting in someone’s house but also in a Michelin recommended restaurant at the same time), and of course the food.
If you are in the soho area then this, in our opinion, is a must. Definitely make a booking If you have a bigger group. If not then I’d recommend going slightly before or after the rush around lunch/dinner to avoid queues.
LL & RC x
