Kiln

Kiln on Brewer Street in Soho is one of JKS Restaurants' most influential openings, focused on the wood-fired, clay-pot, and open-kiln cooking traditions of Northern Thailand, the Thai-Burma border, Laos, and Yunnan rather than the more familiar central Thai dishes found across most London Thai restaurants. The kitchen's baked glass noodles, cooked in a clay pot with crab fat and egg until the noodles catch and crisp at the bottom, are the dish most associated with the restaurant, alongside a smoked lamb skewer seasoned with a citrusy, herb-heavy 'jungle' spice blend that reflects the borderland flavours the menu draws on. A clay pot-baked dish of Tamworth pork with holy basil, made using a specific British heritage pig breed, shows the kitchen's habit of applying regional Thai technique to well-sourced British ingredients rather than importing every component. Seating is almost entirely counter-style, facing directly onto the open kitchen and its wood-fired ovens and clay pots, putting the cooking process on full display and giving the room an intense, high-energy character that reflects the speed and heat of the kitchen itself. No reservations are taken, and the small footprint means queues form quickly, particularly for weekend dinner, so arriving before opening remains the most reliable way to get a seat without a long wait. The restaurant is widely credited as one of the most influential casual openings in London over the past decade, having helped shift the city's understanding of Thai food away from a single regional style. Its Soho location, close to other JKS restaurants including Gymkhana and Bao, makes it easy to combine with other stops in the same evening.