The Chilli's Not Just For Show At This Thai Restaurant

We've got the hots for Farang.

The Thai restaurant started life as a roving pop-up and series of residencies, before going bricks-and-mortar in 2017. It's informal, busy, stripped back. It's dog-friendly. It's every sort of friendly.

We drink chilly, sweet-sharp watermelon cocktails, condensation forming on the sides. We sweep buttery roti through curries, sultry-hot and rich with smoked squash, coconutty turmeric or falling-apart beef cheek. One bowl surprises us with a staggering heat, sitting there studded with pea aubergines and looking deceptively demure. The second, bigger surprise is that we can't stop eating it, even with every bite turning our mouths into the surface of the sun. It hurts, but it hurts so good.

And all of it's spectacular, from the intricate Miang, small bites of minced prawn, pomelo, green mango and tamarind on betel leaf, to the turmeric butter roti, chewy and flaky at the same time: the stuff of taut, golden dreams.  

So yeah, calling the menu vibrant and creative feels a bit stiff-necked for stuff this big and joyful. Better and more accurate might be: just great.

We leave feeling chilli-drunk, buzzing with a low-key euphoria from the fierceness of the food — and warmed from the inside out.

Farang, 72 Highbury Park, N5 2XE.