Review: Long Chim, Soho

It feels like Long Chim kinda tricked me. A little bit. Their spiel says: “Long Chim, meaning to ‘come and try,’ invites you to an authentic Thai dining experience. We strive to capture the vibrancy and energy of modern Bangkok, serving the food found in the alleyways, the markets and the shop houses in Thailand’s capital.” So… yeah, I was expecting a Plaze Khao Gaeng kinda vibe. Bangkok street food in London.

But it isn’t really. The dining room is designed to within an inch of its life, down to the hundreds of glass bottles with fake/fun labels in smoky glass cabinets. It’s actually very lovely, a great atmosphere and friendly service, but its a properly grown-up dining room a million miles from any street food vibe. I’d have to say somewhat the same of the food: very lovely, but hardly taking me back to my last visit to an actual Thai street market.

Long Chim spring rolls are a great snack to start: the long cigarillos of crisp pastry totally out-style your average dumpy spring roll, and the mustard green-packed veg filling had plenty of its own tangy-sour-umami flavour even before a dip in the sweet soy sauce. The grilled squid had a great char, cooked nicely al dente. The beef skewer was full of earthy spice flavours from the marinade, the charred beef itself also strong and… hm… beefy. Really, that’s the best word. So far, so good.

Monkfish curry was amiable enough, but the curry seemed to wander about for me, hardly carrying a lot of punch or any single clear flavour shout. Forgettable. The crispy five-spice pork was better. The meat inside a vivid pink from curing, and the salt-tang of the cure carried right through the nice crispy outside and all the spiciness in the accomanying melange of bits-n-bobs. Shallots and chillies and whatnot. Our third dish was a pomegranate salad, which surprised me by being a genuine salad of plentiful pomegranate muddled up with mint leaves and yogurt. Some grilled fresh red chillies in there gave off the occasional bold hit.

I enjoyed the food at Long Chim, and they mixed up a couple of very solid cocktails: a banana old fashioned full of warmth and the oily-creamy banana flavour, and a negroni with grapefruity notes. You might be looking at £35 each for a decent meal before drinks, which is good value for the setting. But if I want Thai street food, I want a face full of powerful flavours and an unabashed bang-up of sweet-sour-hot-salt. So it’s unfortunate that Long Chim has opened only two doors up from Speedboat Bar, ‘cos I know which of the two I’ll be picking!