Kiln

Kiln opened on Brewer Street in 2016, founded by Ben Chapman of Smoking Goat, and two years later the National Restaurant Awards named it the best restaurant in the UK. The menu draws on Northern Thai, Isaan and Southern Thai cooking, with influences from Laos, Myanmar and Yunnan, and is built around three methods: clay pots, charcoal grills and woks. Baked glass noodles come out of the clay pots, whole fish and skewers go on the grill, and curries and stir-fries are cooked in the woks. Most of the produce is British, from Cornish seafood and herbs to rare-breed Tamworth pork and aged hogget, and the kitchen butchers its own meat and makes its own fish sauces and relishes. The ground-floor counter is kept for walk-ins and faces the chefs at work, while larger tables are downstairs. The wine list favours small natural and biodynamic producers, with a selection by the glass that changes often.