Industrial chic meets Thai heat at the new incarnation of a beloved London restaurant

The first incarnation of Singburi was a London legend, a fish and chip shop turned Thai restaurant regularly acclaimed as London’s best from those diners lucky enough to bag a table. Now chef Sirichai Kularbwong, son of founders Tony and Thelma, has relocated the family business from Leytonstone to Shoreditch, teaming up with his friends Nick Molyviatis (chef) and Alexander Gkikas (GM). Truly, Singburi has entered the modern era – it now even accepts card payments.

Wallpaper* dines at Singburi, London

The mood: a designery dream

There’s been much talk of the revival of Shoreditch as a dining destination with the recent openings of One Club Row, Bar Valette and Duchy. Singburi, however, is surely the most Shoreditch-y scene of all thanks to industrial stylings which come courtesy of Physicalist. The Bangkok-based architectural and interior design studio took inspiration from, among other local landmarks, the London Overground viaduct on the approach to Shoreditch High Street station.

‘Singburi is designed as a “found space”,’ says Physicalist design director Karjvit Rirermvanich, ‘and a utilitarian celebration of this high-ceilinged glass room. We tried to imagine what the restaurant would look like if this space was Singburi 1.0 not 2.0.’ Instead of a poky café with a bright orange ceiling in Leytonstone, that means a ceiling of circular steel beams, a 4m-tall glass façade, terracotta tiles and terrazzo flooring – though all eyes are on the central open kitchen, where live-fire cooking sizzles on a custom-built grill forged by British Metal Craft.

The food: fire, flavour and finesse

Any restaurant where Kularbwong is behind the stove would be worthy of a visit; he cooked alongside his parents as head chef of the original Singburi. But with Molyviatis, the former head chef of Kiln, in action here too, Singburi has two of London’s best Thai chefs at the helm. Flavours run the gamut of sweet and sour to hot and bitter in sharing plates such as wild ginger chicken thigh, or smoked pork belly with green peppercorn.

Unlike the first BYOB Singburi, this new incarnation has a drink list. Cocktails are overseen by Vassilos Kyritsis of legendary Athens bar The Clumsies, plus there’s a rotating selection of 14 wines, all available by the glass. In one crucial respect, however, the new Singburi is just like the old one: there are no desserts.

Singburi is located at Unit 7, Montacute Yards, 185‑186 Shoreditch High St, London E1 6HU, UK.