Esarn Kheaw

SquareMeal Review of Esarn Kheaw

Standards have clearly slipped at this once-packed venue. While the kitchen can still send out authentic north-east Thai cooking, tired furnishings & uninterested service mean custom has dwindled. Mint Vienetta-coloured walls, faded pictures & a humming fish tank, coupled with the faint whiff of wet dog, do little to attract punters, which is a shame as the food still passes muster. On a deserted Friday night, a homemade Thai sausage packed a punch, while prawn & pork dumpling was soft & sweet, if somewhat soggy. Mains of spiced chicken north-east style & gaeng ped neau (red beef curry) stole the show with their fresh, zingy flavours. Prices remain low, but curt service undoes much of the kitchen’s good work. Until Esarn Kheaw bucks up, takeaways seem the best bet.

Good to know

Average Price
££££ - Under £30
Cuisines
Thai
Food Hygiene Rating

Location

314 Uxbridge Road, Shepherd's Bush, London, W12 7LJ

020 8743 8930 020 8743 8930

Website

Opening Times

Mon-Fri 12N-3pm Mon-Sun 6-11pm

Reviews

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5 Reviews 
Food/Drink
Service
Atmosphere
Value

Anon

10 March 2024  
Food & Drink 1
Service 1
Atmosphere 1
Value 1
MEDIOCRE & FRUSTRATING THAI EXPERIENCE. THANK YOU ESARN.

Definitely there must be a problem in the kitchen. Restaurant wasn't even full on a weekend day and food was taking ages to come out. Then portions are for dwarves, which is super disappointing because u can't order more because your biological clock will run out of time and you will die waiting.
Flavor is good but very concentrated and salty. Guess the chef is from a different region of Thailand? Lemon grass is sliced too thin so you will end up chewing noodles and lemon grass at the same time while spitting all on your plate. Fantastic. 
Please organize better your kitchen, increase the price so the dishes are slightly bigger ffs. We are there to enjoy spending our money with a good restaurant experience not to struggle with the mentioned issues. 
Big props to the waitresses though ?? super attentive and polite. 

William H

14 February 2012  
Food & Drink 4.5
Service 4
Atmosphere 3.5
Value 5
Esarn Kheaw has become my favourite Thai restaurant in London, with food genuinely as good as in the famous food-markets in Bangkok. Run by a friendly Thai family the menu hasn't changed since I first went in ten years ago and one gets the feeling that the recipes haven't changed for generations. Esarn Kheaw creates food which encapsulates all that is good in Thai cuisine: light, spicy and very tasty dishes which will leave you feeling satisfied rather than heavy and sick. I cannot recommend this restaurant enough.

Nilang D

10 November 2011  
Food & Drink 1.5
Service 3
Atmosphere 2.5
Value 2
I went there after seeing SM's star for this place. The som tum had probably been prepared several hours earlier and was splashed on to a plate and dished out. Terrible. I returned it – to the shock of the waiter. The chicken satay was distinctly ordinary. They even managed to screw up a glass of coke! The drink has absolutely no fizz. I thought maybe they got an unluck y can but no, they use 1 litre bottles instead of individual cans and we got the dregs of one such bottle – and the CO2 in that had long gone up to the ozone layer. Disgusting and reckless attitude – tuned to making a buck as fast as possible. The mains – the pad thai, stank of something stale. The red curry – was very good – the only somewhat saving grace of the place. The service overall was a bit like what you'd expect at a roadside stall in Bangkok – which is fine if the food is equivalent! But it is not. Would never return and will take SM's reccomendations with a pinch of salt going forward.

Clementine A

31 January 2010  
Food & Drink 5
Service 4.5
Atmosphere 4.5
Value 5
To be laconic, I would rate it best Thai now in London . It is surpasses by far the Nahd, Mango and Patara (Kensington) an and others in terms of food quality and national speciality. Quite distinctive to this place I‘d put it friendliness without servility. I tried this place with a bit of suspision because of the One review only available, but it turned out to be really nice. (My friends connoisseurs were equally impressed, bit it is my review now) The place is actually (authentic) The food presentation (form) is avarage but the taste and substance was very different. There was ordered the following: papaya salad, prawn salad, grilled catfish, stir fried squid, tofu, (soup.rice and something else). The vegetables were fresh and not commercial. I enjoyed the freshness and composition of every dish I had. The style of the proper was to feel and to compare to the previous examles. Unusially authentic taste of papaya salad really encouraged me. I was not disappointed with the rest. I only disliked the bouquet of my grilled prawn salad ( the bitterrness of the grill was weghning over a bit too much for me) but that was just my taste I suppose. The food list is above average extensive (takes some time to read, but there was no rush). There is no extras you might look for, but their French wine was good (including sparkling) and was priced all right as well. The restaurant is really for connaisseurs (food lovers). The service however was proper, with linen napkins. Enjoy.

Annica W

12 September 2008  
Food & Drink 5
Service 3
Atmosphere 3
Value 3.5
It's not much to look at and the location's a bit awkward but I often trek to the western fringes of Shepherd's Bush for an Easarn Kheaw fix. North-Eastern (isaan / easarn) food is one of the most popular regional cuisines in Thailand but you rarely find it as well represented abroad as here. The kitchen doesn't skimp on chillies so specialities like sausages, papaya or bamboo shoot salad and jungle curry are hot enough to make even the most hardened chilli fiends sweat. But it's not all about the heat: even the fieriest dishes display careful balance of flavours and you often find ourself surprised by notes of unusual aromatic herbs.
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