Permanent Som Saa site to open in April
Thai pop-up restaurant Som Saa is to open its first permanent site in Spitalfields in east London on 11 April.
The restaurant began life as a pop-up in Peckham before a year-long residency at Climpson's Arch in London Fields.
The business, founded by Andy Oliver, Mark Dobbie and Tom George, raised over £700,000 in three days in a crowdfunding campaign, which has allowed it to open Som Saa in a former fabric warehouse in Commercial Street, a short distance away from Spitalfields market.
The restaurant, which takes its name from a Thai citrus fruit, represents the founders' passion for old-style Thai cooking and lesser-known regional dishes of Thailand.
A new menu, devised by head chefs Oliver and Dobbie, will be divided by cooking techniques and include a daily changing chef's selection, bringing together seasonal produce with Asian ingredients.
Alongside the evening menu, the restaurant will start serving a brunch and lunch menu six weeks after opening.
Lunch will involve one-plate dishes such as pad grapow pbet (stir fried duck with holy basil, chillies and a crispy duck egg over rice); and khao soi neua (Northern style beef curry noodle soup with crispy egg noodles and pickled mustard greens).
At weekends, a Thai brunch will be available in addition to the lunch menu and will list: kai jee-o (traditional crispy wok fried Thai omelette with fermented chilli sauce); khao dtom (Thai rice soup with crispy pork, pork balls slow cooked egg, ginger and spring onions); and pa thong ko (Thai-Chinese style doughnuts with pandanus custard).
Bangkok Mary cocktails, created by co-founder and general manager Tom George, will come from Som Saa's bar.
Oliver and Dobbie met at London's Michelin-starred Nahm restaurant in 2009 under David Thompson. Oliver then went on to work at Bo.Lan in Bangkok and the Begging Bowl in Peckham while Dobbie became head chef of Pok Pok in New York. Meanwhile, Tom George was previously restaurant manager of Goodman in Mayfair.