Kolae.

Kolae

They press fresh coconut cream in the kitchen and then burn what is left, because as Andy Oliver puts it, the spent solids are almost like used coffee grounds and make a perfect smoking medium on the grill, alongside charcoal and wood (Borough Market, October 2023).

Why go

Mark Dobbie and Andy Oliver opened it on Park Street in October 2023, in the three-storey building that used to hold Neal's Yard Dairy's warehouse, a few doors from Monmouth Coffee (National Restaurant Awards). Both men came through Nahm under David Thompson, the first chef in Britain to win a Michelin star for Thai cooking: Dobbie trained there, Oliver arrived to stage after a run on MasterChef. When Nahm closed in 2012 Dobbie went to Pok Pok in America and Oliver spent two years at Bo.lan in Bangkok, then they reunited for Som Saa, first as a year-long residency at Climpson's Arch in London Fields and then, after a crowdfunder, in Spitalfields (Borough Market interview). Kolae is the second act, and the subject is narrower: the far south of Thailand, which the National Restaurant Awards points out has not been as thoroughly explored as the food of central Thailand and the north by Western chefs. Kolae is itself a dish and a method. Oliver's definition: It's based on coconut curry sauces, almost like a cousin of satay, but a bit more complex. The protein is dipped in the curry sauce and then repeatedly basted with it as it's grilled. The menu is built around the grill, and some of the produce is British on purpose, on Dobbie's logic that a bitter herb in Thailand can also be represented by a bitter leaf grown in the UK, and can fit perfectly into that slot in the dish. Michelin gave it a Bib Gourmand in the 2025 guide.

Order this / avoid

• Order: the kolae grilled mussel skewers with calamansi lime, which is the dish everyone converges on and the one worth understanding. A Harden's diner got the method out of the chef at the counter: they steam the mussels before marinating them in curry paste, hot smoking them, and finally finishing them over coals with a second sauce3. The Infatuation, on the same plate: grilling over a smouldering coconut, it makes for a truly revelatory mollusc2. Then the kolae chicken bamboo skewer, the crispy prawn heads with turmeric, coriander root and crisp Thai garlic, the kale and herb fritters with fermented chilli and cashew, and a bowl of gung siep, the grilled dried-shrimp relish to smear on everything else. If it is on, take the banana leaf parcel of stone bass with fresh coconut and southern curry paste. Drink the GBP 5 martini, which The Infatuation says should be mandated by law (October 2024 price).
• Avoid: the upper floors, if you came for the cooking. The Infatuation is blunt about it: "Go upstairs, away from the flamethrower-ish action, and the thrills of the grill dissipate." Book the ground-floor counter instead. And ask about heat before you order a curry: a Harden's diner rates the pepper curry "hot enough to immobilise your central nervous system."

What locals & experts say

• Jake Missing, The Infatuation (16 October 2024, scored 8.5): Every so often, a whoosh of jagged flames shoots up from the wok in Kolae's open kitchen... A clockwork occurrence like this could be misinterpreted as all show, but this southern Thai restaurant has the same crackle of energy in its food. His verdict against the field: Kolae is probably the most preened of them all, but its cooking is also some of the most electrifying. His criticism, kept in: the off-white, Soho House-lite space feels like somewhere trying to appeal to everyone.2
• Harden's diners' survey (2025 and 2026 editions): A fantastic new addition to London's Thai food scene, and to the serious places around Borough Market, with the food spot-on: full of flavour, with a good balance across the menu in terms of heat and flavour-profile. Other diners call the cooking slightly unrefined, very spicy fusion dishes, some of which are genuinely unusual to British palates. Worth noting the score moved: food 5, Exceptional, in the 2025 survey, and 4, Very Good, in 2026.3
• MICHELIN Guide 2025, Bib Gourmand: awarded in the reveal of 13 February 2025, one of 11 London Bibs among 36 across Britain and Ireland, a category Time Out's Amy Houghton describes as recognizing great food at 'tremendous value'.4
• National Restaurant Awards (top 100 profile, edition not stated): Priced surprisingly competitively given the calibre of those involved, Kolae offers a tight menu that is geared towards sharing.5
• Gavin Hanly, Hot Dinners (14 November 2023): on the chicken skewer in the opening weeks, It's huge, almost like a chicken Magnum lolly, in a very good way. Get one each, you won't want to share. His seating advice matches the criticism above: aim for the ground floor, take the first floor if you want quiet.6
• Local rec: none. Jeff's own note logs it as the Som Saa follow-up. REAL.

Good to know

• Booking: the restaurant runs its own reservations through OpenTable and Michelin's page says to contact it directly. Card details are held, and the venue's data policy states a charge of "GBP 10 per head, donated to charity, for tables that do not honour reservation with little or no notice." Large groups arrange a Sharing Menu by email.
• Where to sit: ground-floor counter beside the partly open kitchen for the grill, first floor for conversation, top floor for private dining. Around 75 to 80 covers in total, depending on which source you take.
• Heat: the kitchen does not tone dishes down. Oliver's stated approach is to steer you toward the milder traditions rather than dilute the fierce dishes, so say what you want and let front of house guide the order. Chicken kolae itself is mild.
• Price: GBP 5 to 9 for most snacks and GBP 6 a skewer at 2023 prices; The Infatuation put a good meal at about GBP 60 a head in October 2024; Harden's costs a three-course dinner with half a bottle of wine and service at GBP 50 in its 2025 survey and GBP 53 in 2026.
• Getting there: London Bridge is the nearest station. Look for the brick arch entrance on Park Street, around the corner from The Market Porter.
• Dietary: nothing published. The venue's site runs entirely on JavaScript and no allergen or dietary statement is reachable, so treat this as unknown and ask. Note that dried shrimp, shrimp paste and fish sauce run through the menu.
• Hygiene: FSA rating 5 at the Southwark inspection of 28 October 2025 (FSA).
• The sibling: Som Saa in Spitalfields is the same pair's first restaurant and shares the back office. Kolae is the grill-led one.

Jeff's take (his words)

• Note: "Soom Saa follow up, Thai interesting" REAL. The spelling is his; the restaurant is Som Saa.

Verdict

must-visit — They press their own coconut cream in the kitchen and then burn the spent solids as a smoking fuel, mixed with charcoal and wood, which is a closed loop nobody else in London is running. On top of that sits the mussel skewer, which is steamed, marinated in curry paste, hot smoked, then finished over coals with a second sauce, four operations for a GBP 6 snack. Dobbie and Oliver both came through David Thompson's Nahm and then Pok Pok and Bo.lan, and they are cooking the far south of Thailand, the region Western kitchens have skipped. Michelin gave it a Bib Gourmand in 2025 and a good meal runs about GBP 60. Sit at the ground-floor counter and ask how hot the curry is.