Som Saa Restaurant
Andy Oliver and Mark Dobbie met working at Nahm under David Thompson, and the heat on this menu is the direct consequence.
Why go
For regional Thai cooking that never got sanded down. The two founders came out of Nahm, then ran the food out of a railway arch at Climpson's Arch in Hackney through a winter, and in September 2015 they went to Crowdcube for the permanent room: forty-five per cent of the brand on offer, a target of £550,000, and £200,000 of their own money in first (Harden's). The Commercial Street restaurant opened the following year and turns ten in 2026.
The card keeps moving. Harden's survey reporters call it truly authentic and constantly changing
, with unusual flavours that make it a standout from the herd
, and note that the highly knowledgeable team guides new guests on how to choose their dishes
(Harden's). One dish comes up every year: the whole deep-fried sea bass. Eat alone at the counter and they will do you half of it.
Order this / avoid
- Order: the whole deep-fried sea bass, and let the floor team steer the rest.
- Avoid: ordering cautiously and then finding it hot anyway. Reporters warn it is "too spicy for some". It is also a loud room.
What locals & experts say
- Harden's survey reporters, on the food:
Stunning Thai food (some dishes will blow your pants off!)
, froman early innovator in London's Thai food world
.1 From an earlier year, and less politely:so good we liked the food better than in Bangkok!
- The same reporters on the sea bass:
the signature deep-fried sea bass is a wonderful beast, curled up on the plate and staring up at you like an angry horror-film monster
, and elsewhere,nothing can beat the whole deep-fried seabass with crunchy bones, and sitting at the counter they'll do half portions.
1 - Nobody with a byline has reviewed it. No named critic's piece surfaced on 1 August 2026 and no chef names it in the 622 rows of London industry recommendations held here, which for a ten-year-old room with this pedigree is a hole in the record.
Good to know
- Sites: the restaurant on this page is 43a Commercial Street E1 6BD. The same team opened Kolae in Borough Market after eight years, and it shares this restaurant's booking system. Nothing about Kolae is claimed here.
- Timing: split service, lunch and then dinner from a quarter to six.
- Booking: three tiers, up to six, seven to twelve, and thirteen or more.
- Solo: the counter serves half portions of the sea bass, which is the best-value seat in the room.
- Diet: survey reporters call it "great for veggies and vegans". That is their observation rather than the restaurant's own statement, so no dietary flag is recorded here.
- Operator: chef-owners who raised the money themselves, with backers holding a minority of the brand.
- Hygiene: FSA rating 5, Tower Hamlets, inspected 1 November 2024. Components 5, 5 and 5, where higher is worse. Clean, and 21 months old.4
Verdict
should-visit — Andy Oliver and Mark Dobbie met in the kitchen at Nahm, working under David Thompson, and then spent a winter cooking Thai food out of a railway arch at Climpson's Arch in Hackney before putting two hundred thousand pounds of their own money on the table and selling forty-five per cent of the brand on Crowdcube to build this room. Ten years on, Harden's reporters call the menu 'truly authentic and constantly changing' with 'unusual flavours that make it a standout from the herd', and every survey year lands on the same dish: 'the signature deep-fried sea bass is a wonderful beast, curled up on the plate and staring up at you like an angry horror-film monster'. Sit at the counter alone and they will do you half of one. Two warnings from the same reporters, kept rather than smoothed: the food is 'authentically spicy (too spicy for some, note)', and the room is noisy. It holds here rather than higher because no named critic has ever written this kitchen up and no chef in our industry record names it.