This is my second Asian fusion tapas restaurant in London, and I was not very impressed. Maybe I got the short end of the stick when I came on Sunday night, when they were serving the "experimental" menu. My friend and I ordered four dishes and sticky rice basket, and everything was overly acidic. Even the fried pork ribs, which I expected to be sweet and sour, were plain sour. The sticky rice was completely plain - I thought it might at least be coconut-flavored or something. Considering the small portions and acidity of the dishes, I didn't feel very satisfied. read more

Service was impressive and friendly with knowledable advice on what to order and what portions we would be expecting. Food didnt let us down either, the food was flavoursome and tasty. Highly recommend for dinner if you are in the area!!! read more

If there is one thing North London pubs have done in recent years (aside from getting me drunk) is degrade the quality and expectation of Thai food. I went to som saa with pub quality Thai food in mind. Happy to try somewhere new but with low expectation of my enjoyment. Visited on a Tuesday evening, around 6pm and it was already starting to get busy. We walked in without a reservation, for two, and were seated immediately. Walk ins only unless for groups of 4 or more. Expect to wait. The bar area is open and bright and with Camden lager on cask. Very cool, although your only option is a 2/3 size glass. Cocktails seemed to be the order of the day amongst the other guests and audible feedback was positive. The super hipster and friendly staff then showed us through to the dining room in the rear. The first thing to hit you is the smell. Spices and flavour wafting form the open kitchen really getting you excited for what lies ahead. Seating is close and on small tables, although the general noise level is high enough so as to allow conversion not to be overheard. The menu is simple. Grill, Soup, Wok, Salad, Curry. I would recommend to go for several dishes to be shared. This definitely isn't the sort of place where you should have one dish per person. The trick is to try as much as you can! We went for pork from the grill, the famed whole sea bream and a papaya salad. The pork, was simply to die for. Cooked to perfection, tender and juicy. The flavour of the spices and herbs is just amazing! A delicious dish but not for the faint hearted (I can still taste the garlic now). The sea bream, was deep fried. Crunchy on the outside but soft on the inside. Delicious. Even the smaller bones can be eaten, so don't worry too much about getting stuck in. The papaya salad was equally delicious although I was hoping for some more kick. Staff were incredibly attentive, friendly and charming from start to finish. Spice and flavour are the order of the day in this amazing place. Be brave and try something (somethings!) new from the menu and enjoy a lovely evening. This place has definitely changed my view of Thai food! read more

"Howdy". I love that they have that picture near the loos. Says a lot about Som Saa is about and I mean that in a good way. In brief, Som Saa is sexy, delicious, cool and authentic at the same time. But if you care to read more, here's my full review ...or more like an essay :) So, I'll start this review the same way I always start my reviews for Thai restaurants by saying I'm Thai ka -just for effect as I seem to get more attention that way haha :). Yep, I'm Thai and I really like food ...but perhaps that's a tautology... This place already has a lot of blessings and if you're a foodie, you'd probably know that this is one of the hottest relatively new restaurants in town. However, one thing I ate here yesterday made me say to myself, "right, time for some Gerald Broflovski yelping for this place" and I don't think it's the dish that most people are thinking about. I was first sent to Som Saa by a good foodie friend who had a love for Thai food since when it was a pop-up and I was immediately impressed by the appetizers which were versions of what we call in Thai "Miang Kam". We ordered the grilled chicken, the grilled aubergine salad and the Kaeng Hung Lae (a Northern Thai curry with Burmese influences known by many Americans but still considered a new thing here in London), the deep friend seabass with it's special sauce and of course, some sticky rice. It was all simply wonderful. The cocktails were great too but the spotlight was definitely one the food, especially those dishes from the grill. I looked at the friend who i took with me, she was very content and I couldn't help but smile seeing her enjoy every dish. The permanent restaurant on Commercial street has most of the goodies and more cocktails on the menu. I've been here several times already but it was only yesterday that I ordered that dish again: the Gai Yaang or grilled chicken and I was reminded of how good it was and why, despite thinking that it's more on the expensive side especially when making the unreasonable comparison with the food in Thailand, I really admire Som Saa and what it offers. These guys are spot on with the dishes that they make. It shows that they really know what they're doing and that's from hard work and being observant. That's what I like. Every country has their version of grilled chicken but there's something very special about Gai Yaang and Som Saa showcases that special something perfectly. Tender, juicy and slightly smoky, it goes super well with warm sticky rice. And it's not only the chicken that they've perfected but also something that many people don't bother that much about - the dipping sauce. Don't put on too much of the sauce in one bite. Think of it like dipping nigiri in soy sauce, you dip it enough for the sauce to enhance the flavour but not overpower the grilled meat or whatever it is you're eating. I ate it and think of my mum. It's that good. If there's one dish that's an absolutely must here, it's the grilled chicken. The grilled aubergine salad is a close second favourite and I do love all of the cocktails I've had here. Given that my two favourite dishes here are from the grill, I wish they could get a space like the Hackney pop-up with the old railway arch and some open air space where they could have big grills and grill all sorts of delicious things outside. Would make for a pretty sweet dinner and hanging out with friends on summer nights. I've done enough rambling on Yelp but I'll do more opinion pieces on Thai restaurants in beloved London on my blog and leave it at :) read more

It was exactly two hours wait but thankfully my kids were willing to wait for some Thai food and they didn't complain about the wait or food one bit! Glad we waited bc food was special and not like most Thai places back home...the cocktails and dessert were delicious too! read more

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Went here with a few friends and had a wonderful meal with really lovely and attentive service. One of our group was allergic to shellfish and peanuts and they were totally accommodating (not easy to do in Thai food). The pork belly dish was amazing but my favorite was the stir fried vegetables. Simple and not heavy comfort food. Great drinks too! The menu recommends 4 dishes a person but we shared 6 among 4 people and were quite full so it ended up being a very reasonable meal. read more

Som saa is one of those restaurants that is primarily walk-in only, which generally I think of as long queues out the door, but they do take some reservations and my friend and I grabbed a Sunday evening one about two months in advance. But it was coincidentally also the same evening as the Wimbledon men's final and the European Championships, so the restaurant turned out to be half empty throughout the entirety of our meal. We did, however, get a nice booth in the front room, which I think has better lighting than the back room and is also more preferable than the bar area seating. For drinks, I had the siam sling cocktail, which is vodka based with cherry blossom tea and wild rose petals, while my two friends had the limeade, which is a rather steep £6 for a non-alcoholic drink. The menu is quite straightforward, with less than 20 options for small sharing plates, and we were recommended to get 6-7 dishes between the three of us. From the grill section, we got the gai yaang grilled chicken, which was tasty, but only four small pieces with a big bone in it, so not that big of a portion. From the wok section, we had the stir fried chicken, the dry red curry with pork, and the deep fried sea bass. One of my friends had been here before and the last two came highly recommended, and they did not disappoint - they were definitely the best two dishes of the meal. With the sea bass, you have to be comfortable filleting your own fish, as the servers did not even offer to help us out, but luckily we were all quite experienced with whole fish. The pork dish also turned out to be pork belly (the menu says crispy pork), which was a pleasant surprise and oh so delicious. I also quite liked the stir fry, though it is more in the category of a good, but not standout, dish. As for salads, we got the grilled aubergine salad, which arguably didn't really seem like a salad, but is exactly my type of salad. It was like the chicken, very tasty, and I would probably order again, but I wouldn't come here just for that dish. We were told the green papaya salads were very popular but also very spicy, so we passed. Finally, from the curries, we got the jungle curry with fish, which had been also highly recommended, but I thought it was the most disappointing dish of the night. We were also warned this was very spicy, but for me it just didn't have any particular appeal, and it was left half unfinished. With everything, we had both jasmine and sticky rice, which I find quite interesting, but I was not sure what type of rice to pair with each dish and we had to keep asking for more, since there was only one bowl of each to share between the three of us at any given time. Overall, I was very happy with the meal and thought the experience was quite similar to Smoking Goat in Soho, but with a larger, more spacious venue and equally good food. This is, of course, nothing at all like your neighbourhood Thai Square. Since the menu is quite simple, I can pretty much say I have adequately sampled the menu, though it is very good and if I were to end up in the neighbourhood or have a Thai food craving, I would definitely come again. read more

Great gourmet thai food. The papaya salad is pure fire, so only for the brave. The pork and cuttle fish/ calamari was my favourite one! Extremely popular so it can be hard to get a table. Great service, very helpful. read more

Lovely place to chill and enjoy some great authentic thai food! Will definitely be coming back here

The meal was delicious but beyond that dishes were Thai inspired yet well away from the usual well-worn Thai fare. The two of us had more than enough food from three dishes and so I don't recommend going for 4 to 6 right off. It was great and I would go there again. read more

Good, could be great. 3.5 stars, but fair to round up. Already great: the service, from the front of the house to the back, and the ambiance and physical space. The dry red curry beef was also excellent, and salted palm sugar ice cream, though a bit icy, was delicious. Also loved the cocktails. Some other things could use work. The jungle curry (fish) sounded delicious but tasted a bit muddy. The salmon starter tastes just like salmon, without the other flavors listed on the menu. All in all, I'm convinced this place can be better. I might wait a bit for the hype and crowds to die down, and see how they execute a few months from now. read more

Arrived at 7 and a super rude girl on the door told us there were no tables available. I asked how long the wait for a table for 2 was and she said there would be no tables available until they closed... Super unapologetic and just clearly didn't want to seat us and quite liked the fact she could turn us away. read more

Food was very good and wait staff were cute and friendly. My only gripe would be that it tasted slightly over salted compared to similar places with the same style of cuisine. read more

Sooooooo delicious!! Literally everything that came out was amazing! It was very hard to stop eating :)

the review says "intriguing drinks". Unsure what the owners think "intriguing" is, but far from accessible South African reds in my books. Awful, inattentive service, taking 1hr to get a platter of unfortunate food, for which I couldn't get a second bowl of rice for my (sad) curry if my life depended on it. read more

Visited on Sunday for the last day of their soft launch. Stood in line (#2) at 16:00 to make sure i wasn't turned away. After reading review after review suggesting that this place was amazing, my expectations may have been a bit too high. Maybe I just don't get what the restaurant is trying to do, but man I feel like this place could be so much better. I'll give them that it was their soft launch, but the menu is just confusing. The three curries are all very very spicy, the green papaya salad is also amazingly hot, and the garnish on the bass is also very spicy. I'd like too see a bit more balance in the curry offering, granted I've never been to Thailand and maybe curry there is just all hot...the bass was really nice, crispy, salty, spicy and the basil keeps the whole dish fresh and light. Please avoid the mixed vegetables, it was literally a plate of soggy greens and a single mushroom. I'm happy we got 1/2 of the menu, $100 for dinner for 3 would have been criminal. read more