The taste of Thailand is often hard to reproduce, yet Farang in Highbury not only achieves it, it toys with it, in ways that make you grin wildly, reminiscing the hustle and bustle of a Bangkok market. Since opening its doors in 2017, Farang has cultivated its reputation in fine cooking as well as in the bold, contemporary reinterpretation of Thai flavours. Under the deft mind of Sebby Holmes, it has become award‑winning precisely because it perfectly combines authenticity with inventiveness.
With so much on the menu to drool over, the chef‑driven sharing menu is a godsend – at either £65 per head or £100 per head with wine pairing, it’s easily the most dazzling route into Farang’s world. Six courses plus side dishes weave a narrative that whispers of Thai roots but bursts with London personality.
Immediately impressed with a powerful opener, you’re treated to an intricate pile of flossed tiger prawns, peanuts, coconut & sour apple in the form of a leaf-wrapped miang bite. To be eaten in one, your single helping delivers more ingredients than you can count, yet all merge into one playful, wonderfully balanced mouthful. It’s cheeky and light‑footed, the perfect start.
Then comes the ‘Gai Prik’ chicken. Beer‑battered chicken bites in a sweet‑and‑salty fish‑sauce glaze, with a dipping sauce that when combined, causes sparks of lemon, chili, garlic and fresh herbs: crunchy, fragrant, and fun. Alongside this, a vibrant dish of cured sea trout with sour fruit and ‘Nahm Yum’ verges on ceviche but carries a Thai whisper – delicate, clean, tangy. Everything from the first set of dishes punches and lands perfectly.
From complex sharing plates to a straightforward sharing bowl – one central comforting bowl of smoked chicken hot & sour soup arrives. Natural rawness from chunks of galangal, lemongrass, makrut, fresh lime & herbs make this dish feel homemade, and yet the taste is anything but. It’s warm, fragrant, precise, and unexpectedly elegant.
Farang’s famous chilli‑jam mussels arrive in a rich bowl of curry. Briny but bold, herb-flowered brilliance flirts with the taste of gentle seas and the tang of citrus and the heat of chilli.
We’re not done. A stunning whole marinated seabass with cracked and blistered skin sits in a gorgeous Nahm Yum of coconut, raspberry & citrus. Fresh and fried herbs adorn the beast – lemongrass, samphire, ginger, that when combined with the sauce and soft flesh of the fish, create an explosion of textures that even though self-served, still demonstrates Holmes’s power over flavour balance. The meat simply falls from the bones, and each bite mingles the freshness of the sea with the land. Combine this with the optional sticky rice or melt-in-the-mouth butter roti, and you never need to fly East again.
Though the à la carte menu at Farang is always worth a visit, the sharing menu is where the restaurant reveals its genius – it showcases how ingredients are coaxed, teased, combined to feel light and never overpowering, yet quintessentially Thai. Here’s London’s most confident expression of Thailand.
