Recently I had the pleasure of heading over to Clapton to try the new restaurant from the guys at KraPow LDN. Last year they won the Mayor of London’s competition of My London Dish. Imagine from every restaurant in London, these guys won. Beyond impressive, so let me tempt you some more. It was literally bucketing down with rain the day we went, so I don’t have anything from the outside, but when you hit KRAPOW it is Kapow!
What to Expect
This is Northern Thai street food, and whilst I love Thai food, genuinely I do, I was curious to see what the difference was between this, and my usual Pad Thai.
I let Rich (one half of KraPow) pick every dish. The menu is simple & small, yet every flavour literally burst out from every dish, clearly this was not your average Thai meal.
We started with a small plate of…
Son-in-Law Eggs, Sai Oua, smoked Chiang Mai sausage. Made exclusively for the Krapow boys, so totally authentic.
Miang Bites, which we wrapped in the betel leaves. Every mouthful better than the first.
We moved onto…
The signature dish of a Krapow Moo. I’m not gonna lie, this was absolutely delicious. Genuinely I’m still dreaming of this dish. It’s spicy chilli and basil pork mince stir fry w/rice topped with a fried egg. This was the winner of My London Dish, and my moo me it was good!
The other dish was Khao Soi. A curried noodle dish from Chiang Mai, with tofu. The tofu soaked up all the juices, so it was a good recommendation. I’m not always a fan of tofu, but this was absolutely the right choice, it was so good – if fact it was so good, I got a dish to go, and had it for supper too.
We finished off with the vibrant Yam Samun Phrai. A vibrant tumeric and Thai herb salad, that had a very nice kick to it.
All this was nicely polished down with a Kapow beer, from the local Hackney Brewery, but if you are still after your Thai Singha, it’s there for you, but I would go for the local brew, it was very good.
My verdict is excellent, because this food is absolutely delicious, and well worth as a West Londoner, travelling to the East of London. My ideal will be for them to open on Saturday’s, so I can wander along after my Broadway Market visit.
Verdict for KraPow London:
Service 10/10
Ambience 10/10
Food 10/10
Pudding – we didn’t have any
Value for money 10/10
They are open Wed – Fri at the moment, this will change I’m told, so check the KRAPOW website for updates and for reservations.