Hit Thai-British Pop-Up Confirms Debut Restaurant in Fitzrovia

After a lengthy development process, a hit Thai-British pop-up will open its debut London restaurant next year, in the heart of the city.

John and Desiree Chantarasak’s AngloThai, which has been seeking a site in partnership with the MJMK group for over a year, has secured a space in Fitzrovia, with a view to opening in 2023. AngloThai is yet to respond to a request for comment on the exact location of the restaurant; Big Hospitality reports that it will open on Eastcastle Street, the same street as MJMK’s headquarters.

In the interim period between collaborating with MJMK and confirming the restaurant, John Chantarasak has released a debut cookbook, Kin Thai, with the Chantarasaks also running a few one-off collaborations with the likes of the Little Chartroom, in Edinburgh.

As in the book, though John’s honing of the broad tenets of Thai cuisine earned him acclaim at first Nahm Bangkok with David Thompson, and then Som Saa on Commercial Street, it is his melding of Thai technique and culinary history with British produce that has earned him the most acclaim.

Then-Sunday Times critic Marina O’Loughlin raved about a 2019 residency in Clapham, and it is this melding that perhaps appeals to MJMK, with its philosophical similarity to another of its collaborators: Santiago Lastra, of Michelin-starred Kol. Desiree’s expertise in natural wine, an increasingly understood partner to the aromatics and complex palettes of heat in Thai cuisine, has long proved a natural foil to John’s food.