Chiang Mai-founded noodle brand Khao So-I is bringing its contemporary take on Northern Thai cuisine to London, with a new restaurant opening later this month moments from Oxford Circus in Market Place. The launch of a permanent restaurant in the capital follows a successful pop-up at nearby Patara Oxford Circus in 2023.
Named after khao soi - Chiang Mai’s signature noodle soup made with a spiced coconut broth and topped with crispy noodles - Khao So-I offers a modern interpretation of the dish alongside other regional specialities including grilled chicken with cumin powder; and sai oua (Chiang Mai sausage).
The opening comes amid a surge of interest in Thai food in the capital, following recent launches including David Thompson’s Long Chim, John Chantarasak’s AngloThai, Singburi, a second Speedboat Bar from JKS Restaurants, and a new, more authentic, Thai restaurant brand from Patara.
We caught up with co-founder Win Srinavakool, who runs the business with his wife Por Haruethai Noicharoen, about why food from Thailand’s Isan region dominates London’s new wave Thai scene and how his updates to his home city’s most famous dish weren’t very well-received at first.
Your namesake dish isn’t that well known on these shores. Tell us about it
Khao soi is a noodle soup with its origins in China, but we have made it our own. Chinese people brought noodles to Myanmar, which borders Thailand to the north. They added pepper to the recipe, and Indian immigrants added other spices. When it came to Chiang Mai, Thai people added coconut, Thai curry paste and a few other ingredients to the broth, and it became what we know today as khao soi. It’s the city’s most famous dish. Going to Chiang Mai and not eating khao soi is like going to Texas and not eating barbecue.
If khao soi is everywhere in Chiang Mai, why did you choose to open a restaurant specialising in it?
I saw how popular sushi is in Thailand. It’s spread across the country to the point that the restaurant market is becoming dominated by Japanese food. That hasn’t happened with khao soi, even though it’s a great dish. On top of that, young Thai people in Chiang Mai don’t really eat it anymore. My wife’s parents used to run a khao soi shop but closed it because nobody gets rich in Chiang Mai selling it - it’s not something you can charge a lot for. My wife had the recipe and made it for me. It was good, but I thought it needed to be updated.
What did you change?
The biggest change is the broth. Traditionally, it’s covered with a red oil, which younger people don’t like, so we removed it. We’ve also made the broth creamy and sauce-like. The second change is the noodles. They’re traditionally flat egg noodles, which are slippery and chewy, but my noodles have a rough texture so the sauce clings to them - you don’t need a spoon to eat my khao soi. Finally, we changed how it’s served. We serve it on a tray with the toppings, including the crispy noodles, all separate so people can choose what they want to add and when.
How did people feel about you changing the recipe?
For the first year or so I had big struggles with the older generation. Even my mum didn’t like it. But I told them if we don’t make these changes, the dish will disappear. Things are better now. About a year in, the daughter of the previous king of Thailand came to visit my restaurant. She loved that someone was trying to change things for the better. That had a big impact on the business.
Tell us about your background
I was born in LA. My mum and dad owned a Thai restaurant there called Thai Palace in Pasadena. But they thought I was becoming too much of a Western kid, so we returned to Thailand. Because I had US citizenship, I went to Dallas to study. I couldn’t get paid much cooking Thai food to support myself, so I worked in a sushi restaurant instead. After I graduated with a degree in finance, I worked for a company in Bangkok for six years and then started my own travel agency. Then Covid hit, and that was that. At that point I decided to go back into restaurants. We launched Khao So-I in 2021.
Tell us about your region’s cuisine
Chiang Mai food is all about spices. We use things like cumin seeds, coriander seeds, cinnamon, cardamom pods, cloves, star anise and curry powder. These aren’t usually associated with Thai food in London. Each household has its own spice blend. The food of Chiang Mai and the Lanna region - which includes eight provinces such as Chiang Mai, Chiang Rai and Lampang - is little known in the UK because it’s so complex. Part of the reason Isan food has been so popular here recently is that its flavours are simpler. Most dishes are flavoured with lime juice, sugar, fish sauce and coriander root.
What other dishes will the London site serve?
Our UK site will have a wider menu than our restaurants in Chiang Mai and Bangkok. I’ll bring a lot of my favourites from Northern Thailand. This includes Northern-style larb, which is different to the Isan-style larb that’s common in the UK; jackfruit salad; grilled chicken with cumin powder; sai oua (Chiang Mai sausage); grilled fermented fish; and grilled fermented pork served with egg.
Why have you decided to bring your brand to London?
Thai food is great, but I don’t think it has the recognition it deserves around the world. I want to lift the food of Thailand and take the brand global. We first looked at expanding somewhere closer, like Malaysia or Hong Kong, but last year, the owner of one of the biggest companies in Thailand came to my restaurant and liked the concept. She said she had a restaurant in London and asked me to prove myself. That became the pop-up in Oxford Circus, which went so well that we’ve now found a permanent home nearby. It was important to us to stay close to where the pop-up was. Oxford Circus is great for a company that wants to go global because it’s a real mix of people from all over the world.