PAM brings live-fire Thai cooking to Charterhouse Street
Karla Knowles, formerly head chef at Kiln, now cooks Thai flavours with British produce beside Smithfield, and a gelataria is due in the new year.
There has been a lot of chatter about PAM, and most of it centres on the chef. Karla Knowles was head chef at Kiln, and here she runs a live-fire Thai restaurant on Charterhouse Street, according to Hot Dinners.
Who is behind it
Knowles has teamed up with brothers Edouard and Romain Bourrillon, who run Maison Vivantes, a group that includes Cocotte and Casa Felicia. Hot Dinners reports that Knowles will also head up the group's upcoming Aree restaurant in Notting Hill.
PAM sits beside the part of Smithfield Market that is about to be unveiled as the new Museum of London. The nearest tube is Farringdon.
The room and the bar
As you enter there is a large bar area, partly used to display a rotating art collection, with one long communal table. Hot Dinners calls it an easy place to meet for a cocktail.
If you want a drink first, the review points to the newly opened The Horses from the Public House Group, and the bar at St John for a decent glass of wine.
The food
Knowles describes the food as "rooted in Thai flavour, shaped by British seasonal produce...and finished with European techniques". The idea is Thai travels given a London slant. The soft launch menu Hot Dinners tried was split into snacks, then small and larger plates, mostly for sharing.
- Fried red curry sticky rice balls with tamarind caramel: great texture, and a sauce with a delightful honk of fish sauce.
- Grilled turmeric chicken thigh with roasted chilli relish: one of the reviewers' absolute favourites of the night.
- Miang kham with Cornish crab and Mexican lime.
- Brill rib with yellow coconut curry and sweet basil: a divider. One diner loved the fish, the other thought it too delicate for the curry.
- Roasted duck breast with fries and red curry: the only dish the waiter warned about for heat, and Hot Dinners calls it the must-have of the menu.
- Stir-fried fermented mushroom with aubergine and sweet basil: slow to grow on them after the heat of the rest, but a keeper.
The starters and small plates also include Khao Soi Noi with egg and pickled mustard greens.
Pudding, eventually
There is no dessert on the menu for now. Come the new year, Napo opens in a side room: a Neapolitan gelataria and coffee shop.
A busy corner of EC1
Hot Dinners sees a resurgence of EC1 as a place to eat out, citing The Horses, news of Daniel Craig's new pub and the restaurants and bars due at the new Museum of London. PAM, it says, suits anyone after something edgier for wine and spicy small plates.
Hot Dinners dined as a guest of PAM.
Know before you go
- Address: 61 Charterhouse Street, London EC1M 6HA
- Nearest tube: Farringdon
- Instagram: @pam.restaurant
Sources: Hot Dinners
