Smoking Goat is a lively Thai Bar & Grill located in Shoreditch, London, known for its bold, spicy flavors and energetic atmosphere. It offers a neo-modern take on Thai cuisine, making it a popular spot for both food and drinks.
Customer Perception
Customers consistently praise Smoking Goat for its vibrant and energetic atmosphere, though some note it can be loud. The service is frequently highlighted as friendly, attentive, and helpful. The food receives high marks for its unique and intense flavors, with the Fish Sauce Chili Wings often cited as a standout dish. Many appreciate the spicy nature of the dishes, though it's recommended to inquire about spice levels. While generally considered one of London's best Thai restaurants, some reviewers suggest it might not fully capture the authenticity found in Thailand or Sydney. Reservations are highly recommended, especially during peak hours.
Additional Details
Smoking Goat is located on Shoreditch High Street. The restaurant supports Solace, a charity empowering women across London, by donating £1 from certain initiatives.
We’d been wanting to try Smoking Goat for a long time because our daughter really wanted to go, and it absolutely lived up to the hype. We went for dinner and loved the lively, energetic atmosphere. It’s definitely a bit loud, but in a fun way. There’s a central bar with tables all around it, and the amazing aromas hit you the moment you walk in.
Our server, Camille, was fantastic — incredibly friendly, attentive, and happy to explain every dish to us in detail.
We started with the Fish Sauce Chili Wings and Pork Skewers. The wings were excellent. For mains, we ordered the Fried Chicken, Massaman Curry, Som Tam salad, and Mushroom Pad See Ew. The sauce on the fried chicken was unbelievable — spicy but absolutely delicious. The curry was rich and comforting, the salad was fresh and full of flavor, and the noodles were perfectly spicy and satisfying.
One small recommendation: definitely ask about the spice levels when ordering, because some dishes can be seriously spicy. We personally loved it, but it’s good to know in advance if you’re sensitive to heat.
Overall, we left completely full and very happy. We paid around £35 per person and honestly felt it was totally worth it. A truly satisfying meal from start to finish.
Definitely a very trendy place with a lot of young people. It's super loud and it has a nice bar. We ordered some drinks and got the noodles, mackerel, massaman curry, daikon salad, mutton stir fry which was amazing. We ordered the wings to start with and a pork skewer. Everything was good but the curry and the stir fry were outstanding. Overall it was a good experience and I would recommend it.
4
A refined and fancy take on typical British-style Thai cuisine dishes. The flavors were good and well executed, but nothing felt particularly extraordinary or memorable. Some of the staff were very friendly, while others felt less welcoming. Reservations are recommended, especially during busy hours.
5
Fantastic Thai food, good variety on the menu and lots of dishes what you wouldn’t come across normally. Amazing flavours. Our favourite dish was the fish sauce chicken wings - I would come back just for these to be honest. The roti was exceptional as was the squid with salted duck egg and the beef massaman curry. Would definitely book in advance
4
I was in the area and had been wanting to try this place for a while, so we stopped by for a late lunch and early dinner.
The atmosphere is warm and cozy, and the staff were attentive and welcoming from the moment we arrived. They asked whether we had visited before, checked if we had any questions about the menu, and took the time to understand our preferred spice levels.
Based on their recommendation, we ordered five dishes to share between the two of us. In hindsight, this was definitely too much food, depending on what you order, although that wasn't really explained to us at the time.
The food itself was excellent overall. The drunken noodles were delicious, extremely spicy. The Massaman curry was probably my personal favourite, the sauce was absolutely incredible. Unfortunately, they had run out of roti, which would have paired perfectly with it, so we opted for rice instead, which is a huge portion btw.
The fried chicken was another standout: crispy on the outside, tender and juicy on the inside, and packed with flavour. We also tried the Som Tam salad, which was the only dish that didn't quite work for me. I found the dressing a little overpowering, taking away from the freshness and natural flavours of the salad.
To drink, we ordered the watermelon and pineapple mocktails, both of which were refreshing, well-balanced, and absolutely delicious.
Service remained attentive throughout the meal, with staff regularly checking in to make sure everything was to our liking.
If it hadn't been for the recommendation to order five dishes without any guidance on portion sizes, and my disappointment with the salad, this would have been a five-star experience. That said, the food was genuinely impressive, and I'm already looking forward to coming back to try more of the menu.
Really great Thai food. Loved it.
