chaam (simply meaning 'bowl' in thai) is a unique 3rd generation thai restaurant, sister to ‘papaya tree’ on Kensington high street which has opened its doors since 1997. Many 1st generation thai restaurants were mainly introduced to the uk through pubs. Then as people were comfortable with the diversity of thai flavours, thai restaurants all over uk begun to emerge. These restaurants mostly served thai cuisine from the central provinces of Thailand. At chaam, we take the next level up and specialise in rare thai cuisine from the northern provinces mainly chiang mai, chiang rai and mae hong son, which is very hard to find in the uk and even in Thailand!

A good example of our northern cuisine is kao soi and nahm ngeaw. These soup noodles are highly popular in Thailand and are served from little restaurants all along the busy pavements of bangkok and other provinces. Naam prik noom is also a very popular dish from the north and can be enjoyed both as a starter or as part of your main course.

To insure total authenticity, most of our dishes are cooked to "khun mae's" (mum's) recipe, so if you have had for example a thai green curry, expect our version to be that little bit different!

We pride our food in being authentic, so no expense spared, we order in the freshest thai ingredients flown in twice a week direct from thailand, as the key to delicious thai cuisine is in the use of quality thai herbs and vegetables.

We hope you will enjoy this new 'homely' thai dining experience!