Plaza Khao Gaeng is a celebration of Southern Thailand’s coast-to-jungle cuisine. ‘Khao gaeng’ broadly translates as ‘curry over rice’, referring to the informal curry shops found on street corners and roadsides across Thailand, where an array of dishes are served from trays alongside rice.

 Plaza Khao Gaeng takes its name and spirit from one such restaurant in Bangkok, which grew to fill a former cinema. Behind its faded façade, gleaming trays of curries offer an everyday comfort and a moment’s pause from the bustle outside. Across its London restaurants, Plaza explores the cooking of Southern Thailand, from its coasts to its jungles: fiery curries, vibrant salads, wok dishes and grilled meats and seafood, served alongside plenty of rice.

Plaza Khao Gaeng Covent Garden turns to Thailand’s ‘deepest south’ – the historic and shifting borderlands of Pattani, Yala, Narathiwat and beyond. The restaurant explores a more rural expression of khao gaeng cooking, drawing on the dishes, ingredients and techniques found across Thailand’s southernmost provinces.

Designed for everything from a quick meal before the theatre to larger celebrations around the table, Plaza Covent Garden offers set menus, daily set lunch plate, group dining and a dedicated pre-theatre menu. Central to the Covent Garden kitchen is its coconut-charcoal grill, reflecting the importance of grilling across the deepest south. Meat, fish and seafood are threaded onto sticks, pressed between bamboo or cooked directly over the coals, alongside turmeric-heavy curries simmered in clay pots, vibrant salads and dishes made for sharing with rice.

The restaurant itself takes inspiration from the roadside canteens and wet markets of Southern Thailand, bringing together bamboo, wood and the bright colours synonymous with Plaza Khao Gaeng.