Food review: Som Saa, Climpson’s Arch, Arch 374, Helmsley Place, London

Som Saa - Thai pop-up, Climpson's Arch

Hidden away under a railway arch in London Fields on the short road behind the main road is Climpson & Sons (not to be confused with Climpson & Sons on Broadway Market), where a Thai pop-up restaurant can currently be found.

We’d heard that this was some of the finest Thai food found outside Thailand so 3 of us visited for brunch expecting hearty options but we were dismayed to find only 2 dishes on the menu, 1 sweet and 1 savoury, neither dishes appeallled to 1 of our group who decided to only have a cup of Vietnamese drip coffee! 😮

Som Saa - Khao Dtom rice soup
Som Saa – Khao Dtom rice soup

The other 2 went for the savoury dish which was a Khao dtom rice soup with crispy pork & poached egg costing £7 which was nice enough though the egg was cold – was it supposed to be? It wasn’t too much of a problem as we mixed it in with the broth which had a bit of heat with sweet ginger & lemongrass flavours that you expect from Thai cuisine but I’d hardly call it brunch as after finishing it we were both still hungry…

So we ordered the other dish on the menu, Pa Thong Ko (Chinese donuts with pandanus custard) at £5 and were charged for them but they never arrived…we then heard that someone at another table had received the last of the donuts! 🙁 Ho-hum, they removed them from our bill no probs though.

A disappointing selection of food, our lone dish tasted fine but wasn’t mind-blowing but we can’t really say too much about the place based on a single dish.

Som Saa’s residency at Climpson’s Arch has been extended so if we’re down again soon we’ll pop in again to see what it’s like for dinner.

More info here.

 

TL;DR
+ tasted authentic
+ child-friendly

– child-friendly
– poor brunch selection
– they forgot about our donuts! 🙁

Mr Foodie

Mr Foodie

Likes to travel, eat weird things and read three books at the same time.

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