Smoking Goat is a Thai barbecue restaurant in Shoreditch. I’d known about Smoking Goat and it’s sister restaurant, Kiln, for a while and all I heard were good things, but for whatever reason Thai cuisine wasn’t a priority of ours. But then a friend of mine went for dinner and I saw her delicious pictures on Instagram, particularly the chicken wings, and I wanted it soon as! So I reserved a table for dinner last Friday.

Reserving a table was a very good decision because Smoking Goat is incredibly busy with long queues at the door and more waiting inside the vibrant rustic restaurant, which oozes trendy barbecue much more than it oozes Thai. Really, you’d be forgiven if you don’t realise it’s a Thai restaurant until you look through the menu.

The service was top notch. Firstly, we were placed at the table closest to the open barbecue grill so we could admire all the action in the kitchen. And everyone was friendly and prompt… almost too prompt actually as all the food came really fast and we almost ran out of table space. Speaking of food…

 

What we ordered

Smoking Goat food menu is small but every dish is intriguing, so much that I had a problem deciding what to order. We eventually settled on Chilli Fish Sauce Wings, Northern Thai Brisket Sausage, Gai Yang Chicken with Sriracha, and Duck Laab for starters. For mains, I ordered whole grilled plaice with Nahm Jim and Shiima ordered Five spiced braised chicken with eggs and shiitake mushrooms.

 

Food

Starters

The Chilli Fish Sauce Wings were just as incredible as we’d have hoped. Spicy, sweet, and incredibly indulgent. The wings were perfectly fried and the sauce so incredible. We wanted more but we were inundated with more food.

The Brisket Sausage was all me. It had a rather earthy feel, but it was delicious. Especially eaten with the mint leaves. Peculiar idea from Smoking Goat, but a really good one.

The duck laab was fantastic. My kinda dish. Years ago when I used to cook mince for pasta bolognese, my brother always used to tease me I had eaten more than half of the spicy dry mince before even adding the tomato sauce. So as you can imagine, I loved this. And it had a really good kick to it as well. Beyond the kick, it was seasoned really well for a very intricate flavour profile.

We weren’t fans of the Gai Yang Chicken. We couldn’t taste much of sriracha, so otherwise it just tasted like plain grilled chicken. That’s good in itself, but not when you are expecting sriracha. Dipping the chicken in the sauce vastly improved the taste though.

Mains

My whole plaice was just wonderful! Delicately spiced and so soft, although you have to be careful not to eat any bones lol. It was delicious and one of best grilled fish dish I’ve had in years. I didn’t even need the nahm jim sauce.

Shiima five spiced chicken was solid, and not just the chicken either. The sauce was fantastic, the mushrooms tender, and the egg yolk perfectly runny. But it all comes down to the chicken, which was full of flavour.

Dessert?

No, we didn’t brother with dessert. We actually didn’t check what dessert they offered, only because we’d walked past Soft Serve Society on our way to Smoking Goat and we wanted some of that!

Verdict

Our dinner experience at Smoking Goat was splendid. The vibe is very vibrant yet relaxed, the service is very friendly, and the Thai barbecue food is very good. We recommend Smoking Goat for casual dates, relaxed meals with friends, and foodies because the cooking, both barbecuing and otherwise, is remarkable. Smoking Goat is relatively inexpensive as well, and it’s definitely one of those restaurants you need to check off your list of places to eat in London. We have, but we’ll be going back soon!

Cuisine: Thai Barbecue
Dress Code: Casual
Shiima & Amen’s Star Dish: Chilli Fish Sauce Wings
Price: £20-£30pp
Rating: 4.9 out of 5

Smoking Goat
64 Shoreditch High Street
London E1 6JJ
Reserve a table through their website or ResDiary