Regular customers would come in, order their meal, and then say, “Take your time, I’m going across the road.” Opposite our takeaway was a pub, and while we were cooking their dinner, they’d be enjoying a pint before coming back over to pick up their food.
But what I wasn’t expecting was to step foot into a pub that looked quintessentially British, only to discover that it served Thai food instead of pork pies.
“He was running a restaurant in Earl’s Court back in the late ’80s, and he just happened to be a customer of the pub here, and he asked us if we would try Thai food here in the pub,” Keough says.In the late 1980s, Thai food was still something of a novelty in the U.K. Bangkok on Bhute Street, located in Kensington, was touted as the first Thai restaurant in the country when it opened its doors in 1967.
Some people [even] say, ‘I went to Thailand, the dishes here [are] more delicious!” But it’s not just about replicating those Thai flavours.
That was a wake-up call for me.”Seeing the success of the Churchill Arms reminded me of that special relationship between my family’s takeaway and the pub across the road.
And that relationship between pub settings and Asian cooking isn’t just anecdotal: In a 2021 survey, Chinese cuisine came out on top as the most popular takeaway choice in the U.K., with 25% of respondents picking it over other favourites such as fish and chips or pizza.But the union between East and Southeast Asian cooking and pints of British Ale hasn’t always been easily accepted, and there are still people who raise an eyebrow, as Keogh tells me.
“It’s such an old, traditional pub so I’ll be honest, some people do get a little bit disappointed because they think there should be fish and chips,” he says.
When the kitchen at the Churchill Arms first launched, Paw says they served Thai dishes alongside other traditional pub dishes like pork pies, but that didn’t last for long.
“When we start[ed], the customers keep ordering the Thai food and we cut down the English menu.” The hybrid menu they started off with is one that I’m familiar with, as roast chicken or steak with chips were some of the most popular dishes at my family’s takeaway.
Much like the regulars at my family’s takeaway, who would want to know about how my exams were going or where we were off on holiday, Keogh says, “For years I’ve had people come in and say, ‘Oh it’s a while since we’ve been in, we’ve been away,’ and it’s so nice to hear, and you remember these people.”
The combination of Southeast Asian food and British pubs might seem like a surprising duo, but it’s a relationship that I’ve known all my life.
My fiancé and I frequent the Churchill Arms, as well as other pubs across London which serve Thai food.
Like all these pubs have already proved, East and Southeast Asian cooking and British pub culture is a pairing that just makes sense.