If there’s a restaurant group that embodies London’s long romance with Thai cuisine, it’s Thai Square. Next week — Monday, 18 August — the brand steps into a national spotlight as Official Partner of the 7th Annual British Restaurant Awards, providing the evening’s catering for guests and winners alike. It’s a fitting role for a group that, according to the organisers, holds the record for the most British Restaurant Awards nominations of any restaurant — and is again nominated in 2025 for Best International Cuisine and Best Restaurant Chain.
Founded on The Strand in 1996, Thai Square arrived with a simple proposition: serve vivid, faithfully prepared Thai dishes in a space that felt stylish yet unmistakably warm. Nearly three decades later, that first dining room remains a touchstone — refurbished, refreshed, and still humming — while the group has carefully grown across London and beyond.
Growth, crucially, hasn’t meant dilution. The flagship Trafalgar Square site has the air of a city institution — a split-level room with a striking spiral staircase that’s hosted politicians, performers and the post-theatre crowd with equal ease, and it famously opens 365 days a year. Out west, Putney Bridge offers sweeping river views that have made it a perennial favourite on Boat Race day; up in Islington, a 2017 overhaul brought botanical walls and a sleek upstairs bar without losing the room’s neighbourhood heartbeat. And this spring’s Bayswater opening added Hyde Park-side swagger to the line-up, led by head chef Kied Paralak Burasit, whose Isan-leaning signatures bring smoke, spice and serious personality.
If Thai Square’s dining rooms feel different from one postcode to the next, the menu’s soul is consistent: bright broths, punchy salads, properly balanced curries, wok fire handled with confidence. It helps that the kitchens are staffed by Thai chefs and that the group — which has expanded to ten plus venues in and around London, Windsor and St Albans — still talks about value as much as verve. In a year when parts of the casual-dining landscape have looked fragile, Thai Square has quietly done the opposite: adding tables and deepening roots, including the Bayswater site announced as the group’s 11th location.
For the British Restaurant Awards crowd, that consistency matters. Catering a national awards night isn’t about pyrotechnics; it’s about precision at scale, flavour that lands hot, and a sense of occasion. Thai Square’s kitchens have long experience with private hire, weddings and corporate events — Putney’s room in particular has become a go-to for receptions and parties — which makes the brand a natural choice to feed a room full of chefs, critics and hospitality lifers with high standards and higher expectations.
It’s easy to be sentimental about the Strand origin story, about the grade-II timbered charm of St Albans, or the museum-side pit-stop in South Kensington. But the clearer story is endurance: Thai Square has found a way to be reliable without being predictable; to be accessible while still carrying the gleam of a night out. On 18 August, that same balance — the everyday craft and the special-occasion shine — will be plated for the British Restaurant Awards. And if past performance is any guide, there’ll be very little left on those plates.
Thai Square — history & highlights
-
Founded: 1996, The Strand, central London.
-
Flagship: Trafalgar Square — open plan, mezzanine, 365-day service.
-
New opening: Bayswater (Lancaster Gate/Hyde Park); billed as the group’s 11th site.
-
2025 nominations: Best Restaurant Chain & Best International Cuisine (British Restaurant Awards).
Branches & addresses
(As listed on Thai Square’s official pages; phone numbers shown on site.)
-
Bayswater — 65 Bayswater Road, London W2 3PH
-
Trafalgar Square (Flagship) — 21–24 Cockspur Street, London SW1Y 5BN
-
Putney Bridge — 2–4 Lower Richmond Road, London SW15 1JN
-
Covent Garden — 166–170 Shaftesbury Avenue, London WC2H 8JB
-
Islington — 347–349 Upper Street, London N1 0PD
-
Mansion House — 1 Great St Thomas Apostle, London EC4V 2BH
-
Minories — 136–138 Minories, London EC3N 1NT
-
St Albans — 26A–28 George Street, St Albans AL3 4ES.
-
South Kensington — 19 Exhibition Road, London SW7 2HE
-
The Strand (original) — 148 Strand, London WC2R 1JA
-
Windsor — 29 Thames Street, Windsor SL4 1PR.
For menus, private hire and bookings, visit Thai Square’s official site
