The Begging Bowl

I absolutely love this place. A kind of Thai tapas and one of the few Thai restaurants that’s food tastes as good as in Thailand! And in the summer it becomes all open and a lovely place to while away the afternoon. Great cocktails too!

La comida tailandesa en Madrid no la tengo muy catada así que mi primer contacto a tope a sido en este sitio. Ya leí reseñas antes y pintaba muy bien :)
El sitio la verdad que me lo imaginaba más grande pero me encantó la zona de la terraza que por lo visto es nueva. En verano se estará ahí de lujo!
Peckham está a tope de cambio y se nota en este tipo de restaurantes. El edificio en el que está ubicado me gustó mucho y el ambiente era muy agradable, la decoración de la mesa, los camareros… todo muy mono.
Pedimos para compartir: curry, una ensalada de papaya a tope de picante (no pude mucho con ella la verdad pero estaba rica), un plato que creo recordar era cerdo y arroz riquísimos. Todo ello aderezado con unos mojitos, que no son los típicos y un rico postre súper fresquito y unos cuantos cócteles que nos hicieron entonarnos bastante.
La presentación de los platos está genial y la comida muy buena y estupenda para compartir. No es que sea muy caro pero si te animas pidiendo se te puede ir un poco la cuenta :)

There’s a ray of sunshine beaming from this corner of South East London in the now ever so trendy Peckham (never thought I’d say those words) and let me tell you it’s coming from The Begging Bowl.
I’ve been to Som Saa in East London which was great (incidentally a chef used to work there I was told), but the outstanding Thai dishes here make it the best in London thus far unless anyone knows otherwise. The flavours & spices make me want to jump on a plane to Thailand… or just hop on that train back to Peckham Rye. You can tell every ingredient was fresh, it all just zinged in the mouth.
A two course meal, set lunch for £13.50 already was a good start. No fuss, just order it if around for the afternoon. Today a rice noodle salad with (Suffolk) chicken. Also a deep fried fillet of Sea Bream with sweet chilli sauce.
The noodle salad was bustling with freshness. Wow. I didn’t expect it but the lime, spice, chicken and noodle was so delicate and moreish with some lovely crunchy veg. The seabream was outstanding. Mainly because the sauce binded it together superbly. I must add you get UNLIMITED rice too and it was this that made me shyishly ask if I could have ore of that wonderful fish sauce. ‘Of course’, the server said. Wonderfully accommodating.
They gave me a generous portion of that sauce and i just heaped it onto the leftover rice I had. What you are given is more than enough so you don’t need to ask for more of the rice actually. That fish is deceptively more filling than you realise when eaten with rice so the two course was a perfectly filling eat.
All in all this was the best Thai I’ve ever had in London. I’ve never been Thailand but when you have some frsh flavours coming from somewhere like the Begging Bowl you do marvel at the ingredients and flagrant spice and herbs used in Thai cooking. I will definitely make the venture from North to South London more just for more food like this.

Simply the best food in Peckham, and to be honest probably my favourite in London at the moment. The food is insane and the service excellent. Only thing I would say is order less than they recommend… there’s no way 2 people can eat 5 of their dishes.

Hip place in a quiet road off the increasingly trendy Packham Rye. Lovely Thailand influenced dishes, very friendly staff (and wow there are a lot of them for such a small place). The food comes thick and fast. Some of our selections really hit the mark — especially the sea bass in a lovely curry broth. One or two was less good. But regardless, a very interesting menu and a place to visit if you are near the area.

Looking for somewhere to eat on Bellenden Road in the increasingly gentrified Peckham Rye area, my BF and I spotted this pleasing looking establishment. On a balmy summer evening the Victorian conservatory frontage opening up to the sidewalk was most inviting.
And I must say the smell was very authentic — you know what I mean — real Thai versus English pub Thai.
We were seated quickly and I eagerly grabbed the menu. Hm. Coloured circles at the top indicating the prices per various plates a la Yo Sushi. Not that there were any plates on conveyor belts moving about… it was the pricing system. Seemed weird and gimicky. The menu recommends an order of 5 plates between 2 people. So, if we ordered 5 plates at the top price of £12 per plate… what? The next cheapest dish was £8.50. However, the rice (£2 a head) was limitless. The website says the dishes come with rice which isn’t quite true if they charge extra for it. Nevermind, the Burmese salad @£5.50 seemed reasonable. And it wasn’t just my table umming at the menu. the group next to us expressed precisely the same sentiment and we laughed together, and decided what looked like best value for money.
So, kvetching done for now, here goes:
— Burmese salad (see photo): best bit. This was an amazing mix of colours and flavours. A delicious surprise.
–Grilled Tiger prawns: Another highlight. Big, juicy, fresh… yumm. I don’t like the heads though, they freak me out. The BF was more than happy to take the prawn heads from me… but that could segue into another story. onwards…
–Scallops: Disappointing. Nicely presented but very small and lacking in flavour and spice.
Overall it was ok. Some great things, some mediocre things. If I was stuck in the neighbourhood I might return but I wouldn’t make an extra effort to eat from this bowl again.

Really cool and trendy restaurant. I ordered the rib of beef which was DELICIOUS, and when I say delicious it was literally falling of the bone with tenderness and juiciness.
On the other hand the cured salmon salad and aubergine salad were swimming (verge of drowning) in salt. I was a little upset by this because it made it hard to eat, the sauces contained too much vinegar and fish sauce, which led me to eat three bowls of rice (not good for summer). I do not recommend any salad, they’re a joke.

Very average and not worth a trudge. I read a few good reviews including one tele. Good Thai is very difficult to find in London hence always on there lookout. So decided to head there. A short walk from Peckham Rye station. We had for wait 45 minutes for a table and honestly besides the jungle curry the rest of the food is not even worth a mention ! Even the jungle curry was not well seasoned as were most things. the hot and sour soup was not even hot, by that I mean the temperature and the taste was quite flat too with over cooked prawns. The park belly was sweet with loads of sauce uggh! Not cheap either on a average each dish is about 8 – 12 pounds. Think due to it’s location in a small suburb it manages to capture footfalls given so few places to go to.

Great lighting great service. The shiitake dish is the best but most of the dishes have too much salt. The aubergine salad only tasted of cumin. Overall a lovely atmosphere.

The place is quite nice, with a nice variety of what to eat and drink. I liked the spacious placement of the tables and comfortable chairs around them. The spot certainly has its unique atmosphere and that drives a lot of customers all the time.

The location is great and I don’t think I’d be that regular if it hadn’t be for the placement. The restaurant grabs you even from the beginning with nice front decorations and when you go inside you’re even more impressed by the food. The menu has all the necessary items for every taste and the prices are quite reasonable.

Its bright, open corner location opens up wonderfully in the early January light and large open windows and outside seating will be a godsend in the summer and will near double its capacity. Fashionably small wooden tables and communal bench seating are lovely, but we were left with little room for the multiple small plates of food (yes, that again) once water and a cute little pot of Jasmine tea were stacked up.
There’s not much delineation between plates that would be starter or would be main other than the price, so it helps if you’re happy sharing. Prices vary from £5.50 to £12.50 and with a recommended 2 – 3 plates per person it can get pricy for a neighbourhood restaurant. Thankfully they include the rice in that price. While there are a few staples featured, there isn’t a focus on the thick curries many will associate with the region, instead more is made of subtle and steamed melanges of exotic vegetables, herbs and fruit like galangal, morning glory, krachai and the rarer members of the aubergine family. On our trip there weren’t too many dishes on the regularly changing menu, but still enough to construct a reasonable selection from.
One of the best Pad Thai dishes I’ve had was a smashing demonstration of how unctuous and satisfying this often bland noodle dish can be. Soft and pillowy pork belly in a light peanut sauce came with a sharp papaya salad, though the portion size was a little disappointing for the price. The only disappointment were a handful of satay pork skewers, cooked, but not charred, and without enough texture or flavour correspondingly.
There’s easily enough here to bring me back, and it’s a fantastic new local spot for the local lads and ladies who lunch. Given Bellenden Road’s firmly cemented position as an extension to East Dulwich’s Lordship Lane, I don’t think that they’ve got anything to worry about.

The meantime IPA at 750ml for £5.80 is a BARGAIN!!!
Really good food, service and atmosphere. Not the cheapest but you can tell it’s good value.

Yes it was packed and quite noisy, yes they did forget one of our dishes, yes it is in Peckham, but I loved this place and plan to return often.
21h40 on a Thursday night «let’s try that Begging Bowl place, it is quite late and a Thursday so we should be fine for a table», how wrong we were, the place was rammed full and the only reason we got a table is because a couple that reserved hadn’t turned up in time… too bad for them!
Beautiful big solid wood tables, quirky wood panelled walls and a great ‘vibe’ about it generally. The service was incredible, and there are plenty of waiting staff to attend to you as soon as an issue occurs (most times before it occurs) and it is always with a smile.
The food is Thai tapas, they recommend 4 or 5 dishes for a couple but this is where my lenient stance on forgetting to bring a dish comes into play: the dishes are massive! I always order tapas incorrectly, I always have too much or too little but when we ordered 4 dishes between 2, we were pretty sure we had it right. We forgot to factor in that they give free boiled and sticky rice with the meal, so no need to order that. We only just made it through 3 dishes, when they realised they hadn’t sent out our final dish, we begged and pleaded not to bring it out as we were stuffed.
Fantastic place, but judging by how full it was when we went there, it would be worth calling ahead to book, but make sure you turn up on time as it seems they are happy to give away your place to those waiting in the queue at the door if you don’t! (and so they should)