Speedboat Bar

Speedboat Bar takes its name and its aesthetic from Thailand’s illegal speedboat racing scene, and the Rupert Street dining room commits fully: chrome stools, linoleum flooring, neon signage and a soundtrack loud enough that conversation happens in bursts rather than a steady stream.

Chef Luke Farrell, also behind Plaza Khao Gaeng, built the menu around Bangkok’s Chinatown food culture, Yaowarat Road specifically, which means Thai-Chinese cooking that favours punchy, fast dishes over anything delicate. Chicken skins seasoned with zaep spice mix are crisp, salty and genuinely addictive, while the prawn ceviche in a sharp seafood dressing cuts through the richer, oilier plates elsewhere on the menu. The kitchen does not hold back on chilli heat, and dishes are described as spicy for a reason.

Drinks match the food’s energy: a snake blood negroni and a rotating list of slushie-style cocktails, some flavoured with honey or calamansi, served in oversized frozen glasses. It is a bar as much as a restaurant, and the format rewards grazing across several small dishes rather than committing to one big plate.

The downside is the room itself. Downstairs feels corridor-like with tables packed close together, better suited to a quick, loud in-and-out than a lingering meal, and no-bookings policy for a lot of the seating means a wait is standard on weekend nights. A handful of reviewers have found the cooking inconsistent when the kitchen is under pressure.

For high-energy Thai-Chinese food and a proper night out rather than a quiet dinner, it delivers exactly what the name and decor promise.

A second Speedboat Bar has since opened on Portobello Road in Notting Hill, giving a slightly less frantic alternative to the original for anyone wanting the same menu without the Chinatown queues. Both sites keep prices reasonable relative to the quality and inventiveness of the cooking, small plates mostly sit in single figures to the mid-teens, which makes grazing across a large chunk of the menu genuinely affordable for two people.