Always packed and trilling with the sound of workhorse woks, this hole-in-the-wall is a two-decade-old institution that doesn’t shirk on heat, flavour, ingredients or buzz.

You will queue. You will squeeze onto seats. But efficient staff and short cooking times reward the wait as signature dishes such as gang som cha-om goong – a brothy tamarind-rich sour and spicy curry piled with fat, chilli-flecked prawns – arrive. Or a glistening, sweet-hot hillock of pad prik pao with wonderfully crisp deep-fried pork belly lolling in chilli jam, cherry tomatoes, spring onion and smile-wide shards of red chilli.

Go harder with freshly shredded green papaya salad featuring snake beans, crunchy dried shrimp and crushed peanut which is grip-the-table hot, or cool down with tom kha gai, charged with lemongrass, galangal and makrut lime, followed by a tall glass of oliang – sweet Thai iced coffee – to get your pounding heart back to a regular rate.

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