Eateries come and go in Uxbridge Road, Shepherds Bush, but family-run Thai diner Esarn Kheaw is a true survivor.
Found at 314 Uxbridge Road the sign above the door still carries a 081 London phone number from the early 1990s.
Started three generations ago, the four grandchildren regularly lend a hand swabbing down menu covers, sweeping the kitchen floor, labelling takeaway containers and mastering the recipes.
The story starts in Ubon Ratchathani, the largest rice-growing province in Thailand, in the late 1940s, when Mongkol Puntar was growing up in a house surrounded by paddy fields.
By his early 20s he’d landed a job as an assistant chef in a Bangkok hotel kitchen before coming to England in 1974 to work for hospitality giant Trusthouse Forte. By 1978 he’d risen to chef de partie at the InterContinental Park Lane, where he enjoyed a 16-year career.
Pictures: Founder Mongkol Puntar, Esarn Kheaw’s exterior, Esarn Kheaw dish Thai green chicken curry.
He married Chantorn, a Thai teacher and skilled self-taught cook in her own right and in 1992 the Puntars took the plunge and opened their Esarn Kheaw.
Ever since then it has specialised in the northeastern Thai cuisine both Mongkol and Chantorn knew so well growing up. Esarn Kheaw was the first restaurant in London to focus on the spicy, sour and bold flavours of Isaan regional cookery.
In July 2025, daughter Tanny and son-in-law David took on the running of a restaurant which will shortly celebrate its 34th birthday.
