SPEEDBOAT BAR FROM LUKE FARRELL AND JKS RESTAURANTS 

Booking lines open on 16th September for Speedboat Bar, the second Thai restaurant from chef Luke Farrell and JKS Restaurants, on Chinatown’s Rupert Street.

Speedboat brings to London the sounds and smells of the Thai-Chinese restaurants lining Bangkok Chinatown’s neon-lit Yaowarat Road. Aromatic curries, stir fries, drunken noodle dishes and zingy seafood salads hit with acid and chilli are served with whisky sodas and sharing towers of ice-cold Singha beer.

Chinese in origin but now unmistakably Thai, the menu at Speedboat pays homage to the unique cuisine of Bangkok’s Chinatown. It also includes wok-flamed dishes drawing on the coastal cuisines of Samut Sakhon and Samut Sonkhram, passed on to Luke by the racers whose portraits are proudly displayed in the restaurant. Food is served from lunch through to dinner and late into the night.

Speedboat’s signature dish, Tom Yam Mama, is influenced by a long-standing restaurant in Bangkok’s Chinatown. The owner’s son was drinking with his friends after hours and they asked if he had anything to eat. He went into the restaurant kitchen and combined a packet of Mama (Bangkok’s favourite instant noodles), with kitchen staples like roasted pork, squid, limes and long leaf coriander to create a fragrant soup with crimson chilli oil; an immediate hit. In this spirit, Speedboat’s own take on the Tom Yam Mama has been created to be the consummate drinking food.

The Speedboat kitchen is powered by a large Chinese bullet oven for crispy pork bellies, salt roasted poultry and whole suckling pigs for feasts. Complex curries of Crispy Pork & Black Pepper or Ash Melon & Aubergine are tempered with fresh salads such as Chicken Matches with Green Mango Kerabu and Cashew Nut, Pork Crackling & Dried Fish. Stir fries include Stem Greens & Chestnut Mushrooms with Soy Bean Sauce and Poussin with 'Chicken Rice, Soybean Sauce' & Red Roast Pork. Rice noodles are supplied by a time honoured trader in London's very own Chinatown. Lo’s Rice Noodles are charred and tossed with seafood, chillies, jungle herbs and Thai basil brought sizzling to the table. To finish a Pineapple Pie is Luke’s take on a treat found in the numerous 7Eleven shops of Thailand with Purple Taro Ice Cream.

Specialist Thai herbs are grown at Luke’s Ryewater Nursery in Dorset. His custom built greenhouses are filled with lemongrass, galangal, citrus and fragrant basils. They deliver the punch and freshness required for this type of cuisine that would be lost on a long journey from Thailand.

Drinks play an equal part in the spirit of Speedboat. Whiskey Soda is a signature serve made using Jameson’s – a Thai favourite – with an extra spiky housemade Speedboat soda. Each measure is served to the table in a pint glass for the guest to crack their own soda over. Brightly coloured chasers include Start Your Engines, a sweet coffee and coconut spirit with coconut foam, and Drunken Fruit with green mango tequila served with side shot of pickled fruit. Snakeblood Negroni is a fusion of Yaa Dong (a medicinal blend of roots and barks sourced from Thailand) with citrus from Ryewater farm and vermouth, Campari and bitter gourd.

Served with drinking snacks such as Prawn Ceviche with Seafood Dressing & Wasabi or Crispy Chicken Skins with Zaep Seasoning, the drinks menu also features giant Singha beer towers for the whole table to share; Jelly Bia made with frozen Leo lager; infused rice wines; Thai spirits Mekhong and Sangsom; durian fruit and coffee slushies; and softs such as Snake Fruit Soda and Red Fanta.

The utilitarian, stainless steel finish downstairs at Speedboat is balanced with a softer ‘clubhouse’ fit upstairs. The walls are decorated with souvenirs, awards and signed portraits of speedboat racers. A late night bar, 'floating boat cave' and pool table upstairs keeps the clubhouse atmosphere going until 1am. Thai pop, rock and traditional mor lam blasts through the speakers, whilst staff are kitted out in specially made Speedboat team football kit, a nod to the ubiquitous shirts worn across Thailand.

Reservations will open on the Friday 16th September, sign up to the Speedboat Bar newsletter via the website for exclusive priority access on Thursday.

For further information and imagery, please contact Lois on l.brown@gemmabellandcompany.com.