Food reviews

Number One Café

Above: Number One

The Number One Café has a lot of fans. Everyone living near this end of W10 will agree that it’s one of the best Thai places around, and when The Guardian ran a glowing review of it in Weekend magazine early this summer, several locals wrote in to lament the outing of what they wanted to keep secret. They feared an influx of Guardian readers from all over the country coming to rob them of their rightful tables at a local restaurant that had never before been mentioned in a national newspaper. So far, this hasn’t happened, though Number One Cafe never seems to be short of trade either.

The Number One Cafe is a family-run place offering a large Thai/Malaysian menu, with everything tasting authentic, spicy and intense. Our favourite meal here consists of steamed dumplings with minced chicken, prawns and water chestnuts with garlic and thick soy sauce and deep fried fishcakes to start, then a steamed whole seabass with chilli, garlic and lemon sauce, which is juicy and intensely hot, chicken panang curry, also hot and coconuty with a serious lime kick, and deep fried battered prawns in a crispy crumb batter that’s perfectly textured. The pad thai is good too, as are the super spicy salads – everything is consistently delicious and nothing ever disappoints. 

The Number One Cafe at 1 Dalgarno Gardens W10
020 8968 0058