Restaurant Review - Churchill Arms

The Churchill Arms is a lively pub on Kensington Church Street which has a dining room at the back serving Thai food. The dining room is packed with hanging baskets of flowers and its walls are cluttered with a distinctly eclectic collection of items, from assorted photos through to a stuffed toucan and a mounted butterfly collection. The tables have marble tabletops without tablecloths and paper napkins. This is not refined dining: there are no starters (and a couple of bought-in desserts), dishes arrive when they are ready and you get a dining slot of just one hour, which in fact is ample given the speed with which the food appears.

The dishes are a mix of stir-fried dishes and Thai curries, all priced at just £6.95, including rice. There was a wine list of sorts, though it was basic and without vintages. Ramato Pinot Grigio was £18.40 a bottle for a wine that you can pick up retail for around £9, The South African A Few Good Men Cabernet Sauvignon was listed at £19.20 for a wine that costs around £7 retail, while in what I will charitably assume was a nod to the pub’s name (Winston Churchill liked Pol Roger champagne), Pol Roger non-vintage champagne was available at just £45 for wine that will cost you £31 in the shops.

We tried pad Thai noodles, which had good texture and were pleasantly spiced (comfortably 1/10) as well as pad prik i.e. stir-fried prawns with chill, onion and spring onion. The prawns were properly cooked, though the onions seemed to me undercooked, but there was a pleasant chilli bite to the dish (just about 1/10). Best was a green curry made from coconut milk and Thai herbs and spices with bamboo shoots. The blend of spices was very good, the flavours nicely balanced (2/10). Rice with this was also fine (1/10). Service was efficient and pleasant.

This is not the kind of place to make a trek to, but it was clearly full of returning regulars, and at just £18 a head including drinks was very reasonably priced. An enjoyable local restaurant.