Irish pub group to open new site with Thai menu in Southwark later this month

Mc & Sons, a family-run Irish pub with a Thai kitchen, will be the group’s first opening in a decade.

The pub is a joint venture between Johnny McElhinney and wife Lailar, and will open on 16 October on Union Street, Southwark.

Food will be influenced by Northern-Thai cuisine from the city of Chiang Mai, where the style of cooking developed from a lack of ready access to coconut milk and palm sugar. As a result, the menu will veer away from the Western-style coconut rich curries, and will instead provide a selection of more spicy, pungent dishes. 

There will be fiery curries, spicy marinated pork salad, stir fries and noodles. Dinner service is from 6.30pm, with the option to take away a Thai lunchbox for £5.50 between 12-2.30.

Bar snacks, available all day, will comprise dried banana chips, prawn crackers and pork scratchings.

The décor is described as being that of a traditional Irish pub, and has been built from salvaged heritage materials collected over the past three years. The furniture will be stripped back and plain with wooden pub benches for seating and the pub will feature a wall of family photos in homage to the McElhinney family history as pub owners.

“We carry our history with us and we're building generations of it into this place,” says owner Johnny McElhinney on Instagram.