Thompson, who currently runs Long Chim restaurants in Sydney, Perth and Dubai, has acquired 9 Horse & Dolphin Yard for the restaurant, which features a c.2,800 sq ft basement level with a small ground floor mezzanine.
It also has a pagoda with extensive outdoor courtyard seating leading to Horse & Dolphin Yard's entrance on Macclesfield Street.
BigHospitality reported back in February that Thompson was planning on brining Long Chim to London, with Ted Schama, managing director of leisure property agency Shelley Sandzer, confirming in March that the chef had secured a site in Chinatown.
Long Chim offers a more populist take on Thai food than Nahm, the restaurant with which Thompson made his name, but - as you’d expect from one of the world’s foremost experts on the cuisine - remains authentic.
The menu includes moobing (char-grilled pork neck skewers with condensed milk, fish sauce and coconut cream); grilled beef salad roasted rice long leaf coriander; and pineapple curry of pork belly betel leaves, green chilli and tamarind.
Thompson is one of nine renowned chefs that have been recently added to the portfolio of hospitality agency TGP International.
He is best known in the UK for his Nahm restaurant at The Halkin, London hotel, which was the first Thai restaurant in Europe to win a Michelin star.
The restaurant opened in 2001 and closed in 2012 to allow Thomson to focus on Nahm’s Bangkok outpost. Nahm Bangkok closed in 2018 with Thompson at the time stating that he planned to continue 'exploring and protecting the history and legacy of Thai food' through Aylmer Aaharn, operator of the Long Chim brand.
