Erawan in Lewes

We ordered a takeaway whilst camping at Blackberry Wood in Hassocks, and were not disappointed. Really tasty and authentic flavour, just the right amount of heat. Quite pricey compared to other venues but lovely as a treat. Would wholeheartedly recommend.

Erawan is my favourite food spot in lewes, I have a nostalgia love with it as me and my boyfriend would eat there all the time when we first started dating when we were 16. We went back Saturday and it is still so delicious and run by such kind people. They will always make a space for you if they can, however, I would recommend booking as they’re nearly always fully booked!

This is a tiny hidden gem of a restaurant, albeit very tiny. The food here is excellent, some of the best prepared Thai dishes I've eaten anywhere, the room is kept warm even on the coldest winter days and the staff are extremely friendly, attentive and courteous. The restaurant seats maybe 18-20 people at a push, more like 10 to 15 with elbow room. Because of this there are two strict seatings; one before 8pm and one from 8pm, so if you book the early sitting expect to be moved on if you aren't finished and out by 8, as the venue doesn't have spars space (or even standing room) to accomodate the gueats who's seats you will now be blocking. Be warned though, the wood-hewn bench type seats look authentic and add to the atmosphere, but they're not comfortable with a full stomach, so you probably won't want to sit on them for more than a couple of hours anyway. Strangely, the restaurant has a tradition for you to bring your own alcohol, as it was not licenced for along time, though they do supply soft drinks if asked. I believe you can buy alcoholic drinks at the shop next door if you haven't brought your own along; overall this is strange, but quite novel and cute. Prices are remarkably reasonable with 5 adults costing £126 for two courses (starter and main; we skipped dessert as despite the average size portions the food is wholesome and very filling). Obviously there were only a couple of soft drinks in that price as the group brought our own wine. If you like Thai food you need to eat here, but book first, as the change of a walk-in table is very, very low.

So glad I found this place. The food was amazing, I would go back again purely for the prawn crackers- which were light and crispy, no stodge or greasyness in this restaurant! I love the intimate size and BYOB vibe. The different sitting times were good as made it clear we had our table 6-8pm. Service was very good, they even provided a chill jacket for our prosecco and swapped out the wine glasses for prosecco ones when they saw what we had brought to drink...the little touches like this really make a difference. I would highly recomend, and next time i am in the area I would like to try their takeaway/collection service too.

Erawan Thai eatery provided a curt takeaway service - which whilst adequate in its flavours and ingredients- failed to understand the concept of correctly packaging certain food items for transport. Whilst given a warning about the fragility of the packaging, I was not prepared for my Coconut and Prawn Tom Yum to collapse completely onto the street as soon as placed upon the ground for a momentary pause in eating. Admittedly, this is a subjective mishap, but purveyors ought to be far more cognisant of appropriate packaging for sensitive food items, especially when even a singular soup taken away can cost in excess of £8.

Food is amazing, fresh, and tasty. Very small establishment, so if your fellow diners are very noisey, it can be a bit unpleasant.

Always have the jungle curry, delicious.

The best restaurant in Lewes. Delicious food beautifully presented and easily the best Thai food I've had in the UK.

This is by far the best and most authentic Thai food I have experienced in the UK! My wife is half Thai and has lived there and even she was amazed at some of the dishes available here that we haven't found anywhere else except Thailand itself. Its a BYOB, which we didn't mind at all. There is a corkage fee but it wasn't over the top by any means. The staff were lovely and were very quick to accommodate anything we asked for, including things like providing small bowls so we could share a larger soup like a starter and other random requests. If you are a fan of Asian food or especially Thai food and can get over to this restaurant I cannot recommend it enough! The venue is small, however, so it's best to book in advance as there's no guarantee you could get a table otherwise.

The (mixed veg) drunken noodles are off the scale good…such a good range of veg in there perfectly cooked, and enough chilli to blow your socks off…I’m literally addicted. *Not for the faint hearted tho* 😆 🌶️ 🔥

Lovely authentic thai restaurant in Lewes. Very reasonable prices for high quality food. Great selection of curries. (Panang curry with chicken in the photo). Quick service and kind staff.

Very pleasant little restaurant, fast service and tasty dishes 😊 Does not offer alcohol but you can bring your drink, a grocery store five minutes away and they provide wine glasses

Excellent quality food Very good service . Looking forward to going again

Excellent food but it's a tiny place so book early.

Beautifully presented food and excellent customer service

Lovely petite place, staff v attentive. Food so tasty.

Lovely food, and great you can BYO

This is my first experience with Erawan. I am working from home today. I took fancy to a rice dish. And those who follow me will know I've eaten in practically every Eatery in Lewes. I called to place an order for collection as delivery wasn't an option. The phone operator who was absolutely delightful and recommended the Chicken Massan Curry. It was ready on the arranged time. We'll I can honestly say it's without a doubt the most delish, authentic Massan I've tasted. Fresh crisp veg and chicken with just enough heat. Well Done guys.

We’ve had Erawan a couple of times for both lunch and takeaway. Tried numerous dishes from their curries and soups and never had a single complaint. Highly recommend!

Wow gorgeous food. Only a small place but I'd go again if I lived closer. Next time I visit I'll be there.

Great lovely food and staff great

Fantastic Thai food. Everything that I love, lots of variety and flavour. Choices of size portion from having 2 or 3 starters instead of a main course. I'm quite happy to pay corkage too, it's cheaper than paying restaurant wine prices.

Fine food, good customer service, clean.

Such a quirky little tiny restaurant! Staff are very good and attentive. You can bring your own drink, there is a corkage fee which depending on the day you go (Friday and Saturday being more) will be anything from £2-5. The food was amazing, Thai green curry was very spicy but delicious! Book to avoid disappointment.

Called and managed to get a table at short notice, great food and staff. BYO takes the sting out of the bill. Book a table😉

Absolutely incredible food! By far the best Thai food we have ever had. I had the duck in tamarind sauce and it was flawless.

Genuinely the best Green Curry I've had outside of Thailand. The place is super cute, the owners are lovely and the food is amazing.

Lovely food, and it's a bring your own alcohol too :)

Delicious subtle flavours, the best Thai in Sussex?!

Good tasty food sensibly priced.

I should say that Thai isn't a first choice cuisine for me, but if I find more places like this, it could move up the rankings. The food tasted fresh and was a decent price with portions that were filling, but not too big. The pricing structure was pleasingly straightforward too. They are unlicensed, but allow you to bring your own, subject to a corkage charge (there is a wine merchant next door that sells beer as well, but think Waitrose rather than Threshers)

We booked a table whilst we were on holiday and we were so glad we did! The service and food was so good! We had the chicken satay and spring rolls to start. The chicken penang curry and chicken chilli noodles which were very hot! And then we squeezed a pudding in too and such good value for money. We took our own wine and can’t grumble at the small corkage fee and a wine cooler sleeve supplied. We would recommend.

Really excellent food. Great service. Reasonably priced. We'll be back!

Homemade, Fresh and Delicious A lovely evening spent in this friendly little bistro. We had huge ribs and homemade prawn toast followed by a fresh and spicy salad with king prawns. Yum Yum!

I've ben to Thailand on several occasions and eaten in many different thai restaurants the World over snd this place fits into what I'd call 'a typical English Thai place' . Suspicions were raised that they had a very small restaurant with 49 different items on the menu, my experience is that with a menu that size you are immediately on the back foot as a restaurant to deliver that much variation. We ordered 3x starters , a tom Kha and 1 main, a drunkard curry. Lets break it down. First they brought l the food at once, forgivable I guess but the to be told we'd asked for that when we hadn't was a bit odd, but let's forget that as the food is the main thing. The 3x starters, out of 3, two of them were not what was described and clearly frozen food fried to order, tempura prawns were processed prawns in breadcrumbs and the duck spring rolls, ditto. They had a neatness and blandness that can only be ascribed to being frozen and generic. The chicken satay was .. probably frozen but whether it was or not it was boring and not grilled, microwaved/heated up. The mains, tom Kha and drunkard curry could only be marked as 2.5 or 3 out of 5, not great, not awful.. just OK.. and no holy basil despite it being listed. My advice to this place is cook 15 things well rather than 49 things to a low standard.

Ate from here twice during our short stay in Lewes and was delicious both times - the penang and massamam curries were superb as was the thai style rice. Very friendly service and food was prepared in good time. We had takeaways due to COVID restrictions but looked a really smart little restaurant inside so worth a visit when it can open fully again.

Nice place i love here i come back again ❤️

Very fresh veg, beef was tender and the prawns had that deep prawn taste we like! Well balanced flavours and nothing artificial, you can tell it's been made with love. Will be back.

Simply superb Thai food. Really nice food, even down to the recyclable boxes it's put in. My current favourite is the Penang curry - yummy!

Genuinely the best Thai food I’ve ever eaten in the UK. The red curry was perfectly flavoured with nuanced spicing, as well as being perfectly balanced with coconut and a little fresh fruit. The pricing was excellent, the service was super friendly and the packaging was biodegradable. I really don’t know how Erawan could be better :) x

Brilliant value, super tasty and fresh!

Just had takeaway from Erewan, set menu B plus a soup. Fantastic value and extremely tasty!

Food was pretty good but for lunch but the whole experience was dampened by uncomfortable seating and a really rude/unpleasant waitress. Just get takeaway.

Delicious food, great service. Excellent value for money. Absolutely recommend, definitely going back again!

Fantastic little Thai restaurant. Service is top notch and the food is absolutely amazing. Highly recommended.

Beautiful !! Ordered a takeaway from here and everything was really nice, I wish I had of found this place sooner as I would have ordered from here more often, couldn’t fault it! had the chicken satay, vegetable tempura, chicken pad Thai, beef massaman, coconut rice. Food came in card boxes rather than plastic which I think is great. Everything was hot and had lovely flavour, ingredients seemed to be fresh and nothing was too oily. Everything had a lovely flavour I’d order from here again anyday!

Order a two courses lunch (number 1 and 27) (my friend17 and 29). Amazing food, top serving time and heart-warming service. If you are at Lewes, please give this a try!!

Good food with a warm and romantic atmosphere.

Great takeaways, very nice food !

We are on holiday in Lewes for the week and Erawan was recommended to us..It was the most delicious takeaway ever...we had set menu B Absolutely delicious! Fresh and light so tasty. Definitely recommend it.

We enjoyed an absolutely delicious take away for 7 people. We had an array of starters and mains which was ready on time and all of which were cooked beautifully and extremely tasty! Everyone thoroughly enjoyed - we shall definitely be back!

Take away was superb. Great service and fantastic food, cant wait to try the restaurant experience when possible.

Nothing within 10 miles beats this truly excellent Thai restaurant, simply no point in going anywhere else in Lewes for spicy food.

Delicious food, great atmosphere and service

Had a meal here Saturday night. Good that they have a BYOB with £2.50 corkage on midweek and £5 on weekend. Had green Thai curry, very nice. However, the starters were nice but not good value. Item 16 was a sharing platter, £7.50 per person. A few different pieces. Disappointing.

Having recently returned from Thailand I wanted some authentic Thai food and Erewan is just the place for it. With many restaurants reporting fewer customers because of coronavirus it was full for the second sitting that we were at, looked like it had been full fir the first and any tables that came free were soon filled. There was a steady flow of people collecting food to take away too.It's small - maybe 24 covers? - but tables are imaginatively spaced so I've never felt cramped.We started with Tofu Satay and Fish Cakes, both beautifully presented and tasty. The fish cakes had none of that 'rubbery' quality they can have when there's too much egg added. And they came as 'lollipops' on skewers which made them easy to dip in the fresh tasting sauce.Daughter loved her Pad Gra Prow, stir fried with basil leaves, bamboo shoots & Thai chili. My spicy basil noodles with pork was just the right side of chilli hot.Service was as ever friendly and quick. Never rushed though.

This is a great little place with an extensive menu. The food is well presented and tastes amazing. Lovely staff too. The Lunch special is well worth it - no wonder this place it so highly rted.

The food is delicious and lovely little restaurant young waitress lovely and smiley and friendly shame owner lady has to be so Abrupt and at end of meal makes you feel you need to leave

Good value food at lunchtime; I would not be happy paying the evening rates. Tasty food but not a comfortable restaurant with hard chairs

Tiny, friendly and superb food!

Amazing food, amazing staff and wonderful prices. Dont change a thing. Been so many times and have no intention of stopping, best takeaway / Restaurant in Lewes and surrounding towns. Our go to favourite

Excellent service, very friendly welcome and most importantly - absolutely delicious authentic thai food. The presentation was lovely. BYOB was an added bonus. Will definitely go back again.

We just enjoyed a great dinner at Erawan. The food was fresh, well cooked and light and the service was really quick and attentive! The restaurant could do with a refurb but don’t let that put you off- the food is great! For the quality of food it was good value too!

Super authentic Thai taste. Don't think you can find better Thai restaurant in this area. The signature is the duck pancakes. Totally recommended! There are not many tables and take away would be the easiest.

We didn’t plan our visit to Erawan for lunch but it turned out very well. The food is is delicious and beautifully presented. We chose to have a selection of starters and shared them. We had our 4 year old grandson with us who is just starting to get picky about what he will and will not eat. But no problem here, he tried everything and wants to go there again.The restaurant is small and the furniture is pretty uncomfortable so I don’t think this would be a place for a party larger than 6. For a midweek lunch, though, it’s just about perfect.

Had a lovely meal here - however it is very cramped and hard wooden furniture. Also the phone kept ringing for take away orders which got quite annoying after a while.Food was really good, and you can bring your own wine (great wine shop next door to make a purchase)

We preferred a take away this evening and were really blown away by the food from this little place, my partner and I had the set menu B and are both stuffed with leftovers for tomorrow! The food really is excellent, full of fresh veg too. I’d say this was outstanding!

Delicious food, wonderful flavours, polite attentive staff, cozy atmosphere, couldn't rate it more highly. Go try this Thai!

Fantastic food in a cosy environment

I enjoyed a really nice cosy authentic Thai experience here, the food tasted better than it looked - and it looked great! - The presentation is stunning, dressed with carrot flowers and orchids. The tables and decor really set the scene. It's a very small restaurant with about 10 tables and what I can tell, is in demand so best to book in advance if you visit in peak times! I attended around 1:30 for lunch and managed to swipe the only available table. Because of the limited tables, the friendly staff are extremely attentative resulting in amazing food and service. The food is great value for money and lunch special was a great portion size. I look forward to revisiting soon!

Had been on the wish list for some time to get here and finally enjoying it last eve, our expectations were knocked out the water.

Best thi lunch deal around. Very tasty food. Would really recommend this to any one who is visiting lewes or the local area. Never had a takeaway but it seem like they would do a top takeaway. 10/10 they need a Michelin star 🌟

Lovely little Thai restaurant which serves excellent Thai food which is beautifully presented. The service is excellent and there is a great wine and beer shop next door as the restaurant is not licensed. There is a big choice of freshly prepared dishes to choose from.plenty for vegetarians and meat eaters alike. Monday to Friday they have a great offer where you can have most of the starters and a main dish for £10.50. Soup is a pound extra.

We regularly get a take away from Erawan. All family think it is delicious food and I would eat it everyday if I could LOL.

The food was very tasty and good value. It is a bit cramped inside but we were not there long because they needed the table for another sitting. definately would go back if we are in the area.

Lovely little restaurant in Lewes, the food was immaculate and exquisite a must visit for anyone, great for takeaway too!

We called at lunchtime and had the good value lunch menu. We had 2 courses for £10 each and if was fresh and well cooked

Located close to the centre of Lewes, this is a great place. Our waitress was great and fun. The atmosphere was great.

Visited twice recently and food is good (crispy duck pancakes were delicious) and the fact you can bring your own booze at a reasonable corkage is a plus. It is small and often busy which speaks volumes...so best to book. The owner or lady in charge can sometimes appear a little abrupt but the other waitress Unchalee is so helpful and cheerful and makes the place. Definitely worth a visit even if it does have fairly cramped and uncomfortable seating!

amazing!! Friendly and attentive service. Fantastic food.

Great atmosphere very small- BYO could do with some music in the back ground. Service was polite and speedy. Food tasted fresh :) would recommend

It was my first time going here!! They did not disappoint!! The food was amazing!! The atmosphere was perfect and the customer service was truly outstanding!!! I will be back.

This really tiny restaurant is definitely worth a visit or if you want to stay in they do takeaway. Amazing food. Best restaurant in Lewes.

I have two Thai restaurants closer but go here as the food is so much better. Authentic flavours and nice staff. Had the jungle curry, which it says is hot and it is! pad Thai also really good. No alcohol licence so bring your own. Park in Pinwell road or station is usually best.

We popped along for a birthday meal, service was great and food was really good, plenty of it and presented well, small restaurant with bench seats. Not to much luxury but food was great.

Been here a few times and have loved it and the concept of taking your own booze. But our recent visit we found portions reduced and prices increased. The quality not as good as previously- maybe a new chef? But we won’t return unfortunately.

Best Thai food I’ve had outside of Thailand! Really good selection and all our dishes had great flavours. A real find, I can now see why it has a v high rating.

Curries were sickly sweet and far from authentic. If you like a westernised version of Thai food then you might enjoy it.

Best Thai food in Lewes by far.

Visited for an evening meal - there was a really nice choice on the menu and plenty of veggie options. Nice atmosphere and lovely staff.

This is probably one of the shortest reviews I’ve ever written simply because this is the best Thai food I’ve ever eaten !!

This is not the number one restaurant In lewes for no reason.........the food is exquisite. The place is small and intimate, mostly wood and rustic but don’t let that appearance put you off. Oh, and don’t forget to take your own drink as they do not have a licence to sell it.

Great food but pretty small - you need to book.

Amazing tasty food! Loved the starters, main dish was delicious! Egg noodles are so well cooked here! Could have some more space though. It's a tiny restaurant

This small restaurant does not look special but the food was excellent, some of the best Thai food I have eaten. Staff were happy to advise on menu choices and because this place is not licenced you can bring your own bottle.

It is always a pleasure to come back to the Erawan in Lewes and taste fresh and delicious Thaï food. The service is very efficient and nice, the food delicious. Don’t forget to bring your bottle of wine from next door!

Tiny place, tai-ny people. Fabulously tasty food. Friendly, courteous service. Make sure you book or go early.

Fantastic little place, food is amazing, bbq ribs vert tasty, good portion of aromatic duck, followed by hot jungle prawn curry and a beef massaman all delicious, will be returning soon !

This is a small family-run restaurant serving fresh and tasty food. I think it is good for a quick bite, but the seats are very upright an uncomfortable, with lots of tables crammed into a small space, so maybe not for a romantic dinner!

the restaurant is small so book a table if you want to eat there - and if you want to order take away, phone early. `the food is fresh, interesting and always tasty.