Paolina's Thai Cafe in Islington

A nice and cozy place. Ideal for a fast lunch. The ingredients are fresh and well treated

Great food, great prices and a family run vibe :) 10/10!

One of the best Thai restaurants I’ve been to in London. Service was great. Food was even better. So tasty!!!

Was craving Asian food and was so happy to come across this place. My partner and I shared a Prawn Pad Thai, Tom Yum Soup and Stir Fried Basil Chicken and Rice. The portion sizes were good, the Pad Thai was big and there was a decent amount of chicken that came with the rice. Soup was simple and yummy. Food came out pretty fast and the prices are very reasonable. The restaurant has a nice vibe and is quite spacious when you go in! Would definitely recommend.

It looks so tiny from the outside, but they have an underground seating area and the food is amazing! Food service was very fast.

Excellent Thai food...authentic!

Great place, small restaurant we came early as we didn't have a booking, managed to get a table as we arrived at 6pm. You can bring your own booze which ia great they charge a £3 corkage which is fair enough. Food is great I've been here a few times can't complain, definitely come back again.

Best Thai restaurant around Kings Cross! No arguments. Fresh and tasty authentic Thai food, with friendly service. The spices and flavours in a great combination with fragrant herbs, and the chilli is satisfyingly hot spicy as it supposed to be! Thank you for the great food!

I loved the food and the service was quick. But the sitting area could be bigger. The table was a bit small for all the dishes to go on to!

We ordered Panang Curry with steamed rice and Tom Yum soup. We enjoyed both and portions were big enough for two people.

authentic food and great service

Mainly MSG. They said: if you want authentic Thai food, maybe you should go to Thailand. Yep. I lived there for a while. Good atmosphere, awful food.

Everytime i got to King’s Cross i have to eat something here! This must be the best Pad Thai I have ever found in London! Great seasoning. The fried prawns( not sure if it’s fried prawn) tastes better than it looks. But will not recommend Tom Yum.

The best Thai food I have ever had. Flavor, textures and spices in just the right measure, truly incredible. I have come to London on a trip, and I think I will remember this restaurant all my life, it has been spectacular!! Congratulations to the staff, cooks and the very friendly and pleasant waitress.

The underground seating was a bit too cold and loud for me so next time I will try upstairs. Flavours were okay. Portion sizes generous! I need to try the green Thai curry next time! Staff were friendly although there was a limit of 90mins on our table.

Delicious food! Warm atmosphere. I highly recommend it.

Delicious, grade A ingredients. Clean, show kitchen, excellent service ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Authentic, home made dishes lovingly made by this family run restaurant. Forget the 'chains' and come here for the best Thai meal you'll ever have. We ordered the prawn pad Thai, red curry, fish and a selection of the starters - all were so tasty and flavoursome. Great value, especially since it's BYOB. For central London, this is a no-brainer destination. Yummy. 😋

Charming, good value, and authentic.

Had 2 of the best Thai dishes I’ve ever had. Go now, right now so so so good. Everything sounded good, looked good. I’d go here every day if I could. It’s a little hole in the wall, these places always have the best food. Absolutely delicious!

Best Thai food I have found in the area. Super reliable, always delicious. Amazing portions and really great to get delivered! The Panang is brilliant. Also love the boxes they send the food in, super nice. Keep it up!!

What a spot! Terrific, cozy vibe. Amazing servers and delicious Thai. The Panang and pad Thai did not dissapoint. It’s hard to find tasty, reliable and affordable Thai in London - but Paolina does it all :)

Amazing hidden gem, lovely restaurant and good service, a definite must visit!

Just had a take away from here and it was delicious! Papaya salad is very refreshing and the mango sticky rice is unreal!

Excellent food, I am gluten free and they pointed out all dishes I could have! The red curry was delicious and the pad thai never disappoints! Note: they don’t serve alcohol on the premises!

Simply exquisite Thai food, stupendous value, and friendly staff. Best Thai food I've ever had, and trust me folks, I've eaten a whole lotta Thai food! We had a starter, two mains, a portion of rice and two sodas came to £44 including a 12.5% tip. A true bargain for London!

Tucked away in a little corner, 6 minutes away Kings Cross Station, this place serves lovely Thai food! Had the Pad Cha and Egg Fried Rice, absolutely loved the flavours. ❤️ Very cozy and homely ambience.

Great value BYOB with cosy downstairs space and friendly service. The food was delicious - AND THEY HAVE TOD MAN PLA FISHCAKES! They will put your white wine or beer in the fridge to keep it cool.

Absolutely amazing food! Authentic Thai

If this has not been recommended to me I would have walked straight past this gem of a restaurant! Whilst simple small this place defo should not be under estimated. This had to be the best thai food I've had in years. 10/10

They are super nice, the place is small and cozy. The kitchen is very good and you see how they cook everything. We ate two people for 40 pounds. But I would definitely recommend it. ASK TO BE CHARGED THE PRICE THEY SET FOR WHAT YOU HAVE CONSUMED, if not, they will charge you the tip like the United States, it should not be allowed.

Amazing food! it is proper homemade thai food. The setting is very modest but it kind of adds to the authenticity of the experience. Highly recommended!

Waiter was a bit rude and was trying to ask us to move to a two table as there was two of us sitting at a 4 table. I was confused because the restaurant was empty. For the starters we had the squid which was nothing special, tasted out of packaging and had no garnish it just came with a sweet chilli dip. I got chicken noodles for my main. It was okay, the noodles were a bit over cooked for my liking and it did taste a bit sweet. The bean sprouts were also raw which was a huge no no

Never disappoints, the food is always fantastic and so full of flavour. The only negatives being that it's a small place that gets very full so you may have to wait for a table and the staff are always busy!

Absolutely delicious food cooked fresh on the premises and to order .. and lovely staff .

Great service and very authentic good! Highly recommend the massamam beef and tom kha!! Will definitely be back again. Friendly reminder to reserve beforehand

Downstairs seating. Authentic Tai restaurant. Starters are circa £7 a dish and mains where you choose the meat to go with your stir fry ingredients is £9 a dish. Tap water is on the table when you arrive but there is a £3 a person BYOB policy in place. There are a few newsagents nearby to pick up booze as a few dishes are listed as spicey so it could come in handy. Service is friendly and fairly quick but payment was haphazard. Dish was served looking wittingly watery but the juices were sucked up by the rice and the meal tasted very decent and was filling. For the price it was a very decent meal.

Great little Thai restaurant! Our food was delicious and authentic, and served quickly. Will definitely be back!

Food 100 points Service 120 points You can have a hot and delicious meal in London So happy 5 points recommended

This is a hidden Gem...Wonderful small intimate restaurant and the food is totally 5 *. Lovely atmosphere , friendly staff and well priced...a must go to....

Can't recommend this place enough. Food and service are both first rate and atmosphere is great also. No liquor license but you can bring your own wine/beer etc. Brilliant restaurant!

Literally the best thai food I've ever had in london. The Pad See Ew was authentic (which is rarely the case elsewhere in london) -- I was so impressed. I got the vegetarian option and it was super flavourful. The potions are also perfect. Pad thai & sticky mango rice were also top notch. I ordered take out directly from the Paolina app and although it took a while to arrive (it was still hot!), it was incredible, so pleased with my new go-to!!!

BYO. Food was lovely. Service could be a little bit slow if you did need a waitress but it was very busy so guess it's popular.

Awesome food in a quirky little setting

I have ordered a soup for take-away - it was ready in less than 5 minutes, staff was friendly, and my dinner turned out to be DELICIOUS! I have not enjoyed this kind of soup so much in a very long time - I hope to come here again sometimes in the future and try other dishes :-)

Such a great informal thai restaurant. All the food is delicious and fresh. This time we shared a mixed starter if hot crispy fried treats. Followed by a perfect pad Thai, a creamy curry and a juicy chicken Stirfry. one of the few BYOB places left which helps keep the cost low. Highly recommend.

I think this has to be my favourite restaurant in London from now on. Food was amazing and I loved the cozy atmosphere. When I arrived at the restaurant, I thought it was full but in the back they have a few more tables in a small wooden room. Hard to find places like this in such a big city. Hidden gem!

I'm really short on stars. Definition hidden gem. So good and such a nice restaurant! I want to go again tomorrow

had a green curry, it was good!

The green curry was so delicious. I'd come back just to have it again 😍

During my 3-day stay in London, I went there twice! A cozy place - but the only thing that counts here is the food, which was absolutely amazing! Very nice staff, the whole team is smiling, you can feel the family atmosphere ;) 5 stars is not enough! I recommend it 😍

The brown rice is delicious in this place. The vegetarian dishes are good. The mushrooms should be cooked more time because inside they was completely raw.

What a gem of a place you can easily walk straight past it. Had a takeaway the Green Curry reminded me of holidays past. Very reasonable and will be going back again. Tonight in fact.

This is a lovely authentic Thai restaurant, busy with customers and staff - very small inside and a bit cold where we sat. I had the crispy cod with red curry sauce, delicious! A little pricey given rice not included at £13.95 but super tasty. They applied corkage to all 5 of us despite only 3 drinking wine, but amended the bill. Noisy due to it being small and busy, but the food most definitely won't let you down.

Authentic Thai food at great price

The food here was absolutely perfect! Such a cosy place. My friend who is from London recommended me this place and I will definitely come back again when I come back to London.

Siamo tornati dopo quattro anni e confermiamo, è buonissimo!! Posto piccolo ma molto autentico. Consiglio i primi (pad se ew top!) Conto assolutamente valido, abbiamo preso due primi, un curry di pollo, degli spiedini satay e speso 40 pound. :) grazie mille!

Good food and BYOB. Can’t fault

This is my go-to place for nice, cozy Thai cuisine in London. The food never disappoints! They have every classic Thai dish like pad Thai and green curry. You can see the amazing chef cooking in the kitchen and the vibe definitely brings you back to Thailand.

Very friendly staff, happy faces and BEAUTIFUL FOOD 😍

Best Thai food I have had in London at reasonable prices and with a cosy ambience.

Quite expensive when it was just lunch and no alcohol purchased. We shared a starter and then a main meal each + rice. Over £45. Not in the very best place. Area is run down

I'm telling you that this is one hidden gem hidden away With excellent food BYOB Cheap prices too You must give this Thai Restaurant a try I had the Prawns they are to die for

Not a great experience here. The food is okay, but there’s much better Thai food elsewhere. Service is a problem — I came on Friday lunchtime which was not very busy, but the staff were very inattentive despite the small crowd. Had to wait at the counter for a few minutes just to pay the bill, with some of the staff noticing but completely ignoring my presence! One of them eventually seemed quite annoyed by my presence, and came up to ask me to stand away from the counter while waiting for my takeaway — I had to suggest to her to perhaps take my payment, otherwise I was more than ready to leave!

Authentic thai food in the heart of London. Service was also great.

Pad Thai is perfect as the noodles have a bit firmness, which just right for me. Small plates are nice as well.

I went with my friend as we live just around the corner, the food was amazing and the servers gave their recommendations which were lovely. Perfect for the price point will be going back x

Such good food, staff are all lovely and attentive, cozy vibe! Also byob which is handy - overall really well priced and delicious

A fairly small restaurant with good service and a polite waiter. It gives a feeling that this is a traditional and family business although i did not confirm with the staff. We ended up with a very flavorful plate. I ended up with the rice inside the soup and it was the correct decision. For a non spicy choice it had a bit of spice to it anyway which in the end was correct flavorwise. The only negative i would find is that the portion is fairly small for the price that we paid. Overall a very good place which i recommend to experience at least once. P.s. I forgot the name of the plate but i am sure if you show them this picture they will know. I dine in 09.11.23

I've tried to find anything that comes close to Paolina's Pad Thai. It's the best I've ever had. I've been coming here for years and it's amazing every time. It's family owned by lovely people. Couldn't recommend it enough! EDIT: Have just come back from Thailand and can confirm this is still the best Pad Thai I’ve ever had.

Forgot to take a proper photo of all the food we ordered. We got the Spring rolls, Tom yum soup, egg fried rice, Squid Nam Prig Pow, sticky rice. The food was super tasty. Absolutely recommend the Squid Nam Prig Pow. The only thing we didn’t like so much was the sticky rice was super hard and dry. The restaurant gets quite busy, we had a reservation but still had to wait a little longer. So make sure you book a table ahead of time.

Really nice, kind of hole in the wall small intimate place. Staff are kind. Food is really nice. Especially the Pad Kee Mao, but I went twice and the sound level gave me a panic attack the first time and I had to leave. Because it’s small, people shout really loud over each other and it can be a little too much to bear, even for someone without anxiety. Second time was very loud but just about tolerable. Bi wish people would scream and shout over each other. If you talk at a normal level, no one then has to shout over you to be heard. I kind of wish the staff had asked the really noisy table to quiet down a bit. Otherwise, I really like the concept of this place and I’ll try again in the future :)

I love this small restaurant and take away. Wonderful quality food, made and served with the utmost care and attention. I will be back regularly!

The food is very good, I understand it’s a very busy restaurant but the dining experience is very rushed because they ask you leave pretty much as soon as you’re done eating. I wouldn’t go back as I would rather a more relaxed and nicer service

Absolutely delicious food in cosy, tiny restaurant very close to Kings Cross station. A hidden gem- doesn’t look like much from the outside, but friendly staff and great Thai food inside, at very reasonable (for London) prices, and a bring your own beer/drinks policy. We shared pad Thai, chicken and ginger, and scrumptious. chicken dumplings. Delicious and recommended.

Had a takeaway from here during lockdown and it was terrible. The quality of the food and ingredients. The flavour. The cost and portion size. All were disappointing. Would never go back.

Très bon restaurant thaï en plein centre de Londres. Je vous conseille de réserver avant de vous y rentre car l’attente y est un peu longue mais cela en vaut largement le coup. Le service était très rapide et les portions généreuses, je recommande.

I booked a table at Paolina for myself and two friends for dinner on a Tuesday evening. My niece had eaten there the week before and had said the food was incredible and she's a real foodie! You can bring your own alcohol for a small corkage charge, which was a bonus! On arrival we were greeted immediately and shown to our table. Unfortunately, when I booked Paolina, I didn't realise just how small the dining space was, and due to the tables all being quite close together and fully occupied, my friends and I had to speak more louder than usual in order to be heard. After a few minutes we decided to speak to the waitress and explain that it was just a little on the loud side for our liking and asked whether they would be able to use the table for walk in customers to which she replied she would so we made the decision to leave. I can't comment on the food but the staff were understanding and extremely helpful and the reason I've given this venue a 3 star is purely based on the great location to the station, the friendly staff and the delicious looking food we saw other people were eating.

Very friendly staff and absolutely delicious panang curry! Fresh and flavorful. We weren't local and arrived at a busy time (they recommend making reservations) and they were able to get us a seat fairly quickly. Next time we'd get food to go just because it's so busy but thoroughly enjoyed our visit!

Vraiment Délicieux et service rapide ! Je recommande

Having tried Thai food the day before which had completely blew my mind, I genuinely thought my Thai dining experience had peaked and that I wouldn't be able to find something on par. However, this place did wow me by a bit ngl although I still wouldn't say it was better than the other place because they are very different styles - Paolina is a lot more home-cooked and cosy vibe which is great when the weather is getting cold and you want some comfort food to warm you up. This is exactly the place for that! We had made a booking in advance and were glad we did as it got busy very quickly even though it was a Wednesday evening. We shared some duck spring rolls and satay gai (chicken) for starters which were really nice. The crispy spring rolls were very flavourful and the peanut sauce that came with the satay chicken was so rich and nutty, hit the spot for me perfectly. For mains, I personally went with the duck curry and egg fried rice, others went for massman curry with prawns and also egg fried rice, pad Thai with chicken and pad se-ew with chicken. We all enjoyed our food so much we were really happy with the quality. My duck curry was so rich and flavourful and had a nice kick to it surprisingly - usually Asian places adapt to British palette so even if they put chillies on their menu I didn't think it would taste of much so it was a pleasant surprise. They also gave really big portions for the prices charged so it's definitely good value for money. Staff were all nice and friendly. I asked one of them if they could lower the air-con as it was really cold when it's chilly outside and she actioned it right away. One of my friends is Muslim so she double-checked if all the meat options were halal which they kindly confirmed both over the phone and on the spot - good to note for people with this dietary requirement. Overall, this is a really authentic Thai restaurant that I would recommend and would love to go back asap.

Thé curry is not bad in flavour but too thin, it’s almost watery like a soup. Beef that came along was way over cooked and dry

Première visite de ce petit restaurant Thaïlandais situé à 2 pas de la gare de St-pancras (5 mn à pieds). La cuisine y est excellente et préparée devant vous si vous mangez au premier niveau (il y a une salle en sous-sol). Les différents plats sont élaborés à la demande est sont plutôt raffinés. Les serveuses sont souriantes et attentives. Plats, environs 20£ (hors boisson). Plutôt correct pour la qualité. je recommande. Mickey 🎣

A kings cross classic. Great honest food. BYO. Friendly staff. We booked which is probably a good idea.

Stumbled upon on this unassuming Thai powerhouse after giving up on Dim Sum Duck’s painful line down the road. The food here is VERY fresh and the prices don’t reflect the immense passion and love put into the dishes. Make sure you get the papaya salad and the rich parang curry. Actually. Order everything. It’s all good. £3 corkage per person meant we could bring in some absolute banging bottles at a fraction of the cost. Another win.

Intimate little space with delicious food. We'll come back to this one.

Knock out ! Great food, very much the real deal

I was in the area for work and on my way home after a few pints walked past the small restaurant (I mean small - About 2 tables seating 2 people each). I had planned to go elsewhere but the incredible smell dragged me in. Ordered a spicy Thai Green Curry. Thai food isn't really my go to, but this was a joy to eat. A cracking spice, full of flavour and fresh chillis throughout. I only wish I had somewhere this good near me as I'd love to try a few more of their meals. Lovely place and quite reasonably priced (£12.90 for Thai Curry and Egg Fried rice).

Hands down the best Thai food I've had in London. The Pad Thai is perfection. Also recommend their delicious Thai tea.

Penang curry and pad see ew both very tasty and came quickly

Authentische Thai Küche, alles was wir probierten schmeckte ausgezeichnet. Waren 3 x da. Take away, super. 2 kleine Tische am Gehsteig. Sehr freundliches Personal. Nahe Kings Cross. Absolute Empfehlung!!!

Great food and has large portions. My husband and I shared a starter, a main, and rice and it was perfect. Also great for lunch.

When you come to the last bit of pad thai it will be a bit greasy, but generally it's of great taste. The chopped peanuts really are highlights of pad thai! The cha yen (or the thai iced tea) tastes really good, but i felt really uncomfortable after drinking this. Based on my previous rich experiences with various kinds of bubble tea, i would infer that this is made with some artificial "milk tea powder" instead of real milk and tea. Would not recommend.

Quaint little place serving probably the tastiest Thai food in a no-frills atmosphere. Food is made fresh in the live kitchen, run by a group of incredible women! I loved every morsel of my food everytime. Lot of menu options across starters, curries, rice, noodles, desserts to choose from. It’s very affordable and super tasty.

small and cosy. food is good. the service was quick and professional. they were able to offer advice about the best dishes and combinations to choose

Excellent, authentic Thai food. Good value for money as well.

The food was delicious, and the waitress was very nice. Takeaway is very fast. I would recommend to make sure you have reservations, because it usually is rather full

accueil chaleureux, très bon plat service en quantité assez copieuse, je suis ravie !! je recommande a 100%

Bon accueil, bonne nourriture, prix corrects, que demander de plus.

Wonderful place for the best Thai food I've had in London.