The queues, the queues.

Even now, after six hectic, trailblazing years, you still have to wait to get into Chin Chin at peak times. And, as always, it’s well worth the wait.

What’s half an hour, and a while-you-wait drink at GoGo bar next door, when you’ve got slow cooked pulled pork ‘Roll Ups’ waiting for you? Or a well-priced wok-fried spanner crab omelette?

This omelette, amped up with coriander and a spiky Sriracha sauce, is always on Chin Chin’s menu (chef Benjamin Cooper would be a marked man if he ever dropped it) but it’s not the only hot-shot dish here. Look for Cooper’s cooling salad of shiso and sesame prawn dumplings, his lip-smacking Isaan duck larb with ground roast rice, and a goat curry that’s as delectably southern Thai as it comes.

The kitchen here juggles the mix with aplomb, but it’s Chin Chin’s vibe – the noisy, neon lit, elbow-to-elbow, hawker-market craziness of the place – that keeps us coming back for more. That and the cracking staff who get a cocktail in your hand before you can say, well… Chin Chin.

Must-eat dish: Wok-fried spanner crab omelette, snow pea, coriander and Sriracha
Instagram: @chinchin