Papaya

I had some of their sushi and a spring roll last week as a little taster and it was good enough to get me back.
The second time I tried their red curry with noodles. It was very tasty and a reasonable portion for under a fiver. How good? Worth a five minute walk but not a ten minute walk! Most exceptional was that I must have been in the place for under a minute before I was walking out with my food. Those guys have really got their system working beautifully, if they could have included a hint of friendliness in that less-​than-​a-​minute it would have been even better. But hey, cheap and fairly good.

Good food, very generous portions and no-​fuss cheap.
My goto place for a mid-​week lunch when I’m feeling in the need of comfort!
Not quite spicy enough for me though, so I always grab a handful of chillies from my local bangladeshi market.
Best so far is the red beef curry.
Satay chicken and spring rolls just so-​so.
Try to get there around 12.30 mid-​week, as it’s v popular.

I just started working in the area and my supervisor pointed the place out to me. I got egg noodle soup with prawns and a large veggie spring roll all for about 5 pounds. I also managed to snag a seat in the little restaurant to eat. I can get used to lunch breaks there! So yummy and easy and affordable.

Papaya’s a budget Thai eatery/​diner in central Soho. 5 counter seats (by the window) and a buffet style hot food counter with 8(?) different hot meals and some hot savouries like prawn toast, spring rolls etc.
The hot meals are all really good, I’ve tried the veggie selections (red tofu curry, green tofu curry) and they’re both excellently flavoured (and priced). Hard to get a seat here during lunch hours, and the queues regularly extend out the door BUT the service is quick, the prices are great and it’s worth the wait.
Recommended.

found this by accident hunting for hummingbirds in soho.
what a gem of a find. A huge queue and i just had to join it to see what the fuss was about and i had the beef in red thai curry and this was huge, i’m a big girl but i could only eat half. more than enough for a lunch for 2 i reckon. I also bought the massaman chicken curry, not what i was expecting as a pale white colour but it did taste nice and over half the box was full of meat.
there sushi and small box hot meal is excellent value

Great little Thai gem.
Really, for £4 you get a real treat. Knowing and loving Thai food, but always going for a few regular dishes, I wanted to try something new. Their Chicken and Cashew is great. Slightly sweet BBQ like sauce, proper chucks of meat and enough in the box to satisfy a proper lunch.
All this for less than £5 with a soft drink and really friendly, smiley (they’re Thai after all) staff to serve you. They’re fast too. I’d hardly finished asking for my meal and they had it boxed for me.
Heed the warnings about the queue length tho. Have heard this from a few people.

£4 got me a box that felt like it weighed a pound, filled with a bed of white rice (though the sign says brown rice) and some very tasty green chicken curry. £4! Are you kidding? Great for takeaway, and easy to get in and out. Cash only.
I’ll be coming back, for sure.

This is the best meal you will get in Soho for under £5.
Big words, I know. But I stand by it.
We live in tough times and I work at the low-​paid end of the film industry. So as much as I would like to eat out every day (and could quite easily patronise each of the joints around my work place without doubling up once in a month), I am forced to bring in soggy sandwiches and leftover soup from home instead.
But every now and then I go mad and let myself buy a meal. We’re talking a one-​off payday treat. It’s very exciting. (No really, it actually is the highlight of my month.) And there is no doubt about it: when I want to shell out my four hard-​earned English pounds, you’ll find me at Papaya.
Nestled on the tourist-​free central sidestreet that is St Anne’s Court, Papaya doesn’t actually have its name painted on to the front but is easy to spot due to two things: a) its bright green frontage; b) the queue outside which has been known to stretch on to Wardour St. But don’t let that put you off. It never stops moving due to the phenomenally fast-​working staff (they have to be, since half of Soho pay them a visit between the hours of midday and 2pm) and you’ll be served within a matter of minutes. To reiterate Olivier L’s extremely good point below: definitely decide on your order in advance. You won’t be given a grace period to decide and you can bet your last prawn cracker that you’ll be in front of a typically snappy Londoner (i.e. me) who will not appreciate someone taking the time to process a thought. But I’ll make it easy for you: go for the Thai green chicken curry. The sauce is delicious, the chicken copious, the veggies perfect, the portions enormous considering the price. They really pack that box full to bursting and they’ll force in even more if you catch them at the end of the lunchtime rush.
I can’t believe I have to wait three weeks until I can return.

Don’t be scared of the long queues you’re bound to find at Papaya at lunchtime — in most cases you’ll end up waiting less than 5 minutes before being served. This is thanks to the efficiency of Papaya’ staff. Even before you arrive at the counter, you’ll be asked to scream your order. 20 seconds later, you’ll have paid and will be on your way.
If you’re new to Papaya, I strongly advice that you have a look at the menu before queuing — the selection is small, but the dishes are excellent. I strongly recommend the Green Chicken Curry. It’s tasty and the portions are very generous (I also recommend asking for extra sauce — so you’re sure not to end up with dry rice at the bottom of your «lunch box»).
Now, if you have a busy afternoon planned — watch out. Since the portions are very generous, you might find yourself dozing off after lunch!
But Papaya’s main selling point is, without doubt, its price. Most dishes go for £4! A bargain for what you’re getting.
Now, if you prefer better quality (in terms of food and service) check out Soho Thai, which is just meters away on St-Anne’s Court!

I used to visit Papaya anywhere between once and 5 times a week when I worked in Soho. Seriously, I was the addicted the Massaman curry. This was back in ²⁰⁰⁷⁄₂₀₀₈ and there cockney-​accented Thai dude running the place with a stereotypical East-​end boy personality to match — he was ace. The boxes were £3.50 then, and now they are £3.90, showing just how much of bargain you are getting here.
I pop in to Papaya whenever I am in Soho for a large box filled to the brim with Chicken Mussaman Curry (the red and green are great too). The helping of meat is incredibly generous and the whole portion could easily feed two people. Tip — ask for extra sauce, so that you can have more goo with your rice.
The chicken can sometimes be on the dry side, but the flavour of the curry, the delicious sticky rice and the enormous portion more than make up for that.
I absolutely love this gem of a place. But be aware that there will be a queue around 1pm.

I always go here for lunch for their sushi/​sashimis. So affordable for £2.50 you can get a box of fresh sashimi, £3 for salmon sashimi salad/​cooked salmon salad.
They’re famed for their Thai take-​away in cute boxes. £3.20/£3.90. Fresh, fast, I think personally their curries are a little sweet for my liking but way better than ones around. The chili basil is really spicy!
Only four stools available so it’s really small!

found this by accident hunting for hummingbirds in soho.
what a gem of a find. A huge queue and i just had to join it to see what the fuss was about and i had the beef in red thai curry and this was huge, i’m a big girl but i could only eat half. more than enough for a lunch for 2 i reckon. I also bought the massaman chicken curry, not what i was expecting as a pale white colour but it did taste nice and over half the box was full of meat.
basically £3.90 for a nice tasty meal or £3.89 for a cardboard burger meal — no contest in my books

Excellent value for money. For £3.90 you get a little takeaway punnet stuffed to the brim with thai curry and rice. I can’t vouch for the health benefits — the salt content will have you drinking gallons of water afterwards — but it tastes bloody good so that’s alright. You can buy little extras like prawn crackers and dim sum, and there’s a separate counter with sushi, but the curry’s the reason to visit. I recommend the chilli chicken and cashew nut.
P. S. Go early to avoid lunchtime queues. The service is always swift, but it still gets really busy after 12:30 pm.

Ohhh myyy god this place has his the nail on the head. They know exactly what they’re doing and they’re doing it incredibly well.
Despite having to queue down the street to get in the door (because the food is so god damn good) you’ll be served extremely quickly and won’t mind the very short wait.
They serve great, tasty, real, Thai food at prices that you’ll struggle to believe. It’s so cheap for the mountain of food you get. I think I caught a glimpse of some sushi too but haven’t tried it.
On top of this the staff are friendly and helpful and I couldn’t agree more with Katy I below about this place needing to teach other lunch time spots how it’s done.
In fact after all this talk I’m going to have to go there now for lunch. Jees, writing a Unilocal review on an empty stomach is painful.

This is offically the best winter food in the world. It’s not a veggie place but they do a selection of Tofu green and red curries that can warm the heart of the meanest Londoner!
Having a hard day, I wonder in here to be greated by the mouthwatering smell of Thai food that widens my eyes to popping point. For under a fiver I can get a steaming box of sticky rice, cooked to perfection with a spicy, rich curry on top. The only problem with this place is the fact that there is hardly any searing inside, so when it is cold outside, these fill up fast. The seats face out the window so you can munch your lunch while people watching to your hearts content.
It’s a great lunchtime eating spot, hidden from the tourists, welcoming me and my bad moods on a cold and windy day.

I usually visit here once or twice a week when I’m working in Soho and for a walk-​thru restaurant it ain’t half bad. The meals are pretty decent considering the food is cooked in bulk and the service is usually quite swift. Decent selection of sushi and soft drinks too.
Timing, however, is pretty important. It’s best to go early and the couple of times I went there after 2pm I noticed that the food was not as tasty as usual. Get there early.

Papaya is a Thai takeaway place in St Annes Passage that does an incredibly brisk trade with the media crowd at lunch.
It is in a small, prettily painted, green building. The food counter and till is on the left hand side, with the menu on the wall above. There are coolers containing drinks and sushi on the right hand side. The lunchtime queue runs within the centre. The turnaround is incredibly quick so choose your dish swiftly. I went for the first time last week when I had a bit of a cold. I chose the Thai Green Chicken, a small pack of sushi and two cold drinks from the refrigerator. All of which came to about 8 pounds.
The Thai Green chicken was really tasty and, if I hadn’t been really hungry, would have made a satisfying lunch. Furthermore, it came in those cool cartons you get in America. The sushi, too, was surprisingly good.
Papaya is great place to pick up a quick, satisfying hot lunch.

Papaya should give seminars to other lunch time food spots about efficient service. I don’t know about anybody else but there is nothing more irritating to me than spending my lunch break standing behind some indecisive fussy eater who takes ten minutes to ask whether the tofu is organic or the rice is picked by fair trade farmers. Come on, I care about the world as much as the next person but not when I’ve got ten minutes to buy, eat and smoke.
For less chat more chow, I go to Papaya, the food is great and the line is out of the door everyday but they have different people to take the orders, serve the food and take the money: simple yet effective. If I don’t have anyone to impress after work, I usually have the Thai green curry and some sort of peach flavoured pop. All this for about £5, you can eat in if there is space on the one tiny bench inside or on a nice day, take the cute little box of goodness to a park near you and enjoy a long and leisurely lunch.

Papaya is a tiny Thai canteen hidden down one of Soho’s little side streets.
The warm food from the heated counter is nothing to shout about, it’s like any other mediocre Asian canteen, but what people like about here is that it’s relatively nice for the extremely low prices. I’m not sure about eating a Thai curry on the go, although I know it’s their most popular option, but the satay sticks (3 for £2.50) and the minced chicken and prawn dumplings (6 for £2.50) are good to nibble as you walk. Whilst the chiller cabinet has a selection of healthier options, such as satay, tofu and sashimi salads all at low prices. I usually call in for the miso soup as it’s generously filled with tofu and wakame and is only £1.25 for a filling portion. There are also fresh smoothies available each day that are £1.50, the cheapest you can probably find in Soho.
Papaya isn’t exactly gourmet, but for the same price as a sandwich you can get something a little more exotic for your lunch.

This is Thai food on the go and good stuff too. I chose the thai green curry box for £3.50 and mistakenly brought a banana too, not realising how full I’d be! You get loads of rice or noodles depending on what you choose and plenty chicken with sauce. I actually ate mine in two sittings, the first part at lunch and the next as a predinner snack.
It’s quite a small store, but really don’t be scared of the queue, the staff are super quick. Most people takeaway but you can sit on one of 3 tall stools or on the bench outside. A great place for a quick lunch.