'We're so excited'- Tata’s Thai Kitchen to open in the former Old Bank in Kirkham near Preston

A popular Thai restaurant is moving to a new venue near Preston later this month.

Tata’s Thai Kitchen, which has been based inside Lytham Bierhaus since December, has announced it is opening its first permanent site in Kirkham later this month.

On Friday, May 22, Tata’s Thai Kitchen, owned by business partners Martin James and Ritthirat Wonguthan, is planning to open at the Old Bank on Poulton Street, which was The Midland Bank, then a HSBC, before being converted into a restaurant in 2021.

Martin, who lives in Walton-le-Dale told us: “We're so excited about it. We really are. It's a magnificent building. It actually still has the safe downstairs which is a prep room at the moment but we're eventually going to change that into a really cozy lounge for about 20 people so they can come in and have a drink pre dinner or after dinner. We've got exciting plans for the venue, you know, we're going to start opening in the evenings only, and then expand on to lunches as we grow.”

Front of house Martin and head chef Ritthirat - who goes by the nickname Tata- have worked together for over a decade, having previously ran the popular Fry Inn chippy in Lostock Hall.

Southport born Martin took care of the English meals whilst Bangkok born Tata sorted Thai dishes but after eight successful years they closed in 2024 with the aim of opening their own Thai restaurant instead.

62-year-old Martin admitted part of that motivation was a desire to slow down - Fry Inn consistently had queues out the door and near the end it was getting through a 1000 kilos of chips across a four day week.

With Tata’s Thai Kitchen, Martin, himself a trained chef, has switched to front of house, whilst Tata, who trained at a cookery school in Thailand and used to own a street food cart over there, now gets help in the kitchen from a second Thai chef.

Martin added: “We've done a few pop ups, The Ley Inn in Clayton-le-Woods, Taps and Wine at Walton-le-Dale, a few places like that. We also used to go around to people's houses and do dinners for parties.

“We've been looking around for the last 12 months for a suitable place but in the meantime, last December, we saw a post on Facebook saying that Lytham Bierhaus wanted a pop up. We were only going to be there two or three days, but we stayed through to April because it was so successful.

"We've now found this place in Kirkham and we’re making massive changes inside, everything's going to be brand new. Our Facebook page is growing day by day, we’ve gained another 600 followers since December so yeah we decided it was time for a permanent base.”

Originally advertising an opening date of this Friday (May 11), the grand opening of Tata’s Thai kitchen in Kirkham has been pushed back a week to ensure that everything is perfect.

A variety of roles are also available for anyone interested, from pot washes to cocktail bar managers.

You can find out more about Tata’s Thai Kitchen’s opening and job vacancies on their Facebook page here.

Encouraging the people of Lancashire to come down once they are open, Martin said: “Tata strives himself on 100% authentic Thai food. We've had numerous customers, who have been to Thailand, come to us and say that his food is better than what they tasted in Thailand. And that's, you know, what we strive for.”