TOM YUM Thai Restaurant

Tom Yum Thai Kitchen sits in the courtyard of the North Mill in Belper — the 1786 Strutt cotton mill on the River Derwent that is the founding site of the global factory system and a UNESCO World Heritage anchor for the Derwent Valley Mills. The restaurant is tucked into the lower stone arches of the mill with a thick-walled, brick-arched dining room and fairy-lit ceiling that several reviewers describe as a hideaway.

The kitchen runs a family-run authentic Thai menu — pad Thai, chicken Thai red and green curries, massaman, the named-sake tom yum soup, and a vegetarian and vegan section that customers single out as well beyond the curry-house norm. The restaurant sits at 4.7 on Restaurant Guru from over nine hundred reviews and inside the top five Belper restaurants on Tripadvisor.

Pricing is fair for the sit-down dining room and the cooking is described as generous-portioned and full-flavoured rather than westernised. There is free parking on the mill courtyard. A reservation is essential at weekends — the dining room is small and books out fast. Evening trading, with a small lunch service on selected days.