A Thai Restaurant
a drive or train ride from South Kirkby

South Kirkby and Moorthorpe sit northwest of our kitchen on Copley Road. The A638 runs southeast from the area through Hampole, past the Red House Interchange where it crosses the A1(M) at junction 38, and straight into Doncaster town centre. Drive time depends on traffic - a clean, predictable route with no motorway junctions to worry about.

There is also a direct train. South Elmsall station, less than a mile from South Kirkby, runs an hourly Northern service to Doncaster. Step off at Doncaster station and walk through the town centre past Frenchgate and Markets Car Park to reach us on Copley Road. Whether you set off from the streets around All Saints Church, the homes near Moorthorpe station, or the estates between South Kirkby and South Elmsall, the route into Doncaster is straightforward.

• A relaxed dine-in setting
• BYO with no corkage, no service charge
• Every dish cooked to order
• Authentic Thai pastes from Thailand
• A straightforward drive from South Kirkby by car

South Kirkby and neighbouring Moorthorpe form a single civil parish in the City of Wakefield, with a population of around eleven thousand. The name derives from Old Norse - kirkju-byr, meaning village with a church - and the town appears in the Domesday Book under the manor of Ilbert de Lacy. All Saints Church in South Kirkby, Grade I listed, still carries thirteenth-century stonework in its nave arcades and circular columns, one of the oldest standing structures in the area.

Like its neighbour South Elmsall, South Kirkby's modern identity was shaped by coal. South Kirkby Colliery opened in 1881 and the town grew rapidly around it, housing nearly all of the three thousand workers the pit employed at its peak. The colliery closed in 1988. Moorthorpe grew alongside the railways - the station on Barnsley Road opened in 1879 on the Swinton and Knottingley Joint Railway, and the Mallard Cafe in the restored station house is still a local landmark. Arthur Wharton, recognised as the world's first Black professional footballer, lived in Moorthorpe - a piece of sporting history that sits quietly in the village's records.

South Kirkby Camp, a scheduled ancient monument west of the town, marks a prehistoric enclosed settlement dating back to around 1000 BC - an oval earthwork bank and ditch from the late Bronze Age. St Joseph's Roman Catholic Church in Moorthorpe, a red brick building from 1928, anchors the village's main road alongside the remaining shops on Barnsley Road. The parish has been twinned with Sprockhövel in Germany's Ruhr Valley since 1981, a connection rooted in the shared industrial heritage of coal.

Halal chicken and beef run across the mains, the full vegan menu sits alongside the standard one, and most mains adapt as gluten free when you flag it. For collection, we send a secure card link by text - you enter the details before setting off and your order is boxed and ready when you arrive.

Charm Thai Cafe is independent and focused on Thai food. The restaurant has chalkboard specials and wine glasses for BYO drinks, while dishes are cooked to order under Rin's leadership. There is no service charge added to the bill, so the menu price is what you pay.

The kitchen runs the full menu - curries with imported authentic Thai pastes, Pad Thai sauce prepared for service by Rin and her team and balanced during cooking for each order, handmade starters, the dark noodle soup that has built most of our regulars. Halal chicken and beef are available across the mains; the full vegan menu runs alongside the standard one, using proper vegan oyster sauce for stir fries.

Booking ahead is wise on Friday and Saturday evenings. Book a table online or phone 01302 210408 - midweek you can usually walk in.