External Link/Members OnlyBenjawan is on Stroud Green Road about 15 minutes north of Finsbury Park tube station. Have to confess I'd mixed it up with Bamboo Spa which I was wanting to check out, having read a number of positive reviews about what was on offer (well they do both begin with a "B"...). Bamboo Spa is a few minutes further up the road.
Anyway, I hadn't booked, just walked in around 3pm, asked for an hour from the very nice looking young receptionist, then a lot of flaffing around and consulting before it seemed like a booking hadn't arrived and they agreed. Cost was £60 for deep tissue (cash price - £65 if paying by card) which I thought steep. Taken to a decent sized room, no shower, told to keep my pants on. Realised then that this was going to be legit only, but not too upset as it'd been a while since I'd had a Thai massage. Having said that, in most previous Thai places offering only legit sessions I hadn't been asked to keep the underwear on.
The masseuses was Didi, slim, 40-ish, said very little. What was odd was that she covered me in towels (including one wrapped around my head, leaving only face exposed), and then did the majority of the session through the toweling, using hand and elbow pressure to get into the muscle. It was only after around 40 minutes that she removed the towel on my body and massaged my directly through the skin. Overall she clearly knew her business and it was therapeutic, but would have been better if the toweling had come off much sooner, as in other parlours.
I've given this a Neutral as £60 / hour seemed expensive for what most parlours charge only £45-50, and the toweling thing didn't do it for me. It seemed a busy place so others must rate it but I won't be back.
