KOYN Thai brings high-end flair to London's West End
From Samyukta Nair and Fabled Studio comes a new restaurant with food drawn from the length and breadth of Thailand
Never one to miss a gap in the local market, Queen of Mayfair Samyukta Nair has converted the basement of her Japanese restaurant Koyn into a Thai dining room overseen by Paris-based chef Rose Chalalai Singh. Nair says she is aiming for approachability but the West End’s only high-end Thai is likely to be as gilded as her other Mayfair restaurants Jamavar, Socca and Mimi Mei Feir.
The mood: Bangkok by night
Designer Tom Strother of Fabled Studio has given the dark and moody Japanese decor a subtle Thai makeover, incorporating burnt orange leather upholstery, hand-painted tapestries and works by Chiang Mai artist Kitikong Tilokwattanotai to contrast with the black oak ceiling and black marble counter. Food and drink are the focus of the refreshed look: wine is stored in a flower-bedecked sommelier station while food is cooked over live fire in the open kitchen before being served in handmade woven baskets.
The food: Home-style cooking that travels around Thailand
Bangkok-born Chalalai Singh has made a name for herself in Paris at her 11th-arrondissement restaurant Ya Lamaï, named after the grandmother who taught her to cook. But it was at her private Rose Kitchen within the Marché des Enfants Rouges, the city’s oldest covered market, that the chef became a hit with the Parisian fashion community and impressed Nair with recipes drawn from the length and breadth of Thailand. Expect dishes such as a Chiang Mai platter of spicy homemade pork sausage, capsicum nam prik sauce, sticky rice and pork crackling, or a southern Thai crab curry with wild betel leaf.
Koyn Thai opened on June 16 and is available to book now. It is located at 38 Grosvenor St, London
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(Image credit: Koyn Thai)
Ben McCormack is a London-based restaurant journalist with over 25 years’ experience of writing. He has been the restaurant expert for Telegraph Luxury since 2013, for which he was shortlisted in the Restaurant Writer category at the Fortnum & Mason Food and Drink Awards. He is a regular contributor to the Evening Standard, Food and Travel and Decanter. He lives in west London with his partner and lockdown cockapoo.
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