KOYN Thai is the latest addition to the ever-expanding portfolio of restaurateur Samyukta Nair, joining the ranks of MiMi Mei Fair, Bombay Bustle, Jamavar and KOYN, which sits just upstairs. KOYN Thai extends the slick, black aesthetic of its Japanese counterpart: it’s a moody, low-lit, subterranean space that feels right at home with its Mayfair surroundings. A focal kitchen spans the length of the room, offering a front row seat as a skilled team of chefs bustle about.
Heading up the operation is Bangkok-born Rose Chalalai Singh, whose fiery regional Thai menus assert vibrant authenticity. No expense has been spared on the spice front; KOYN Thai isn’t toned-down for western tastes, and it’s all the better for it.
Service is friendly - we’re guided through the menu and advised on the heat level of each dish. But there’s a level of haste which sees courses arriving out of order, and means the whole evening is wrapped up rather quickly, not allowing enough time to savour each dish before the next one arrives. These are only minor issues and could easily be fixed by a bit of fine tuning.
Menus have been designed for family-style sharing and there’s plenty of choice, from a ferociously hot Tom Yum soup packed with plump prawns and juicy mushrooms to the sticky braised pork neck, caramelised from the robata grill and paired with zesty, sweet chilli jiew sauce.
A Chiang Mai platter, pitched as a signature dish, is slightly lacklustre: a combination of crackling pork skin, roasted capsicum relish and spiced sausage comes alongside a congealed mass of sticky rice and sliced vegetables that look as if they’ve been sitting out for a little while. Slightly charred morsels of the sausage, combined with a sweet but fiery relish, stand out amongst the rest, but can’t save the dish entirely.
The evening’s highlight comes in the form of a lamb shank massaman, slow-cooked until it's falling apart, and served in a rich sauce that offers a milder, but no less flavourful, option for the evening. Each bite is comforting, served with perfectly cooked sticky rice, making us think the earlier batch was a fluke.
To drink, we sip on eye-catching cocktails, fruity and complex in their design, but with too many flavours competing for dominance. It’s Mayfair, so prices are on the steeper side, but great value set menus allow you to soak up the ambience and the fiery flavours for a fraction of the cost.