Three new restaurants that celebrate regional Thai cuisine are opening in London in quick succession this month – all with the word ‘khao’, meaning rice or a casual meal, in their name.
First up this week is Khao-So-i, just off Oxford Circus, the first international opening from chef Win Srinavakool and his wife Por Haruethai Noicharoen (pictured), which showcases dishes from Chiang Mai in northern Thailand. The couple already have branches in Chiang Mai and Bangkok, and ran a pop-up at Patara in London two years ago.
Chef Win says his home region close to the Burmese border takes its culinary influences from as far as China and India, and is quite different from the Isan cooking of northeast Thailand which is more familiar in the UK and is dominated by lime juice, sugar, fish sauce and coriander root. “Chiang Mai food is all about spices. We use things like cumin seeds, coriander seeds, cinnamon, cardamom pods, cloves, star anise and curry power. These aren’t usually associated with Thai food in London. Each household has it own spice blend.“
The restaurant takes its name from its signature dish – khao soi, rice noodles in a coconut curry soup flavoured by 32 different spices and served on a tray with a variety of toppings. Win, who grew up partly in California, has modernised the dish from a recipe served by Por’s parents in Chiang Mai. Other regional dishes on the menu include the northern version of larb; jackfruit salad; Chiang Mai ‘sai oua’ sausages; and fermented and grilled fish and pork.
This week has also seen the launch of Khao Bird at a permanent site in a former adult cinema in Soho. Founder Mike Palmer and head chef Luke Larsson also take their inspiration from northern Thai regional cooking, in particular the fire-cooked dishes found in Chiang Mai’s night markets. Launched originally as a pop-up in Brighton, Khao Bird has just completed a successful year-long residency upstairs at The Globe pub on the edge of Borough Market.
Any Borough-based fans of Thai cuisine feeling bereft at the loss will be reassured by the opening next week of Plaza Khao Geng in the former Vinoteca site in Borough Yards – a second branch of the hit southern Thai specialist at Arcade Food Hall on Oxford Street. Founder chef Luke Farrell also has two Speedboat Bars, in Chinatown and Notting Hill, and supplies his restaurants with Thai produce from his own greenhouse in Dorset.
Meanwhile Som Saa, one of the pioneer new-wave Thai restaurants when it launched 10 years ago, reopened this week six months after a serious fire in its Commercial Street, Spitalfields premises.
Founders Andy Oliver and Mark Dobbie, who also run Kolae in Borough Market, have used the enforced closure to update their offer, introducing new dishes and a new bar snack menu. They say: “The Thai food scene in London has come a long way, so it looks like a nice time to re-introduce the restaurant to people who might not have visited in a while.”
