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When we
received an email from Bernard Yeoh, proprietor of the very
fashionable Kai of Mayfair asking us to check out his chef's new
menu, we didn't need a second bidding. The multi award-winning Kai is
in South Audley Street in London's Mayfair and is as different from
the normal perception of a Chinese restaurant in UK as it can be.
Outside, Kai
looks like a refined shop alongside the other discreet antique and
quality furnishing shops in South Audley Street. On entering one is
met with consummate grace and shown to your table either on the
ground floor or in the lower ground restaurant area. Delightfully
costumed waitresses in wide sleeved jackets move around quietly but
purposefully watched over by smiling Manager Theresa Wong. We should
have guessed what sort of experience it was to be when my companion
was offered an Opium Cocktail which she enjoyed tremendously whilst I
look on enviously with 'sorry I'm driving' water.
The new menu
at Kai is something to behold and so tempting are the dishes that
choices are not that easy to make so we were more than happy when
Executive Chef Alex Chow offered to do the honours. First up was Tan
Jia's Lobster Broth, lobster in spinach in a lobster bisque style
soup which instantly set the taste buds going. Close behind came fat,
succulent prawns in wasabi infused mayonnaise that were almost a
complete meal in themselves.
For second
course we could have had Oriental Lamb Shank or A Nest of Imperial
Jewels but instead drooled to Braised Abalone (3 days in the making)
and Airflown Kai Lane in White Truffle Jus Reduction plus melt in the
mouth Wagyu Beef, probably the best and certainly the most expensive
in the world.
Alongside us a
couple chatted happily over a tempting shredded duck dish but our
next temptation was an amazing fish presentation on a curved fish
skeleton tasting of Bombay Duck. The dish represented the spiciness
of South Asia on one level and the Chinese tastes of the same item on
the other - the perfect ying and yang. Ginger and sesame rice and
delicate noodles completed the feast whilst others around us chose
dishes such as Steamed Seabass and Spring Onions or Ostrich pan fried
with 3 chillies.
Just when we
started to pride ourselves on surviving this amazing culinary
oppulance, our waitress arrived with yet another gem - this time
coconut ice cream topped with red rice in a pumpkin sauce poured from
a tiny teapot from which the smoke of dry ice arose.
You may, by
now, have gathered we were rather impressed with the meal, actually
placing it in the top three of fantastic meals we have had the
privilege of experiencing over a lengthy career. Chef Alex Chow is
obviously a master of taste and innovation not to forget presentation
and the chatter of voices from other diners in languages from Chinese
to Russian underlined the international reputation of this wonderful restaurant.
Bernard Yeoh
need not have had any concern over the new, innovative menu. It is
not cheap - but then nothing really worthwhile is.
Kai of Mayfair
65 South Audley Street London W1 Tel : 020 7493 8988
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