PUBLISHED May 20th, 2013 01:17 am | UPDATED May 9th, 2018 03:13 am
38 Martin Road is a dining destination in its own right. However, it is Bomba Paella Bar, buoyed by the recent tapas mania, and Baker & Cook, brainchild of New Zelander celebrity chef Dean Brettschneider, that steal the limelight and diners alike. So when we heard that KHA has recently been rebranded with a protégé of renowned Thai culinarian Chef David Thompson at the helm of the kitchen, our curiosities were sufficiently piqued to venture to KHA for an investigative, mid-week tasting.
If Manhattan chic, Bohemian chill and Parisian aloofness had a lovechild, his name could easily be KHA. The tiny restaurant front opens up into a roomy yet intimate space, easy yet theatrical, minimalist yet sensuous. We were fans not just of the mood lighting, but also the various modern Thai touches, from a giant poster of a Thai stamp to a dramatic Buddha statue resting in the private dining room.
Fans too, we were, of Chef Adam Cliff’s Isaan-inspired, Northeast Thai cuisine. Tradition meets refinement in a dish of Tiger Prawns ($29) grilled in a coating of dry red coconut curry that seeps into the flesh to impart a titillating creaminess, matched by bursts of acid from julienned pickled ginger.
The flavours are as clean-cut as a Salt-Crusted Seabass ($30), which is a celebration of fish in its glorious, unadorned entirety. The salt allows the fish to cook evenly in its juices, and the version at KHA seems engineered to espouse salt-crust baking – the fish is moist and succulent inside, with just a hint of herbaceousness from the lemongrass and basil used to stuff the fish.
Similarly, Chef Cliff shows that even with established Thai classics, you can also pack in the surprises. A Papaya Salad ($16) can hardly go wrong, but stellar it becomes, when the addition of candied pork fashions an already complex balance of salty, sour and crunchy with another dimension of caramelized meatiness. Grilled chicken ($15) is the last thing a foodie would order, but when the execution is as skilled as at KHA, we wouldn’t mind ordering, re-ordering and re-visiting just for it. It smacks lovingly of pepper and garlic from what must have been a delicious marinade, and it is barbecued till the soul of charcoal is exorcised from grill to meat. Accompanying the chicken is a sweet sauce that is big on the toastiness of palm sugar and meek on the tang of fish sauce and tamarind, a pleasure to dip any meat in.
Of course, any leadership transition in the kitchen has its shaky times. Our seabass was undercooked near the bones twice, and a rethinking of the fish’s size and the oven’s temperature could prevent double boo-boos. The dessert department could use with more creativity (deep-fried mung beans as an accompaniment to mango sticky rice does not count; it adds nothing to the dish too), but we can also understand if the intention is to let the well-thought out appetizer and entree sections shine. We had a few interesting cocktails, from a Kha Martini accented nicely with kaffir lime to a Whiskey Sour refreshed with jolts of tamarind. Affordable as the cocktails may be ($12 a pop), they are still a little rough on the edges. A Lemongrass Cosmopolitan might as well do without its herb namesake as it was drowning in pineapple juice, and Khalada should just be called Pina Colada and nothing more.
Still, we welcome the breath of fresh air at KHA. They say three’s a crowd, but 38 Martin Road might just prove that wrong – now that KHA’s revving its engines in quite a promising direction.
Written by Mr Nom Nom.
On this occasion the meal and pictures were compliments of KHA.