Evening Standard
David Ellis beat a path to a restaurant “famous before its first service” from John and Desiree Chantarasak (“him the chef and her the wine head honcho”). Operated as a “travelling roadshow” for the past six years and due to go permanent as long ago as 2021, it has finally opened with backing from MJMK, the outfit behind Santiago Lastra’s nearby Kol.
It’s an expensive-looking place – “a billionaire’s beach shack” with a “Purple Rain frontage, white wood cladding and an endless collection of crockery” – costing around £75 a head for dinner (excluding drinks), whether or not you opt for the chef’s recommendation menu. John’s signature dish, a coconut ash cracker shaped much like the Michelin flower, prompted David to ask “I wonder what he’s after?”.
The cooking throughout was “thoughtful, elegant… understated but marked by a sense of absolute confidence in the kitchen”. If anything, it was a bit too understated for David, as evidenced in a massaman curry of Hebridean hogget (raised on Desiree’s family’s farm), which was “excellent if a little tame”.
The best dish came last – aubergine with sweet basil and soy-cured egg yolk, its spice “like flickering flame. They do like heat, it turns out; I only wish I’d seen it before… when bold, when John lets loose, AngloThai can astound.”
David Ellis - 2024-12-01
