Restaurant: Koh Thai Restaurant
Cuisine: Thai
Last visited: April 9, 2010
Location: Central, Hong Kong (Lan Kwai Fong)
Address: Metro: Central
57 Wyndham Street, Lan Kwai Fong, Central, Hong Kong
中環蘭桂坊雲咸街57號地下
Tel: 2840 0041
Price Range: $101-$150HKD – about $17-25CAD
1: Poor 2: OK 3: Good 4: Very good 5: Excellent 6: Tres Excellent!!
Food: n/a
Service: 3
Ambiance: 5
Overall: n/a
Additional comments:
- 2 floors
- Contemporary Thai food
- Lounge/Bar/Restaurant
- Located in touristy/night life area
- Moderately priced
- Contemporary/Trendy
- Great food presentation
- Good atmosphere
- Reservations advised
- Better for drinks kind of place
- Thai owners/chefs/cooks
- Open late/late night hot spot
**Recommendations: n/a
Koh Thai Restaurant is a restaurant, lounge and bar located in the hip and happening party area of Wyndham Street (Lan Kwai Fong) in Central, Hong Kong. Playing American Top 40’s music, the restaurant is trendy with an upstairs lounge and the downstairs being more of their restaurant and bar. There’s also high top tables and chairs so it’s a great place for drinks and to hang out at night. It’s surrounded by hip and happening restaurants and Hong Kong’s tourist night life so it’s nice place to check out, but for me not a must try.
Koh Thai Restaurant specializes in contemporary Thai food and the plating is beautiful. I only came for dessert so I can’t comment on food or dinner, however I have heard from close friends that it’s actually quite good. I’m not sure how authentic the dishes are considering the clientele consists of mainly tourists, but it’s more authentic than you would possibly think. I wouldn’t call it a tourist trap, after all my friends that live there brought me there (but also out of convenience and lack of dessert options) and the prices are higher than average.
On the table:
Thai Sticky Rice & Mango – 4/6
- Black and white sticky rice served with fresh mango, mint, sesame seeds and coconut milk.
- The sticky rice is made with coconut milk and sweetened with sugar and it’s actually made very well. It’s nice and chewy and served warm.
- You eat the sticky rice together with the fresh mango. It’s a summer dessert in Thailand.
- It’s very fragrant with the coconut and mango and reminds me of dessert sushi.
- The coconut milk drizzle is actually salty and I didn’t like that – however this is how it’s authentically eaten in Thailand. Thai desserts are traditionally salty so this was catered to Thai tastes which means it is a bit acquired.
- It’s a big portion and definitely shareable.
- I would have liked the mint to be chopped up or even some freshly toasted coconut on top would be great as a garnish.
(Excuse the lighting issues)
Thai Pumpkin Custard – 3/6
- Steamed Thai pumpkin custard in a pumpkin/squash. Served warm or room temperature.
- I was so curious to try this and I have never seen presentation like this, let alone seen Thai Pumpkin Custard on a Thai menu in Vancouver, BC.
- I loved the presentation and it’s how it’s served in Thailand.
- This dessert is served warm and big enough for 4.
- It’s a very rich and dense pumpkin custard served inside a ‘pumpkin’ which is really a squash. It’s the Japanese pumpkin known as Kabocha squash.
- The custard is made from pumpkin, sugar, eggs and coconut cream and/or milk. Matched with the tender creamy pumpkin/squash it’s a very heavy dessert that can easily “Thai” you down…lol I know I’m such a geek.
- The custard is poured into an whole pumpkin and it’s steamed until the custard is set.
- The custard doesn’t have much pumpkin flavor and again it’s actually a bit salty – traditional characteristic for Thai desserts.
Home Made Mango Sorbet – 5/6
- I actually ordered this last minute to go with the Thai sticky rice and mango dessert. Thank god I did! it was the favourite dessert at the table.
- I know it sounds a bit generic and typical, but they do it so well here.
- The mango is so fresh and it’s made in house…the ice cream/sorbet not the mango. =p
- It’s served on pieces of fresh mango and drizzled with fresh mango syrup.
- It’s refreshing and great alone, but it’s also a perfect match with the Thai sticky rice and mango dessert.
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Excuse me! Who are you? Am I missing something here? I thought the whole point to being a food critic was to actually “taste” the food! I quote from your review “I cannot comment on food or dinner!!!!!!!!!!!! Unquote: That is because you only had the delicious dessert,I just cannot understand your qualification to make this judgement-really!
I was visiting HongKong from the U.K recently and visited and (unlike the critic )did actually eat here as many times as possible,the food was totally authentic Thai,flown in fresh from Thailand every day,I feel qualified to say it was “Simply the best”,absolutely delicious.
I think you are missing it, Chris. Most, if not all of us food bloggers, aren’t critics. We describe our restaurant experience based on what was served and what was consumed. In this case, it is clearly stated this post is based on desserts only and she didn’t give an overall “score” because she felt it wasn’t completely representative of the restaurant.
If you liked it, hey, good for you! After that, I think we agree to disagree! 😉
Now, question for you: since we are not paid to do this, what would you prefer? Revisits to the same restaurant to do a “professional” review or notes and tidbits of different restaurants (i.e., variety)?
Hi Chris,
Thanks for visiting. I think you’ve completely misunderstood my post. I had already come from dinner at another restaurant and we came to Koh Thai just for their desserts and not for dinner. I was already too full, but I wanted to try as many restaurants as I could in the short time I was in Hong Kong.
KimHo, is absolutely right. I didn’t give a “score” because it would be unrepresentative of the restaurant. I wanted to be fair.
I’m happy that you are so passionate about the food here, and likewise (as I stated in my post) close friends of mine said it was very good as well. Being that the restaurant is in Hong Kong, I doubt the food is flown in fresh from Thailand everyday. I also said “I’m not sure” how authentic the dishes are not that they were “not authentic”.
Mijune,
contrary to what you believe about the products being flown in every day I can tell you this is fact.
My company flies in product daily from Bangkok and sells to Koh Thai.
We spent many days finding suppliers from the wholesale market north of Bangkok and travelled with the Chef.
Thai produce has a 48 hour shelf life and product is bought in the morning and shipped the same day to arrive for midday in Hong Kong.
Hi Paul,
Sorry, I think I’m confused… did I say something regarding the products Koh Thai is using that was incorrect? I reread my post and I can’t seem to see what your comment is referring too. Thanks for the info though!
“Being that the restaurant is in Hong Kong, I doubt the food is flown in fresh from Thailand everyday.”
mijune wrote that, thats you right? so yes you are confused
and i told you the food is flown in daily from Bangkok
@Paul – yes I did write that. I was looking at the post, not the comments. But yes I did write that in the comments. That was in response to Chris’ comment “… the food was totally authentic Thai, flown in fresh from Thailand every day…”
So I guess you guys mean the ingredients are flown in everyday. To have every ingredient flown in from Thailand must be costly, and it’s a nice detail to know. Thank for sharing.
Hi Mijune, thanks for the write-up. I was looking for reviews on thai restaurants for my weekly dinner with my family and stumbled across your site. Looks good, not to mention that Koh Thai opened a branch in Wan Chai so will definitely go there this Sunday.
On another note, Paul, do you have contact details that you can share? i’m interested to know more about your service.
Thanks!
@Karin – Awesome!! Thanks for commenting and hope you guys have a good time!
Hi Mijune,
So happy to find this from a google search. My friend is helping me to host my post-wedding casual get-together/party in HK. She suggested Kho Thai and I found your blog again (back home in Vancouver). Desserts looked good and I am looking forward to seeing my friends and to celebrate with great food!
@Winnie – omg!! The internet is so amazing!! How awesome!! Yes if you click “locations” -> “Asia” -> “Hong Kong” on this blog at the top you can see all my posts! They’re pretty dated now, but it might help! 🙂 Thank you for commenting Winnie!!