Kai Mayfair was the talk of town in London when in 2009 it was the only Chinese restaurant added to the Michelin List in the United Kingdom.

The award was the result of hard work of its owner Bernard Yeoh who opened the restaurant in 1993 and its head chef Alex Chow.  Kai Mayfair has since been collecting the Michelin award every year.

The chair and secretary of Omar Niode Foundation had a chance to visit the popular restaurant located at 65 South Adley Street in Mayfair, London’s financial district with rents among the highest in the city and the world.

We visited Kai Mayfair not because of its popularity among celebrities such as Mick Jagger and steel magnate Laksmi Mittal.  Our interest was to gain experience that may be useful for future activities of the Foundation.

Michelin Star

Alex Chow, Kai’s head chef who worked his way from Malaysia, Myanmar and Singapore before coming to London in 2004 has earned a reputation as one of London’s most exciting culinary talents for his innovative, creative and modern Chinese cuisine.

We tried to book for a weekday dinner online.  Space was then available only for 6.30 PM as restaurants with Michelin stars in London are always popular.

Michelin awards 0 to 3 stars on the basis of anonymous inspections by reviewers. The reviewers are supposed to concentrate on the quality, mastery of technique, personality and consistency of the food, not on interior décor, table setting, or service quality.

A Michelin one star restaurant, as received by Kai Mayfair, means very good restaurant in its category. Two stars are awarded for  excellent cooking and worth a detour. The cuisines are first class for its type. Three stars translate exceptional cuisine and worth a special journey. They are often extremely expensive, and have an extensive wine list.

London weather was friendly and cool by the time we arrived at the restaurant. Kai Mayfair welcomes guests with its contemporary Chinese arts on the wall and in cushions decorating the sofas and chairs. Tables are covered with thick white linens.

As we do not drink, we ordered lemon grass ice tea and mineral water. A server informed us that Kai is very proud of its menu. He continued with the fact that there is a story to every food served and guests are welcome to explore.

We found it true what slowfoodkitchen.com wrote about Kai, a Malaysian-owned restaurant known for Chinese fine dining, but as most of Kai’s chefs are from Malaysia, the dishes have a Malaysian twist to them. 

Appetizers

Soft-Shelled Crab was our choice of appetizer. Hot chilies are the ingredients, along with garlic, shallot spiced batter, and pepper corns. Sliced green mango made for a fresh taste.

Translucent ‘Shanghai’ noodle sheets, another appetizer, was a little difficult to handle by chopsticks. It is mixed with sliced chicken and chopped coriander. The  soy and sesame vinaigrette was not only a dressing as the noodle sheets garnished with hot chilies were submerged in the sauce with strong sesame taste.

Main course

We ordered Chicken Cashew Nuts that looked similar to Kung Pao chicken. The menu listed the ingredients of this dish as corn-fed chicken, dried chilies, spring onions, cashew nuts, seaweed, and dark soya sauce.

The texture of the chicken was succulent and juicy unlike any other chicken dishes we have tried in different restaurants. To answer our questions, the server explained how the chef processed the chicken in a bag, before it is cooked and served.

Chef Alex Chow is very meticulous in processing his ingredients. We had  Ma-Po’ Spicy Aubergines & Home-made Tofu. The server said that Kai did not buy the tofu in the market but they made it themselves.

To complement the main course we added Asparagus with Minced Garlic & Bird’s Eye Chili and Spice-Scented Fried Rice

Desserts

As in most fine dining restaurants Kai employs its own head pastry chef. Before joining Kai, Szymon Grzanka had worked at Morton's Restaurant, The Greenhouse Restaurant, Spoon by Alain Ducasse and Asia de Cuba

We ordered Grzanska’s  6 textures of Chocolate and Peanuts. This cold dessert mix biscuity peanut daquoise, creamy mascarpone & peanut mousse, cold milk chocolate parfait with chocolate pearls, salted peanut caramel, crunchy sesame & cashew candy. While eating there was continued popping in our ears; it turned out the particular dessert has Bill Mitchell’s popping chocolate candy in it.

Another original dessert that we had was Amedei Chocolate Fondant with Pistachio. It is an Iranian green pistachio ice cream rolled in pistachio fine crumbs. The cocoa nibs that came with the ice cream was dotted with pistachio nuts.

Affluent clientele

The success of  Bernard Yeoh and Alex Chow does not escape the attention of the media in Southeast Asia. An article at The Business Times Weekend mentioned that with prices averaging about $160 per person, Chef Chow is no strange to affluent clientele and high-pressure situations. An American couple once spent $15,000 for a meal at Kai with Chateau Petrus, a high priced wine.

The admiring feature of Kai Mayfair is not the meal price but the fact that Bernard Yeoh and Alex Chow maintain a compilation of specialties on the menu unique to Kai and never soften or dilute the recipes, making Kai remains true to its Oriental roots.

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Photo: Kai Mayfair.

To enjoy the innovative menus visit http://www.kaimayfair.co.uk