ELEGANT REINVENTION
Michelin-starred chef Vichit Mukura’s Royal Osha restaurant is a marriage of classic Thai cuisine and stylish presentation
Let me begin this review by disregarding any culinary knowledge you may have about the restaurant by the name of Osha. Other than inheriting an extravagant interior setting and perhaps the name from the previous tenant, the Royal Osha is not related to the original eatery in San Francisco in any way.
The two-month-old restaurant is a Thai-themed fine-dining restaurant and the new home of Michelin-starred chef Vichit Mukura, one of Thailand’s most-celebrated masters.
At the new restaurant, chef Vichit, 56, highlights classic Thai flavours through an elegant presentation of haute cuisine as part of his quest to add more value to Thai food, which is already popular across the world.
The chef’s table meal is one of the culinary highlights at the Royal Osha. The experience, set in a spacious glasshouse chamber right by Witthayu Road and boasting a gorgeous open kitchen, allows diners to enjoy their meal prepared on-site using the day’s best produce.
The meal is enhanced by the opportunity to have an exclusive interaction with chef Vichit, the host of the house.
A chef’s table experience can be booked for lunch and dinner every day.
On Tuesday and Thursday, there’s no minimum limit to the number of guests at your table and the prices range from 5,000 baht to 8,000 baht and 12,000 baht for five-course, eight-course and 12-course meals.
For the other days of the week, you will need to spend a minimum of 150,000 baht for a group of 10 to have the room exclusively to yourself.
Guests can leave the menu to the chef or make their own special requests.
Recommended for the chef’s table is a selection of dishes inspired by chef Vichit’s 40-year journey. The newly-created menu is a marriage between his long-established cooking know-how and travelling experience.
The menu includes dishes such as a salad of Carabinero prawn with black truffle shavings and squid-ink rice cracker, which takes cues from his residency at Paris’ Hôtel de Crillon as a guest chef.
The dish combines the most coveted European produce, namely deep-sea red prawn and French winter truffle, with a Thai-style pungent mixture of lime, lemongrass, shallot, kaffir lime and young leaves of the rose pepper tree.
While the dressing lent a sour and spicy zest to the plump and sweet prawn, a paper-thin cracker, made from rice flour and squid-ink, gave it an extraordinarily crispy touch.
The next dish, khai toon, or savoury egg custard — a common home-cooked dish in Thai households — is matched with pan-seared Hokkaido scallop.
The egg comes in a potato cylinder and both are steamed to perfection. Meanwhile, the scallop is seared until it develops a caramelised brown crust while retaining its springily soft texture and just a small serving of sour and spicy seafood sauce provided a big flavour enhancement.
Another dish that portrayed an authentic Thai profile through Japanese fine-dining presentation is thetom khlong pla krob. The Thai-style roasted fish consommé is served smoked under a glass cover and with a garnish of flashseared fillet of sashimi-grade yellowfin tuna and salmon roe.
The consommé, a result of slow-braising daikon and dashi, perfectly spoke to the tangy and deepheated tom khlong, which is traditionally prepared with galangal, kaffir lime, lemongrass and smoked sundried sheatfish.
Fried lobster with yellow curry promised to be a nice option for the main course as well.
The dish, inspired by chef Vichit’s kitchen days in Switzerland when he frequently cooked Atlantic crustacean, is a multi-textured exhibition of Western lobster, Thai yellow curry and yum naem khao thod, or a sour and spicy salad of fermented meat and deep-fried rice balls.
Cured mushroom is used in this main course as a substitute for fermented pork while crispy shrimp wonton added a crusty complement.
Chef Vichit is among a handful of Thai chefs who also thrive in the dessert arena and his sweet creations never disappoint.
In his special menu, he creates a super delicious and refreshing sorbet with an alcoholic khao mak, or fermented sweet sticky rice, a rustic Thai dessert.
The sorbet, infused with yuzu essence, is served on a bed of sweet golden threads.
Accompanying khao mak is khanom dok jok, a sweet and crispy water-lettuce-shaped crepe, topped with pandan cream sauce.
Also featured is sangkhaya namthan mai, or coconut creme brulee, another much-treasured dessert by chef Vichit.
Guests in the main dining room can enjoy dishes from a 50-item a la carte menu. Prices start at 340 baht per dish.
Reservations are recommended.