Greyhound Cafe review ★★★★★

Known for their hip style and modern, quirky take on Thai food, the quintessentially Bangkok Greyhound Cafe has opened with great verve in Fitzrovia. Greyhound Cafe has seventeen branches throughout South East Asia - from Singapore to China - generating great excitement about their first restaurant in Europe.

On opening night, founder of the cult fashion brand and the restaurant group too, Bhanu Inkawat to us that they wanted to do something different with Thai food, as in fashion, giving it a distinctive style of their own.

'Although we are Thai at heart, the restaurant is anything but a traditional Thai restaurant. Our inspirations come from far and wide, some recipes were handed down from our grandmothers, some were dishes from our travel memories and others were inspired by our midnight fridge raids. Just like in Bangkok, we mix traditional and international, street and couture, all fused together in a beautiful, chaotic way'.

It makes perfect sense that Bhanu's own original background was in advertising, especially as the clever street bazaar meets fashion interior incorporates plenty of witty slogans. Some of the staff sported jackets saying "I may not speak Thai but I can recommend good dishes."

The menu itself is a gorgeous work of art, more like a magazine, with stunning highly colourful photography that makes every dish look irresistible. Choosing is difficult. We opt for a generous tasting of the small dishes. ‘Complicated Noodle’, a signature dish, is a DIY taco-like wrap of iceberg lettuce and rice noodle sheets with soy-braised pork herb salsa, fresh, crunchy and utterly moreish. Sashimi-grade salmon with a an exceptional spicy lime sauce is spot-on. For us with feeble chilli tolerance, edamame som tam with salted black crab is a tad too hot.

Crab wok fried rice, a main dish, comes with a hugely generous mound of crab and a somewhat bland broth. Pork Knuckle tod rob with ultra crisp skin is hearty and much enjoyed.

The vegan pumpkin and house made tofu salad sounds appealing and there's a gorgeous sounding vegetable hot pot and several vegetarian small plate dishes too.

Greyhound Cafe occupies a two-story building on the street that features Jason Atherton’s Berners Tavern. The ground-floor dining room features Bangkok-style ‘shophouse shutters’ as well as a giant hanging fish trap swallowing a school of woven tilapia (this symbolises good fortune for Thais). Downstairs is redolent of a street scene, with corrugated metal walls, mock folding tables and colourful chairs.

Greyhound’s cocktail list is in collaboration with the Mekhong spirit distillery on the outskirts of Bangkok; the beer menu is from Full Moon Brew Works on Phuket. No need to go back-packing now.

Price: £80.00+ dinner for two with wine

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