Hi all, how are you doing? There’s nothing like a good old restaurant launch to blow those mid-week blues away. I was expecting foodie treats galore and the soft launch of Thaikhun didn’t disappoint. I hopped along on the Red Arrow from Derby and was inside the Intu Victoria Centre, Nottingham within 30 minutes. This was in rush hour traffic, which I thought was pretty impressive. (Hat tip to Trent Barton’s Red Arrow service, who are now keeping their customers informed in a polite, efficient way than ever before.)

The Thaikhun Nottingham branch is Intu Victoria Centre’s latest resident. Warm smiles greeted us within 100 yards of the entrance and having the lovely waitresses show us the way through the crowds in rush hour was the perfect welcome. A special mention to Hang, Yas, Amani and Lisa, for exemplary service and just generally being cool all night.

The restaurant is a lovely space, with furniture lovingly curated by the expert eyes of the design team of Thaikhun. They flew over to Thailand, hand-picking every piece of furniture, from the cute chairs channelling utility chic, to the taps with a twist in the toilets. Even the signage is cute, don’t you think?

But what exactly is Thaikhun? Pronounced ‘tycoon’, it’s the brainchild of Kim Kaewkraikhot. She was a chef hailing from humble beginnings in a small restaurant in Bangkok and after systematically wowing the locals, expanded her horizons. With branches in Spinningfields, Manchester and Union Square, Aberdeen, Kim will be bringing street-food to ahem, a street near you.

We were given a tour of the building by the lovely Janelle, whose warm welcome and attentive nature made us feel right at home. And this is what I love about Thaikhun. It feels homely, comfortable and the space that you crave for chilling out in. After finding a seat towards the back of the restaurant, we were served throughout the course of the evening, scrumptious platters and lip-smacking Chicken Pad Thai, all washed down with Monsoon Valley wine, Singha and Tiger Beer.

One of my favourite starters was the corn fritter. Crunchy on the outside with a nice chewy bite of the sweetcorn kernels, this was the perfect marriage partner to gorgeous sweet chilli sauce. Here is a picture of The Dude swishing away the delectable chilli sauce that I couldn’t get enough of (it had a lovely spicy kick, tempered with soft sugary notes on the swallow).

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Me and The Dude had a fab time and I cannot wait to pop back for a full review. In the meantime if you want more information about the ab fab Thaikhun, hop onto their website here.

RAxx

PS just a real quick note to the Victoria Centre, Intu Nottingham. Please can you look into keeping the main entrance inside the Intu open longer than 10pm? We had planned to leave the restaurant on time, giving us a full 10 minutes to get from the exit of Thaikhun to our bus-stop at Broadmarsh (it’s usually a 3 minute walk). Upon reaching the entrance to Broadmarsh, we found that it was closed at 9:55pm. We had to walk to the main exit outside, meaning we had missed our bus and had to wait 1 hour for the next one. Thanks!