"DISHES FOR SHARING" - THE PHOENIX MAGAZINE
The Phoenix Magazine
Friday, October 9, 2009
In Dublin city center is an island oasis of Thai and Asian food. Koh Restaurant and Cocktail Lounge is positioned on Millennium Walkway, beside the Jervis Street Luas stop.
This buzzing venue has recently garnered the Reader's Choice Award 2009 in the annual Food and Wine Magazine Awards. For co-directors Conor Sexton and Conor Kilkenny, it is particularily sweet, having only been in business for just over a year.
The food is modern Thai/Asian with the emphasis on quality ingredients and the menu has been designed to accomodate that most sociable Asian custom of sharing food. For those on a budget, the pre or post theatre menu is fantastic value at €20 for three courses.
The restaurant is divided into three sections with a spacious outdoor terrace, a stylish cocktail lounge, and the main restaurant, which also features private booths, and a private dining room, ideal for celebrations.
"READERS CHOICE AWARDS" - FOOD AND WINE MAGAZINE
Food and Wine Magazine
Tuesday, September 1, 2009
Koh Restaurant and Cocktail Lounge is a stylish eatery that celebrates the new found love of modern Thai and Asian cuising so popular with Celtic Cub foodies. The uber-modern interior and superb cocktails made this a firm favourite for our special text-voting Reader's Choice Awards.
"STYLISH ASIAN OFFERINGS" - IRISH TIMES MAGAZINE
"KOH is blooming in the Quartier"
By Tom Doorley
Saturday, June 20, 2009
"They have very pleasant staff, a good kitchen and prices that correspond more closely to reality than many in Dublin. And, although it has a strong Thai accent, there’s something a bit pan-Asian going on – which could be risky in less able hands. Here it seems to work."
"Anyway, in the wicked way of the restaurant critic, I noticed that KOH is doing gyoza dumplings which hail from Japan. But my scepticism evaporated as I bit into these delicate little mouthfuls, each of them encased in a supremely light – what’s the word – dough? Pasta? Wrapping?"
"And then a very generous main course of two grilled mackerel which were good and fresh and not too oily. These were served with a curiously creamy textured take on pesto, which was made with a great deal of coriander. Its fresh sharpness worked well with the fish."
"There’s talent in the kitchen, a sense of pushing the boundaries and a lightness of touch that is very contemporary. "
"THE TEST OF THAI" - EVENING HERALD
Having tasted the best in Thai food in London, Ernie Whalley is forever on the hunt for a comparable experience in Dublin. Koh comes close
By Ernie Whalley
Thursday April 23 2009
My favourite hotel in London is the Halkin. It has a Thai restaurant on the premises which has grown to be one of my all-time favourites. It's called Nahm. Brainchild of talented Aussie chef David Thompson, Nahm is the benchmark by which I judge Thai food.
The cooking there has what you could call 'an unbelievable lightness of being': the broths are not muddy, and the spices are not fused into a 'sweetness' or 'hotness' and remain identifiable yet, concurrently, contribute in sensible manner to making the whole dish memorable. Difficult to explain, but I know what I'm looking for, and I'm always disappointed when a Thai restaurant misses the mark by a country mile, as is too often the case.
I took Daughter Two, over on a flying visit, for a pint in the Clarence. Then we walked over the Millennium Bridge and down the alley. Koh is located at the far end, incongruous among the Italians and Italophiles that populate this sector of the daftly-named Quartier Bloom. I had tried a couple of times to book a table when the restaurant first opened but someone else's favourable review meant the place was packed.
There were tables outside, but only a couple of hardy souls were using them; inside, there was a hubbub of conversation, entirely female. Apparently Koh's 'Mixo' is a smart lad who's won prizes for his alcoholic confections, so the ladies who lounge were all climbing into cocktails. How could we not follow suit? We commandeered a Manhattan and a Pomegranate Mountie, a speciality of the house. The Manhattan, made properly, is a thing of wonder. From the ingredients you'd expect it to taste sweet and cloying but it doesn't.
After a civilised interval, we were shown to the restaurant, a decently got-up dining room with a couple of private booths, tables round the edge and a long communal table (in true Thai fashion) down the middle of the room. We took one of the peripheral tables and settled down to the task of choosing food and accompanying wine. Thai is not the easiest cuisine to match. White works best, but the out-front spicing renders Chardonnay anaemic and Sauvignon Blanc aggressive. Some say Gewurztraminer, some say Riesling, but I'm not wholly convinced. Thai food, I find, needs a touch of something dark-natured with a mite of viscosity; Grüner Veltliner fits the bill, as does Albarinho, which is what we settled on.
Thai desserts tend to be pretty mundane and, as neither of us is particularly sweet-toothed, we figured that four starters, plus two mains, would suffice and permit us to take a wide-ranging look at what was on offer. And so it proved. The starters excited, particularly that 'mange tout of the sea', soft-shell crab, which came accompanied by Green Papaya Salad, cherry tomatoes and cucumber. Rachel had not had it before and loved the sea-zingy freshness and crunchy texture. The coriander, lime and cashew-nut chutney, which formed a bed for pan-seared king scallops was unexpectedly delightful, something I'll try to reprise at home.
The baby back ribs, glazed with hoisin and chargrilled, were meaty and satisfying. I was delighted to find the mussels were small, sweet natives, not of the rubbery green-lipped, inedible ilk. The accompanying broth, which managed to be both spicy and subtle, provided a stimulus for the mains that followed. Herself, something of a Phad Thai veteran, opined that this one was the best yet. Praise indeed.
The saucing of my Red Duck Curry was well up to snuff, and the duck, tender -- something of a novelty in Dublin Thai restaurants where this dish frequently pops up. I should also make mention of the waiting staff who paced the meal beautifully. Afterwards, we repaired to the bar where we made the acquaintance of the proprietor. I complimented him on the food. He said: "Yes, we have some good chefs here. They don't allow us to muck about with their mothers' recipes." Nice one.
The damage: €117.20 ex-service for two cocktails, four starters, two mains, bottle of decent wine.
Verdict: Not Nahm but not far off. Gives Dublin suburban Thai something to aim at.
METRO
April 8th, 2008 - Daragh Reddin
"And cool decor has been well complemented by service, which was so good, you might be forgiven for thinking you were in New York not Dublin."
"From the waitress who served us our pre-dinner cocktails to the waiter who helpfully advised us choose our wine, this was the céad míle fáilte we always anticipate in Irish restaurants but seldom actually experience."
"Her Vietnamese summer rolls were impeccable, delicate creations, stuffed with prawn and juicy mangoes and served on a tasty bed of satay sauce. Yellow curry was so plentiful with plump prawns they were threatening to jump out of the bowl, while there were a few nice juicy chunks of sweet potato thrown in for extra pep."
"Massaman lamb curry (a Thai favourite) proved equally enticing and again there was no stinting with the meat which was lean, tender and well served by the creamy coconut based sauce."
SUNDAY TRIBUNE MAGAZINE
May 4th, 2008 - Eoin Higgins
"To start, I had soft shell crab that had a strongly spiced kick with a subtle underlying complexity. I loved it. Nice to see soft shell on the menu too: it's a rare and often beautiful thing."
"For mains, my Singapore noodles with barbecue pork, prawn, beansprouts, chilli paste and spring onions was perfectly balanced between spiced pungency and delicate flavour. I enjoyed it, very much, and it was good value too at €14.95."
"I recommend it as a good place for a night out on the town for friends or lovers. Go, enjoy good food and great drinks, let your hair down"
SUNDAY INDEPENDENT LIFE
June 1st, 2008 - Lucinda O'Sullivan
"Take three guys, a sleek cocktail lounge, a beautiful urban restaurant and some cracking Asian food, and you have Three Men and a Baby Called Koh."
"Prawn Tempura was served...with three big prawns, very lightly coated with an ethereally fine batter, perched on the rim of a cocktail glass holding shredded Chinese greens and concealing a depth-charge hit of sambal olek aioli."
"Also yummy was a half-portion of Thailand's most famous dish, phad Thai noodles, which I wanted to test and which got the thumbs up"
IRISH INDEPENDENT FINE WINE & FOOD GUIDE
June 7th, 2008 - Dee Laffan
"My Thai style mussels were delicious, cooked in an aromatic broth with chilli and Thai basil, it packed a punch. Kate has the best choice of starter, her Chicken Satay was really tasty; spicier than I've tasted before but the satay sauce was excellent."
"The daily fish special of Haddock with Asian Green Vegetables and Aubergine Purée was mouth-watering and light."
THE DUBLINER
July 15th, 2008 - Capital Restaurants
"Koh has a lot to offer...the cocktail list is impressive...we were further impressed by the funky decor and interesting menu."
"The star of the evening was the soft-shelled crab which left us beaming. Other restauranteurs might take note: give us something a little left-field of goat's cheese or fois-gras as a starter and our stomachs are yours."
VILLAGE
July 18th, 2008
"Trendy, glitzy Dublin eateries tend to focus more on style than substance, but Koh breaks the rule. It servers some outstanding Asian food and cocktails."
"Our group tried the green Thai curry with chicken and the Yellow prawn curry. Both were superb - authentic, generous and creamy, but not so much that Thai flavours are overpowered. An added bonus, and not normally found in Irish restaurant was a generous helping of fat tiger prawns in the curry."
"A Mojito, one of the best this cocktail-addict has tasted in Dublin, rounded off an excellent meal."
GAY COMMUNITY NEWS
June 1st, 2008 - Sinéad Deegan
"For starters, the service is slick and sharp. The lads are professionals and it shows. We were greeted, seated at the bar, had cocktails in hand and menus to peruse before we realised we'd arrived."
"Money Bags, which are pork and prawn parcels with coriander root and carrots, served with a sweet and sour sauce for dipping were subline from start to finish."
"The icing on the Koh cake for me was the music - it's not often you get fantastic food, flawless service...There most certainly would have been dancing had we opted for one of the private booths."
AWARDS
Reader’s Choice Award 2009
Food and Wine Magazine
Best Ethnic Restaurant & Best Cocktail Experience
Restaurant Association Awards 2009
Top 100 Restaurants
Dublin Guide 2010
RESERVATIONS
To reserve a table, please phone 01 - 814 6777 or visit our reservations page to make an online reservation.
PARTIES & SPECIAL EVENTS
Are you looking for an intimate and unique venue to hold your event, function or party?
At KOH we have a full time events team on hand, ready to co-ordinate all your function arrangements and handle those individual requests to make your event special. Call: 01 - 814 677
