Mekong

Mekong upstairs, and Lower Mekong downstairs, are by Tiw Rakarin (ex-Alphabet Street, Mama’s Buoi). Mekong serves Indochinese, Cambodian, Burmese, Laotian, Vietnamese and Thai cuisine.

Unlike downstairs, where the cuisine has been modernised, upstairs is mostly traditional; all the ingredients and the methods of cooking are true to the region, but the presentation has been tweaked. A Cambodian egg-and-prawn curry is steamed in a whole coconut and placed on a bed of salt and two scorched, smoking cinnamon sticks. Burmese-style shredded chicken is served in a delicate chickpea and tofu wafer. Two Thai-style squid-ink dumplings sit in striking contrast to the white bowl they are served in and the orange flower petals that decorate them.

A few dishes (mainly from the entrée and snack menu), such as the dumplings served with a kettle of chicken pho, mix cuisines together. The mains are more classic, such as Cambodia’s national dish, amok, an orange curry with fried seafood. And Hanoi-style pipies with chilli oil, basil and garlic.

The restaurant’s design is by Chris Wilks and Ed Kenney (Giant Design). They created upstairs the same riverside forest style as they did for the downstairs venue. Bamboo trunks reach up from the bottom floor and the back wall is plastered with green patterns that give the impression of a tropical jade estuary.