The food, the service and the design atmosphere all add up to a truly fantastic experience here at Nahmyaa at the Como Hotel, so visiting it is a must for all lovers of high-end Thai cuisine and good wine.
Hi-end Thai restaurants are a tricky thing. This is not at all a fair statement to put it mildly but many of us consider sitting at the edge of a Soi with heavy foot traffic passing by as the only way to enjoy Thai food, that being cheap and interesting. In this issue we have reviewed two excellent restaurants that break this mold and do truly remarkable food in a gracious setting while providing history, culture and the best gastronomy that Thailand has to offer. I certainly feel fortunate to have known both just as they opened so I am not missing any opportunities to enjoy these wonderful flavors and unique dishes and presentation- I repeat this initial paragraph in both for clarity.The Como Hotel is beautifully designed as mentioned in a previous story. We were here for the food so got right to it after a quick cocktail. I had already heard great things about Nahmyaa so I was determined to find out if this was hyperbole or it really was groundbreaking.
After perusing the menu, we got started right away. We began with 2 salads that were part traditional and also part modern. First, we tried the marinated black kingfish with lemongrass, mint and chili. Next came the coconut poached chicken, fern tip, and wing beans with toasted coconut. Both salads were tremendous dishes, there was something modern gastronomic about them, combining flavors and textures perfectly. Our group highly recommended both and I still have wonderful memories of them, days later. We continued with a Southern Thai spiced wagyu oxtail soup with baby potatoes, tomatoes and fried shallots which also made everyone happy and made for great discussion.We continued with a couple of different curries and I wondered what spin executive Chef Daniel Moran would be putting on these dishes. He certainly has a way of mixing local flavors with international ideas and gastronomic principles, something we certainly appreciated that night and a few times since. The curries are presented with a variety of rice options from brown to red to jasmine. Who would just get white rice with all those options? We soon found what Daniel could invent in a curry as we deliciously tested a blue crab in rich coconut curry a dish seasoned wonderfully with turmeric, young ginger and black pepper. Simply fantastic.
The second curry that we tried was the Massaman lamb curry which is pretty common in Thailand but not like this. The dish was presented with sweet potato cucumber and papaya pickle and the flavors made this the most unusual and wonderful preparation of the dish. Everything was as good as we could have hoped and the food was living up to the hype. We discussed, enjoyed some wine and continued with the stir fried local spinach with garlic and coconut milk, so simple yet so delicious. We then finished expanding our waistlines with the beef rib with smoky tomato and tamarind sauce. The meat was perfectly cooked and for those looking for something less experimental, this dish will do the trick. It also showed another side to the food, a simpler but still unique offering. The wine list is ample and the service is very attentive. We tried a couple of inventive desserts next. We had the Jasmine scented noodles with seasonal fruit and shaved ice and the dish reminded me of something that Ferran Adria might prepare, simple yet somehow complex. We finished the night with a tapioca and black bean pudding with poached bananas and salted coconut, another inventive dish that had us all impressed.The food, the service and the design atmosphere all add up to a fantastic experience you must try and one we certainly recommend Nahmyaa to all our readers.
Nahmyaa Thai Restaurant
POINT YAMU BY COMO, PHUKET
225 Moo 7, Paklok, Thalang, Phuket 83110, Thailand
Tel +66 (0) 76 360100
Email pointyamu@comohotels.com
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