Maya adds spice to Bangkok’s restaurant scene
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For many years now Bangkok has been considered a global hub of cuisine – a city where the pavements simmer and sizzle with theatrical food stalls, and the luxury hotels serve up high-end fine-dining, with prices to match.
But in recent years, Bangkok has undergone a renaissance. While the cheap and cheerful street food and rooftop silver service remain, the city is now catering to a more eclectic clientele. An influx of tourists and a rising local middle class is fuelling demand for a more diverse range of restaurants, providing authentic-yet-accessible cuisine, in salubrious surroundings, without the sky-high prices.
One such restaurant is Maya – a new contemporary Indian establishment perched dramatically on top of the new Holiday Inn Bangkok Sukhumvit 22. Jutting out over the central Sukhumvit Road area of the Thai capital, Maya makes an immediate impression. Upon entering, the glass-walled kitchen gives an early taste of what to expect, with chefs tending to long skewers of marinated meat and fish in three large copper and stone tandoors.
The restaurant is large, yet intimate, with cosily enclosed tables and dim lighting delivering an ambience of romantic privacy, but without cutting diners off from the hubbub of their surroundings or the spectacular views of the Sukhumvit skyline.
Due to its large Indian expatriate population, Bangkok has never been short of good Indian restaurants, but Maya is aiming to provide something a little different – a destination to suit the palates of both Indian and Thai guests, as well as the city’s ever-expanding tourist population. And while the menu is delicately balanced give Indian food more local appeal, it manages to maintain the bold flavours for which this rich cuisine is so rightly famous.
Dishes such as scallops dusted with gun-powder-chillies, lobster marinated with kaffir lime and yellow chillies, and New Zealand lamb chops char-grilled in Peshawari spice and cinnamon powder, combine the finest global ingredients with traditional cooking methods. Speaking with Travel Daily, Maya’s chef de cuisine, Hardeep Bhatia, revealed that the majority of spices are imported from India, offering Indian diners a taste of home and local patrons an authentic journey into the country’s culinary culture.
One of the criticisms occasionally levelled at Indian cuisine among Thai diners is that it is too heavy, compared with the light, spicy nature of many local dishes. But at Maya, the dishes never seem to weigh on the spoon or stomach. Dishes are “dusted” or “rubbed” with spice, while marinades are light. And this also leaves diners ample room to sample the exquisite desserts, such as creamy saffron pistachio ice-cream and cheesecake embedded with gulab jamun – a traditional Indian sweet.
All of which is developing Maya’s reputation on Bangkok’s highly competitive restaurant scene. Certainly when we visited the restaurant was close to being full, with a strong mix of Indian, Thai and western diners, either enjoying the culinary creations or taking in the views from the bar, while sipping on one of Maya’s signature cocktails, which include a stunning tamarind margarita and the refreshing beetroot-based BMW. There is also an outdoor terrace area offering a selection of whiskies and cigars overlooking the city skyline, while the bar is enticing female guests with a weekly “Ladies’ Light” complete with complimentary Prosecco.
Bangkok’s restaurant sector has come a long way in a short space of time. As a culture based around food, Thailand will always embrace high-quality cuisine, but it is now developing a more refined palate. Fixed firmly between the traditional delights of local street food and the finesse of fine-dining, Maya represents a new wave of dining in the city – internationally-appealing, authentic and atmospheric – and it is succeeding in making Indian cuisine more accessible to the Thai market.
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