Khu Khu Eatery
It’s been over two years since Khu Khu Eatery first opened its doors at 171A Ponsonby Road, and in that time it has survived a global pandemic, and consecutive All Blacks losses. Often time, success, or a combination of both, renders restaurants a little too comfortable, and the standards start to drop. I was invited back by owner Michael Khuwattanasenee to get a taste of what Khu Khu has been up to in the last year, and I was hopeful it was as good as the first time I’d visited in early 2020. I was booked to dine at the rather late hour of 9pm and was surprised to find the joint humming, all seats taken.
For the uninitiated, Khu Khu Eatery is a restaurant serving an entirely plant-based Thai-inspired menu, drawing on the street food of Michael’s home city Bangkok. Khu Khu is now doing late night ‘tapas’, a short and sweet menu of affordable sharing plates to help get your night going (they now have a liquor license to service your drinks and bottomless brunch needs) or help it wind down with supper. From the late night menu we tried the tom yum dumplings, green parcels filled with shiitake mushroom and tofu. The dumpling skin has a pleasingly chewy texture, and if your dining mates aren’t against it, I recommend nipping a hole in one side of your dumpling and then dredging it through the tangy tom yum soup it comes with, turning it into a plant-based Thai-version of xiao long bao. The tom yum soup is bright and fragrant with lemongrass, and they’ve been kind in keeping the chilli-factor low by Thai standards.
Khu Khu serves some recognisable Thai classics such as pad thai packed with crispy tempeh, an eggplant and kumara laden green curry and a panang curry with crispy lotus root and tofu. But they also have a specials menu featuring some lesser known dishes, such as their version of the street food khao yum gai. This dish of crispy fried ‘chicken’ is tossed in a sticky, citrus forward sauce spiked with aromatic herbs and ground roasted rice, the latter adding both a nutty profile in taste and texture. Think stir-fry meets salad hybrid. It is quite delicious and I wish to affectionately dub it TFC (Thai Fried Chicken).
I’ve been contemplating the origins of the prefix ‘drunken’ in front of noodles and rice. Is it because the food is flambeed with alcohol before it is served, or that it is ‘drowned’ in some kind of gravy? In Thailand, pad kee mao or drunken noodles are often consumed after a night out on the sauce, its tasty fiery characteristics designed to either blast through the dulled tastebuds of the drunk or to punish the inebriated husband who stumbles home demanding his woman makes him something to eat. Or so Wikipedia says.
We held back on the savouries to leave room for the dessert. Eggs, for better or for worse, are natures wonder-ingredient. So I was eager to see how Khu Khu’s sticky date pudding would fare in its absence. Suffice to say vegans will not be missing out on dessert here. The pudding was light and springy, the coconut caramel sauce lusciously moreish.
Michael is an ideas man who is not only running a restaurant but trying to build a community along the way. A vegan himself, last month he hosted a Dine and Donate day where he donated 10% of Khu Khu’s sales to help out The Vegan Store, and before that it was to the The Animal Sanctuary NZ. Khu Khu also regularly hosts fun events such as Drink and Draw, and tarot card readings. I also hear (from the horse’s mouth) that a matchmaking service is in the works too.
Khu Khu Eatery is the kind of place where you’ll find fresh and delicious Thai-inspired food that you’ll keep coming back for, with the added bonus of being entirely plant-based. It will leave your heart full, and your guts less saggy than its animal-based counterparts.
Khu Khu Eatery
171A Ponsonby Road
Ponsonby
Auckland 1011
Ph. (09) 360 1992