Kai Mayfair – London
65 South Audley Street, London W1K 2QU
+44 (0)20 7493 8988
www.kaimayfair.co.uk
Written by Lydia Manch
 Kai Mayfair is on South Audley Street, in one of London’s glossier postcodes. Very fancy, but in the muted sort of way that I associate with Mayfair – soft carpets and wall-hangings and pristine waiters in sleek black suits, and a feeling of hush despite both the upstairs and downstairs being pretty full for a weekday evening.
If Caroline was a little disappointed that it wasn’t the sort of B-list celebrity-strewn restaurant where she’d be likely to rub shoulders with Christiano Ronaldo, she took it in her stride, and took the edge off her disappointment with a lychee Martini. A drink is probably a prerequisite, anyway, for tackling the long, Michelin-starred menu and its very flowery turn of phrase. The starters alone covered several pages, and have names like ‘Mermaids in the Mist’ (fish and bean soup, you Philistine). Caroline and I shared the Parcels of Prosperity (£12), which were slices of prawns wrapped in pastry, and the Soft-Shelled Crab with Julienne Green Mango (£14). Both were good, although the nicest and most unusual part was the pile of mango and chilli gratings that came with the crab.
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 Actually, the extra touches and bizarre flavour combinations seem to be something that Kai Mayfair does well, in general. Both of our main courses were well-cooked and tender – Caroline had pork belly (£19), and I had sea bass (£32) – but it was the Spicy Aubergines and Tofu (£20), ordered as an afterthought, to share, which we both agreed were great. That and the salad of mint and grated apple which came with the pork belly.
By the time the main courses were finished I was far too full to really do a restaurant critic’s duty by the dessert menu. Instead I let Caroline choose something for us to share, then ridiculed her choice – Pumpkin Cream, Coconut Ice-cream and Purple Rice (£10) – until it arrived, when it turned out to be a great combination of a gritty-textured pumpkin sauce and smooth ice-cream. With the desserts, as seems to be typical of the food at Kai Mayfair, it pays to order from among the more unfamiliar combinations on the menu.
It’s certainly expensive – a three-course meal for two, with wine, ordered from the pricier parts of the menu might only be ever-so-slightly cheaper than flying to China for dinner instead. But the unexpected flavours and the lack of pretension justify at least part of the cost, and a lot of the hype around South Audley Street’s local Chinese.
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