Gary Steel: Khu Khu’s Thai fare is completely vegan

Here’s an object lesson in how to do it right.

It’s immediately obvious that everything about Khu Khu has been thought through, consumer tested and expertly carried out. And the most important part – the dishes themselves – are out of this world.

I wasn’t surprised, therefore, to find that behind Khu Khu was one of New Zealand’s brightest entrepreneurs, Michael Khuwattanasenee. (See how he’s taken the first three letters of his surname and doubled them to create a cute and memorable name for his restaurant)

It turns out that Michael, who was born and raised in Bangkok but moved to Auckland with his family at the age of 14, has a background in accounting and entrepreneurship, and owns several innovative companies including a biotechnology outfit researching ways to produce sustainable replacements for those environmentally detrimental polystyrene blobs used inside boxes containing consumer goods.

So, why would a smart cookie like Michael be slumming it in hospitality? It turns out that he got the bug (so to speak) from his grandparents, who were longtime restaurant owners, and he continued the tradition by opening The Taste in Devonport in 2013.

The advent of Khu Khu late last year was partly a gamble but also played right into the increasingly popular phenomenon of plant-based eating. He’d noticed how hard it was to find genuinely vegan Thai food and set about researching the options. This led to a research mission where Michael travelled the length and breadth of Thailand checking out vegetarian and vegan restaurants, including the famous vegetarian enclave in Bangkok.

“I wanted to give Khu Khu something unique compared to a Thai restaurant that sells Pad Thai and standard fare. Let’s bring something cool, something different; so I travelled around Bangkok to test the cuisine and street food and fine dining.”

Traditionally, just about everything on a Thai menu (even the so-called ‘vegetarian’ options) contains fish sauce, which helps to give it what the Japanese call an umami flavour. How to eliminate the fish sauce without spoiling the flavour? Happily, says Michael, Kiwis don’t seem to care about fish sauces and, on the whole aren’t too fond of them. In audience testing, he found that meat eaters who might want to try Khu Khu were most concerned about a perceived lack of protein in vegan food. And that’s something the restaurant addresses by incorporating the very well-known and on-trend Sunfed “chicken” and Beyond Meat brands.

But it’s not just its veganism that makes Khu Khu great. While around 20 per cent of its orders are takeaways (they do free deliveries to Ponsonby, Grey Lynn and Eden Terrace), the small but perfectly formed menu is full of taste and texture discoveries and tastebud tingle “wow!” moments.

“We only have 20 seats so obviously won’t be making a lot of money, but it’s better for us because we can control the experience a bit more; we want something small and easy to control. We can open another shop or expand to other things later, but we’re focusing on ‘if you come to Khu Khu how can we bring you the best food and experience’?”

This is vegan Thai food quite unlike the wholesome, traditional Buddhist food of Sunflower in High Street. Sensibly, menu options are limited to make sure everything offered is fresh and fragrant and the chefs always get plenty of practice. The idea is maximum efficiency so that they can put their effort into putting smiles of satisfaction on customer faces.

Like all restaurants, Khu Khu was hit hard by the lockdown and Michael describes custom since returning to Level 1 as encouraging but a bit spasmodic. Although he thinks of the business as a “work in progress”, to this happy customer it’s a great example of what can be done when a business owner has vision, a plan, and the practical skill to carry it out.

And his favourite Khu Khu dish? The most popular menu item and Michael’s own personal favourite is the Panang Curry. “ Because it’s quite a different texture - taro, kumara, lotus root and stuff - when people eat it they try to figure out what texture it is, so it starts conversation as well. What is this, you know?” (GARY STEEL)

Khu Khu Thai Eatery, 171A Ponsonby Road, T: 09 360 0992, www.khukhu.co.nz

Gary Steel is an Auckland-based journalist who runs entertainment site for grownups, www.witchdoctor.co.nz
He can be contacted via beautmusic@gmail.com