Chef behind Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants 2023 winner Le Du to open new fine-dining eatery Niras in Hong Kong this June
The restaurant considered to be Asia’s best is coming to Hong Kong.
Thai chef Thitid “Ton” Tassanakajohn, of Bangkok’s one-Michelin-star Le Du – No 1 on the Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants list for 2023 – will open Niras, a fine-dining restaurant, in the K11 Musea shopping centre in Tsim Sha Tsui, in Kowloon, this summer with long-time business partner Khun Rungroj “Tao” Ingudananda.
Heading the kitchen will be co-head chefs Naruemon “Mai” Ratiphuthilap and Sarocha “Bua” Rajatanawin.
Chef Mai had worked alongside Thitid – “as my right hand”, the chef says – for the past eight years at Le Du, while chef Bua led the team at Front Room at the Waldorf Astoria Bangkok.
Slated to open by mid-June, the restaurant will be Thitid’s first outside Thailand.
The announcement comes just months after Le Du and another of Thitid’s restaurants, Nusara, were awarded the first and third spots in the Asia’s 50 Best list at a ceremony held in Singapore in March.
The idea had been floating around since 2022, Thitid says. He credits chef Paulo Airaudo, who opened Noi at the Four Seasons Hong Kong in 2022, as the person who suggested that he branch out into the city – and even connected the chef with the right people to help him realise the project.
The name Niras refers to writings by poets who travelled the world, and was chosen to reflect chef Ton’s own personal journey in presenting Thai cuisine to a wider audience.
“My cooking is my poetry, a way to showcase Thailand’s diverse and vibrant cuisine to the world,” he explains. “As this is the first time Le Du is travelling overseas, Niras was the perfect name for the restaurant.”
While the chef has received plenty of offers in the past to open a restaurant overseas, in places such as the Middle East and around Southeast Asia, he says that things ultimately fell into place for his debut in Hong Kong.
“Le Du is my first restaurant and is still important to me,” he says. “To expand internationally, I wanted to make sure that we had the right partner to do it and then the right space and a good team behind it.
“Hong Kong is one of the most exciting [places] and almost the centre of the Asia. I think that it couldn’t be a better place to start the first so-called outpost of Le Du outside of Thailand.”
Born in Thailand, the chef spent the earlier years of his culinary career in fine-dining Western restaurants including Eleven Madison Park, The Modern and Jean Georges in New York.
Hopefully it will be considered the best Thai restaurant in Hong Kong
Fuelled by the conviction that Thai cuisine should be recognised for more than just its street food dishes, he opened Le Du – the Thai term for “season” – in 2013.
At Niras, diners can expect some parallels with Le Du, including the signature river prawn dish, which features crustaceans sourced from the Tapi river in Thailand’s Surat Thani province, served with a mixture of two types of black rice and a sauce of the prawn heads infused with tom yum spices.
It is the only dish that will be exactly the same as one at Le Du – other creations, which carry the same DNA as the Bangkok original, will be given their own lease of life in Hong Kong.
The restaurant will offer both a lunch and dinner menu ranging from between four and six courses, and will be open seven days a week.
“We will have a lot of Thai ingredients that we will bring in as well, but then we will also combine them with international ingredients that you have in Hong Kong,” says Thitid.
“I think it’s very interesting because of course there would be similar dishes, but then the approach and everything might be different according to the ingredients that we can find in Hong Kong as well.”
He describes Hong Kong’s bounty of good local seafood, as well as its position to receive quality imported ingredients from all over the world, as a powerful combination that will “make Niras a bit more interesting”.
As for whether attaining the number-one position on the Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants list has added any elevated expectations to proceedings, Thitid admits there will always be some pressure.
“Yes, people do expect a lot. But I believe that Niras will do well. Of course, we have to start it and we need some time to get up and running, but I believe that eventually Niras will be [considered] a very good restaurant to be included in the Hong Kong food scene, which is very exciting.
“Hopefully it will be considered the best Thai restaurant in Hong Kong,” he adds with a smile. “So that is our aim and that is the goal we want to go for.”
Niras, 7/F, K11 Musea, Victoria Dockside, 18 Salisbury Road, Tsim Sha Tsui
