Designed by B3 Designers, the 120-cover restaurant will span two floors, with Thai-style design features throughout, such as Thai style shutters, pendant temple lights, and an overhead hanging Sai fish trap, attracting a school of woven tilapia.
The menu will comprise a selection of Greyhound’s twists on classic Bangkok dishes, including a platter of thinly sliced sashimi-grade salmon in green chilli sauce; DIY taco-like wraps of iceberg lettuce and rice noodle sheets with soy-braised pork herb salsa; and edamame som tam seasoned with salted black crabs; German-style pork knuckle simmered with Thai herbs, deep fried and served with sticky rice; ‘angry pasta’, wok-fried with mixed seafood, holy basil and Thai chillies; and vegetarian Pad Thai with shitake mushroom stems.
Dessert options will include tapioca pearls coloured with butterfly pea flower, served with Greyhound’s signature fresh coconut sorbet.
Staff uniforms have been specially designed with saffron fisherman’s trousers and two-piece suits, in homage to the brand’s origins as a menswear fashion house.
The Greyhound brand runs eight sites in Thailand (all but two are in Bangkok) and also operates restaurants under franchise agreements in other Asian counties including China and Malaysia. It has plans for European expansion, with the London restaurant as the first.
“After England, we will target opening Greyhound Cafés in one to two more European countries a year,” says Nadim Xavier Salhani, chief executive of Mudman, Greyhound’s parent company.
“We believe in the café brand image and uniqueness.”