Xin – Chinese Restaurant, Varana Hotel Krabi

Xin – Krabi by Chef Pom

Words: Claire Matheson
Photos: Monica Tindall

As Varana Hotel in Krabi opens its doors for the first time, we join two exceptionally talented chefs to taste their contemporary fine dining creations at Chinese-inspired Xin Restaurant. Located near the base of Khao Ngon Nak, or Dragon Crest Mountain, the Varana Hotel’s focus on wellness in all forms is echoed in Xin’s menu, where superbly crafted food of superior quality will leave you feeling healthy, happy and utterly satisfied. 

Xin – Chinese Restaurant, Krabi

The menu at Xin is the combined efforts of Director of Culinary Tyson Gee, previously from the Ruma Hotel in Kuala Lumpur and the Park Hyatt in Melbourne, and famed Thailand Iron Chef Thanarak ‘Pom’ Chuto, hailed as the greatest Chinese Cuisine artist in Thailand. The two make a formidable team, with extensive shared knowledge and skills, bringing their innovative Chinese culinary creations to the guests of Varana Hotel. Their hands-on approach means they closely oversee every step of dish cultivation and preparation for superlative perfection.

Moodily lit, Xin makes fantastic use of reclaimed and repurposed timbers from the local Krabi area. The main table is centre stage, a thick cut slab of two tree trunk halves, polished to preserve the identity of the grain, the whorls and rings illuminated in the soft lamp light. Darker wood tables with wide, classically beautiful armchair seating form a range of dark charcoal tones. 

In the candle glow, polished wine glasses throw reflective glimmers of shifting light from overlarge paper lanterns hanging from the ceiling, each big enough to fit an entire person. Their unevenly hung celestial bodies bounce and dance in air-conditioned currents around the space, throwing gentle golden and silvered light, which adds to the richness of the space. The floor-to-ceiling, black-seamed sliding glass doors reflect the beauty of Varana’s architecturally masterful grounds outside, the waves and curves of the pools and buildings adding to the twinkle of the welcoming, cosmopolitan atmosphere. 

Xin Menu

Before we begin the meal proper, we are treated to two bowls of Chinese-Thai snacks. Varana’s own pickled cabbage is served with chives and finely sliced red birds-eye chillies in a light, vinegary and moreish pickling sauce. The other bowl is a salty delectation with dried anchovies, crisp dried peanuts, roasted chunks of red chillies, and a smattering of spring onions. 

Wine-paired Dinner, Krabi

Tonight we are dining in even greater style with paired wine accompaniments from Varana Hotel’s excellent wine collection, personally curated by Chef Tyson from small-batch, high-end, globally sourced producers. Their wine menu has something for all tastes, and we begin our degustation with some bubbles. The 2021 Hajszanneumann Wien Pet Nat from Vienna is a medium-bodied, straw-coloured, sparkling biodynamic white. Pet Nat, shortened for ‘pétillant naturel’, or naturally sparkling, is a lower sugar, fruit-driven drop with plenty of green notes. We taste pear and green apple with a slightly herbaceous, floral nose against plenty of citrus acidity. It is a great choice with seafood, tropical fruits, and lighter fare. 

An initial plate of appetisers represents the styling of Chefs Tyson and Pom, with three bite-sized samplings setting the bar at soaring heights. A Thai Jellyfish Salad is crunchy in texture; slippery in a spicy Sichuan dressing. Sliced into lengthy noodles and served with black fungus and slivers of cucumber, the jellyfish is delightfully warming to the chest. 

Placed within the hollowed bowl of a roasted tomato, local Krabi mudcrab is prepared in a salty XO sauce. Featuring just the right amount of red chilli oil, the crab comes with finely diced spring onions and edible flower garnish, the sauce giving a taste similar to bbq char siu. The third appetiser is a shrimp spring roll in a petite, buttery pastry casing dipped in a honeyed sauce and slivered almonds. Light and springy shrimps are cooked delicately, their treasure awakened with a bite to their flaky casing. 

Varana Hotel Restaurant

Moving onto our second wine, we enjoy pourings of the 2020 Hidden Treasures Riesling Furmint from Balaton in Hungary. Like Xin’s own menu, this wine is a product of the combined talents of industry greats, this time famed Austrian winemaker Roland Velich, in partnership with the rich volcanic soils of Lake Balaton’s Pannonian Plain. This Hungarian landscape is known for its rieslings and furmints, which have long been some of the most highly sought-after white wines on the planet. The Hidden Treasure is well-named, with light florals, peach, mango, citrus and a hint of soft spice. 

Arriving at the table in a cylindrically cut section of bamboo is a soup of double-boiled bamboo fungus with shiitake mushrooms, dried scallops, goji berries, bok choy and Chinese Jinhua ham. The fungus has an incredible, unique texture, porous and velvet-like while firm, almost as though we’re eating knitted cashmere. It soaks up the salty, umami flavour of the soup, enriched with one of China’s most revered hams. The double boiling provides a gentle, aromatic finish with an unwavering personality.

Mains

Moving onto a red wine to accentuate our mains, we are each served a glass of the 2020 Marcus Schneider Black Print Pfalz Rotwein Cuvée from Germany. An excellent sipping wine even without food, the Black Print pairs well with darker poultries such as duck and roasted porks. Its deep, dark fruits are thick with cherries, blackberries, chocolate and currents. Structurally sophisticated, medium-level tannins round out this German wine, with similarities to a French Bordeaux. 

For mains, Tyson brings out five dishes simultaneously, taking the time to explain each of the preparation methods and the personally selected and sourced ingredients. Steamed tiger prawns in a Chinese garlic sauce lie on a bed of vermicelli glass noodles in a thick, dark soy sauce with ultra-finely diced capsicum and chives. Startlingly plated, the prawns are topped with sculptural crispy-fried prawn heads with charcoal prawn crackers. 

Wok-fried broccoli is still crunchy and exquisitely steamed with whole roasted cloves of garlic, sitting in a Chinese Shaoxing wine and pork broth with silken shiitake mushrooms. Also, out of the wok, egg-fried noodles are a medley of differing levels of softened and crunchy noodles. Hidden in their folds are plenty of local seafood: seabass, prawns and calamari in lightly peppered seafood and XO sauce, with more earthy shiitake mushrooms and green leaks.

A generous portion of pork in two different styles is artfully presented alongside a scaffold of fresh vegetables and a green, lacy, coral-esque lattice. Chef Pom’s specialty, the char siu pork, is practically pillowy, dispensing its rich, sweet, meaty bbq juices through the palette with each chew. The crispy roast pork looks deceptively similar to pork belly. Yet underneath the wafer-thin, crisp outer skin, the layers of lightly coloured flesh are, in fact, sumptuous pork meat, bold with flavour, with only a thin ribbon of fat, giving maximum taste with the highest quality feel. 

Saving the spiciest until last, the stir-fried chicken, Chongqing style, has similar chilli and pepper spiced flavours to cuisine from its neighbouring region of Sichuan. In this fragrant dish, the uncompromising inclusion of peppercorns and roasted birds-eye chillies with Chinese wine carry a sudden burst of heat, released towards the end of each mouthful, causing you to suddenly catch your breath in surprise. As quickly as it comes, the heat leaves you. The experience is exhilarating. 

Dessert

Seeking to surprise us, Chef Tyson brings us the final dish – an intensely cooling and pleasant aiyu jelly, made from the seeds of the awkeotsang creeping fig. A Hokkien-inspired delicacy with medicinal healing properties, the jelly is served with soft, woody gingko nuts, goji berries, lotus root, and a citrus dressing made of orange juice, calamansi, lemon and lime juice. A pouring sauce of pandan syrup, Thailand’s answer to maple syrup, gives a saccharine sweetness to this refreshing, tart dish. The dessert is like a cold plunge pool for the mouth after the warming spices of the mains. 

Xin Restaurant Review

The land on which Varan Hotel and Xin Restaurant stand is apparently blessed by Krabi’s mythical Naga dragon, with all elements designed to boost the health, wellness and happiness of guests. Even if the legend is nothing more than good storytelling, the combined talents of Chefs Tyson Gee and Pom Chuto are guaranteed to have you feeling refreshed and revitalised, your soul healed through the power of exceptional food. Our purposely cultivated journey has taken us through chilli-born heat, cooling ice jelly, medicinally beneficial plants and herbs grown on-site, and relaxing, luxuriant, world-class wines. Myth or no, we leave feeling wholly restored. 

With Varada Hotel’s opening, Xin is offering their Degustation Menu at the low set price of THB1,800, with additional wine pairing priced at THB900, an incredibly affordable range for the level of quality and service experience. All prices are subject to added government tax and service charges. Book ahead of time to ensure your table.

Reasons to visit Xin, Chinese Restaurant Krabi: The bamboo fungus soup was highly unique and replenishing, while the duo of pork and the Aiyu Jelly were incredibly crafted. Both the Hidden Treasures Riesling Furmint and the Marcus Schneider Black Print were wines we will be excited to taste again. 

Xin – Chinese Restaurant Krabi
Varana Hotel, Krabi
258, Tambon Nong Talay
Mueang Krabi District, Krabi 81180, Thailand
+66 75 656 989

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