Khe-Yo is one of Marc Forgione’s latest ventures.  It features the cuisine of his long-time Loatian Chef Soulayphet Schwader.  As anyone who follows us knows, we are huge fans of Marc Forgione and one of our favorite restaurants in town is Restaurant Marc Forgione.  We have trusted him for many a brunch, dinner and holiday meal.  He never disappoints.  We even booked American Cut, his new steakhouse for Christmas Eve this past year.  We’ve been very excited about Khe-Yo and had stopped in when they opened for cocktails and a few bites. After all, there are no Loatian restaurants in NYC, so the idea of a Loatian Southeast Asian inspired menu is an interesting concept.

Khe-Yo has a familiar Forgione style with high ceilings, reclaimed wood, natural steel, exposed brick walls and spotlights.  The lighting is always low in his spaces, making it difficult to get awesome food shots.  We landed under a spotlight and were able to get some moderately good shots, but nothing gorgeous!  Check out their photo gallery.

For the table, Khe-Yo serves sticky rice with an eggplant sauce and their spiciest dish, a chili sauce that will put hair on your chest.  We’d had this on our first visit and loved it. Something was awry this time.  It was meh and had a fishy odor.

The menu is short and sweet.  It opens with Laap Salad in three varieties; beef tartare, kona kampachi (a favorite of Forgione’s), and Kabocha Squash.  Laap is the national dish of Laos.  It is traditionally a minced meat salad, but Khe-Yo creates a nice twist with raw beef, fish and a vegetarian options.  We chose the Kona Kampachi, which for those not familiar, is simply yellowtail.  But the difference is it is bred deep offshore in Kona, Hawaii.  It is sashimi grade and sustainably farmed.  An additional benefit of this fish is no mercury.  This was our favorite dish, laced as laap (or larb) often is with tiny red chiles and leaving our mouths slightly burning.  On the down side, it was served with shrimp chips which did not compliment the delicate flavor of the fish and acidity of the lime.  They are cardboard-like as expected of shrimp chips!  This dish is best eaten right from the bowl.

Kona Kampachi {Laap-Pa} 17
Fresh Mint, Kaffir Lime Leaf & Shrimp Chips

Next, we had the Coconut rice.  And I use next loosely as all dishes except our main entree arrived almost simultaneously.  The small table was over-crowded and the result was anything that was supposed to be warm wasn’t.  Another result was we were served and out the door inside of 45 minutes.  There was not even time for a 2nd glass of wine.  But on a positive note, the entire wine list was French only.  I would have enjoyed a bordeaux or burgundy after my white burgundy!  Or Forgione’s own red Sancerre.

Crunchy Coconut Rice {Nam-Khao} 12
Spicy Kaffir Lime Sausage & Baby Iceberg

We also ordered the beef jerky.  It looked quite interesting on the menu, but when it arrived it was not so attractive as you can see below.  It came with another sauce of smoky chiles. It was far milder than the sticky rice dip, however.  Not much to say about the jerky other than perhaps it was the wrong choice?  Meh.  We probably should have ordered the special, which was Crispy Pig Face, which I’ve heard raves about from Gael Greene.

Creekstone Farms Sesame Beef Jerky {Sien-Haeng} 15
Smoked Chili Sauce & Fresh Radish

Our entree was Chili Prawns.  What we did not realize was it is in essence the same dish Forgione serves at his namesake restaurant but with lobster.  It is a favorite of ours, but something newer would have been more exciting for us.  It is served with big thick Texas-toast like bread for dipping the delicious sauce.  I could have used a spoon as I was trying to watch calories.  I tried dipping the rice, but the flavor of the rice detracted from the sauce.  I broke down and chowed the bread.  Overall, it was a nice light meal and we did not go home over-stuffed which our goal these days!

Chili Prawns {Goong-Phet} 26
Ginger Scallion Toast & Thai Basil

So we were underwhelmed with the highly critically acclaimed Khe-Yo.  This restaurant is on Adam Platt’s ‘Directory’ for 2014.  Our feeling on this was sit at the bar, have cocktails and nosh on the small plates.  FYI, the entree contained 4 Prawns, so that qualifies.  You could probably hang out longer.  And you may want to ask for a flow of foods, although current restaurant practice is ‘as ready’ or you may find yourself with a table full of food in 10 minutes.

http://kheyo.com
157 Duane Street – Tribeca