YAI will take over the former Bellazul site at 43 Blandford Street, which is understood to have recently ceased trading.
The opening will take Farrell’s JKS Restaurants-backed Chaiyo Restaurants portfolio to six central London locations, joining three Plaza Khao Gaeng restaurants and two Speedboat sites.
The menu will focus on the food and culture of Phuket, with high-quality southern Thai ingredients playing a central role.
These will include Songkhla shrimp paste, Betong soy sauce, Pattani sea salt, Phatthalung palm sugar and Sangyod rice, alongside produce grown at Farrell’s Ryewater Nursery in Dorset and British meat and fish.
Rather than reinventing Thai dishes, the restaurant will seek to present what it describes as their definitive forms, “cooking for Thai tastes using exceptional ingredients and exacting techniques”.
YAI’s hospitality will be “rooted in the idea of an ancestral Phuket home”, with guests set to dine across two floors in a “polished” yet relaxed environment.
A large working kitchen, designed to evoke the heart of such homes, will anchor the restaurant and remain visible throughout service, with charcoal cooking and food preparation taking place in view of diners.
Guests will be encouraged to share dishes, with the restaurant aiming to offer fine-dining quality without the formality traditionally associated with it.
“Our ambition is to transplant the cuisine of Phuket into London at a level not previously attempted, rather than define itself against London’s existing Thai landscape,” says Farrell.
“We’re excited to bring this new dimension of southern Thai culture and cuisine to the city.”
Further details for YAI will be released ahead of the opening.
Farrell first partnered with JKS Restaurants in 2021 to launch southern Thai restaurant Plaza Khao Gaeng at Arcade Food Hall on Tottenham Court Road. The restaurant has since been awarded a Michelin Bib Gourmand.
Chaiyo followed this with Speedboat Bar on Chinatown’s Rupert Street, an homage to the late-night canteens of Bangkok’s famed Yaowarat Road that developed a cult following for its bold Thai-Chinese cooking.
The group has subsequently opened a second Speedboat at The Electric on Portobello Road, in collaboration with Soho House, as well as further Plaza Khao Gaeng restaurants near Borough Market and in Covent Garden.