A THAI restaurant is is to open inside a popular coffee shop.

Restaurateur Mike Palmer, the man behind Brighton’s Lucky Beach Café and Redroaster, is closing Pike and Pike – his high end restaurant in St James’s Street, and replacing it with a Thai barbecue dining experience.

Lucky Khao will open on Friday, January 25

The new Asian inspired eaterie will share its space with popular coffee shop Redroaster, which will be open during the day before the restaurant takes over during the evening.

Lucky Khao will be open from 4pm Tuesdays to Saturdays.

It prides itself on its locally sourced organic meats and vegetables, which are cooked over charcoal for an authentic flavour.

The Thai style curries are suitable for meat-eaters, vegetarians and vegans.

The team behind the venture promise “plenty of theatre in the dining room”.

And it says Lucky Khao will bring an authentic Thai experience to the city.

A statement from Lucky Khao said: “This is not Anglicised Thai food and avoids all the commonplace dishes that come with the territory.

“It is authentic delicious, unusual and yet familiar flavours combined with the best locally sourced sustainable products.

“Our team have trained in Chiang Mai and Bangkok over the last year working with Michelin awarded BoLan and in particular within 100 Mahaseth, which was recently named Bangkok’s top-restaurant, and chef Chalee Kader, renowned for “sustainable, nose-tail northern Thai barbecue”.