Eating our way through 2019
The Allium
The Athenee Bangkok, 3rd floor Witthayu Road
Call 02-650-8800
The Athenee Bangkok’s new haute cuisine restaurant is led by Dutch chef de cuisine Roxanne Lange (previously of Savelberg Bangkok and Crème Crue in Rijswijk, the Netherlands).
Resembling an upscale Parisian living room, the fine dining establishment serves up contemporary European fare prepared with utmost respect ; fresh seasonal produce is sourced from the finest origins, including their own botanical garden.
The selection of dishes — newly created and eclectic — changes seasonally, and are offered both à la carte and as part of multi-course degustation meals.
For an all-out experience, we recommend the 11-course meal (3,280 baht per person). Currently, this features dishes such as La Speciale Jolie Mauger oyster with Oscietra caviar, sour cream, apple and dill; a cold platter of mud crab with cucumber salad; Hokkaido scallops with pumpkin gel and confit pumpkin; red snapper with a frothy beurre blanc white wine sauce, specks of spicy Spanish sausage, bell pepper purée and paper-thin sunchoke chips; and seared foie gras with caramelised apple, biscuit crumbs and brittle sea salt.
The Spanish Pyrenees Iberico lamb with green asparagus and potato purée is impeccable. The extra-cold platter of milk, organic honey and hazelnut caps off the evening wonderfully.
Seven-course and nine-course dinners are also available at 2,480 baht and 2,980 baht per person, respectively. À la carte dishes and vegetarian options are also available.
The venue is high-ceilinged and brightlylit with very little accessorising. Relaxing slow-beat music plays in the background. It is warm yet breezy, cosmopolitan yet casual.
Service is definitely of five-star quality, blending world-class efficiency and attentiveness with cordiality.
● Open daily, 6-10.30pm. Closed on Mondays. Park at the hotel’s car park. Most credit cards accepted.
Baltic Blunos
Thong Lor 9
Call 02-117-1255 or 095-879-9075
The work of two aesthetes — Latvian-born British celebrity chef Martin Blunos and his Latvian executive chef Aleksandrs Nasikailov — this one-of-a-kind restaurant serves up crossover cuisine inspired by the traditional cooking, ingredients and picturesque landscapes of the Baltic states: Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia.
While the food is undoubtedly fine dining, the whole gastronomic experience is designed to encourage hearty conversations.
Intriguing to the eyes and palate while provoking the mind and imagination, the meals here come with no advance description of the dishes unless requested, and are offered in set menus. A six-course dinner costs 2,900 baht, an eight-course 3,400 baht. Kombucha pairing costs an extra 1,000 baht per person.
Dishes are prepared with fresh seasonal produce and showcase the curing and fermenting techniques that are common in the region.
Expect to find the likes of coconutcultured yeast sourdough and hempseed butter; sea urchin with bergamone and sapane tree; moon flower with creamy almond purée and tom kha sauce; mackerel with beetroot and horseradish cream; and seared Hokkaido scallops with Mottra caviar and Hollandaise sauce.
A main course such as the platter of black chicken with stuffed neck, baked leg and breast roll accompanied by puréed Jerusalem artichoke and curry sauce may look like a scene from a horror movie, but the taste is sensational.
Whether savoury or sweet, every dish at Baltic Blunos comes with well-calculated, aesthetically arresting details and clever combinations of inspired ideas.
The selection of kombucha pairings (each course comes with a different pairing) is among the best in town. It is recommended that you finish your meal with a heavenly glass of fermented espresso, available at the bar for 280 baht per glass.
Service staff are efficient, knowledgeable and friendly.
● Open daily for dinner, 6-10pm. Park on the premises. Most credit cards accepted.
Carne 32/2 Sukhumvit 23
Call 02-163-4971 and 066-069-2288
Tucked behind an expansive red-brick wall halfway down Soi Prasanmit, Carne may at first look like any other new player on Bangkok’s saturated restaurant scene.
But the meat-centric eatery — a venture by the restaurateur family behind the Local by Oam Thong, Crab and Claw, and Kinkao — has proved its staying power and is a true rising star in this food-mad city.
The restaurant was built up from a humble idea to promote local produce and help sustain low-key cattle farmers. Its large show kitchen is equipped with josper oven, open-fire grill and smoker, and is led by Texas-native head chef-cum-grill specialist Mateo Roberson.
Highly recommended dishes for starters include the ember-roasted, salt-crusted beetroot salad with fresh watercress, quinoa, spiced caramelised pecan and green goddess dressing (260 baht); sweetcorn succotash with chorizo and smoked aioli sauce (150 baht); sea bass ceviche with roseapple-avocado salsa and fresh chillies (320 baht); salad of radicchio, spinach and grilled orange pulp with Gorgonzola DOP and bee pollen-sherry dressing (240 baht); and super aromatic, moist and tasty pan de cassava cheese bread (150 baht for five pieces).
The chargrilled braised wagyu beef tongue with warm salsa molcajete (380 baht); wood-fired Australian wagyu rib-eye with roasted chilli jus and hasselback sweet potatoes (620 baht per 100g); and kurobuta pork tomahawk steak with sweet potato puree, grilled pineapple salsa and roasted onions (590 baht) are not to be missed.
Tres leches (280 baht), a three-milk cake with fresh cheese semifreddo, grilled caramelised pineapple, lime gel and pineapple-fostered local white rum, is one of the city’s best.
The drinks list is extensive, almost triple the length of the food menu. The service is excellent.
● Open daily 5.30-10.30pm. Park on the premises. Most credit cards accepted.
Chef’s Table at Lebua
State Tower, 61st floor Silom Road
Call 02-624-9555
Product of a 175 million baht investment, this 46-seater with an unrivalled setting and flamboyance is the first and only dining establishment in Thailand to permanently feature a hands-on three Michelin-starred chef.
The newest addition to Tower Club, a vertical complex of restaurants and bars at Lebua Bangkok hotel, Chef’s Table has already been awarded a star in the 2020 Michelin Guide Bangkok, despite only opening in March of this year.
Directing the open kitchen is Vincent Thierry, the globally celebrated French chef who, from 2005-11, opened and led Caprice at Four Seasons Hong Kong to its threestar glory. He has been working with Lebua’s team to develop the concept and menu since Chef’s Table was just a sketched idea on paper.
Thierry’s highly rated contemporary French cuisine is presented through a multicourse degustation menu, which costs 7,900 baht per person. Dishes are prepared with world-class ingredients imported from France or locally sourced in Thailand.
Among them, you’ll find his signature dishes, including king crab tiramisu with marinated tandoori fruit and mascarpone cream; crayfish and sweetbread with Provencal ravioli in shellfish emulsion; foie gras with citrus mosaic and fondant carrot; Normandy sole with black olive, artichoke, cockles and marjoram sauce; and French Challan duck in a duo-styled platter of roasted duck breast with beetroot, celery and ginger sauce, and a warm bowl of leg parmentier on the side.
The price includes a glass of Champagne. Those who don’t wish to partake in alcohol may opt for a mocktail instead.
Wine pairing packages are available at 3,900 baht per person, or 6,500 baht per person for a premium selection.
Guests are attended to by a passionate team of international chefs, managers, sommeliers, mixologists and front-of-house staff, together providing a standard of service that you’re unlikely to forget.
● Open from Tuesdays until Sundays for dinner. Park at Lebua’s car park. Most credit cards accepted.
Gaggan Anand
Sukhumvit 31 Call 098-883-1022
The new chapter of chef Gaggan Anand’s culinary adventure proves that real cooking artists do not try to please the crowd or hold too rigidly to their stellar fame. They continue to grow, explore and move toward their true identity.
The new restaurant, which only opened in November, brings us a better-than-ever iteration of its celebrity chef-owner. Gaggan Anand has a nonchalant vibe with a fun kind of rock ‘n’ roll feel. The cuisine, meanwhile, is more intimate, more experimental and more profoundly Indian when compared to that of the original venue on Soi Lang Suan.
Dinner here is offered in two modes: one at the G Spot, a glass-facade 14-seat chef’s table chamber on the ground floor, and the other at G Arena, the 38-seat main dining room upstairs.
The meal comes in the form of a 25-course tasting menu which urges diners to wonder, examine, suck, lick and guzzle. There’s no written menu, only a giddy sheet of emoji stickers.
The line-up of dishes changes regularly according to the best produce available, but is always based around classic Indian recipes. While the taste profile may be reminiscent of yoghurt chaat, kachori bread, dosa crepe, biryani rice and tikka masala sauce, the ingredients come from all over the globe.
Gaggan’s favourite ingredients include fresh truffles from Italy; saltwater eel, sea urchin roe and scallops from Japan; Iberico pork from Spain; and foie gras from France.
At Gaggan Anand, they intentionally forgo “prim and proper” service, but staff remain careful to ensured that guests are treated to the most attentive, almost personalised service. During operating hours, there are 65 folksy and affable staff members attending to a full house of 52 diners. Very well-thought out, and it never feels forced or contrived.
Seating at the chef’s table is priced at 12,000 baht per person, while the next available table in the main dining room costs 8,000 baht per person.
● Open daily for dinner upon reservation. Park at A-list building or use valet service. Most credit cards accepted.