It’s thyme for Italian
Salvia is sage representation of Romanesque food
It’s remarkable for a new restaurant, especially during this economic downturn, to have instant success on the first day of its opening. That is the case here at Salvia, which has since Aug 12 been enjoying a constant crowd of cosmopolitan diners, who, surprisingly, didn’t seem to mind its outworn location. Salvia, Italian for sage, takes over the allopen mezzanine space previously a home of fine dining restaurant Tables Grill.
Giving a fresh new vibe to the 30-yearold Grand Hyatt Erawan hotel, the Italian osteria is designed to be a casual place for friends and family. The decor is bright and breezy, yet with an urbane touch, while the food is offered in a style of shareable menu.
Salvia cuisine showcases a collection of original recipes that reflects the Piedmont and Sardinian family roots of its head chef Roberto Parentela.
The menu lists around 50 items of antipasti, soup, pizza, pasta, seafood, main meat courses and desserts. Small but comfortable.
Salvia’s Caesar salad (250 baht), which deliciously started off our meal, showcases two of Italy’s protected designation of origin products: the Grana Padano, a hard-textured cow’s milk cheese from Po Valley, and the Pecorino Sardo, a sheep cheese from Sardinia.
The salad dressing is freshly whipped up upon the guest’s order at tableside. A helping of Italian anchovy is added to lend to the creamy emulsion a mild briny touch. Giving a perfect match were crisp romaine lettuce and crusty garlic croutons made from Sardinian flatbread.
Should you wish to sample some of the restaurant’s popular wood-fire thin-crust pizza, go for the chef’s family recipe of salsiccia e broccolinu (230 baht). Its delicious topping is built upon mozzarella, gorgonzola, garlic, red onion, Italian sausage and broccoli.
The restaurant’s rendering of stewed mussels (420 baht), to consider both its portion and quality, was great value for the money and not to be missed.
Of it, approximately 30 black mussels came thoroughly cooked in n’duja sauce prepared with the spicy Italian sausage. The pungent sauce complemented brilliantly the mussels, which were very sweet and rich in flavour, and supple, soft and never gummy in texture.
Everything on the table went superbly. But the best was yet to come.
As I was lauding the mussels as heavenly addictive, a dreary-looking plate of fusilli pasta with lamb ragout (330 baht) arrived. And that’s when I began to simply forget the shellfish. The appearance might be nondescript but the fragrance, of a classic Italian Bolognese sauce, was comfortingly captivating.
The ragout was made with chopped lamb meat, slow-cooked with buttery mirepoix and herbs. It came on top the corkscrew-shaped pasta, freshly hand-made to exhibit an almost translucent character and springily soft mouthfeel. The dish was lent a creamy nutty balance by dried ricotta cheese.
If smokey aroma is your style of gastronomic spell, then you cannot miss the grape-vine grilled Australian Angus rib-eye steak (1,380 baht).
The sizeable beef steak is first presented to the guest’s table uncut and on a miniature portable grill, I suppose, so you can appreciate more the smoky scent from the active wood fire. At the same time, it allows Instagrammers a quick snap of food with a nice vaporous background.
The steak is then brought to a nearby chef’s station set in the middle of the dining room, to be sliced, and returned, with pinkish-red centre, on a bed of tomato-rocket salad and grated Grana Padano.
Through a juicy tender texture and naturally flavourful beef taste, the steak showcased the top-notch quality of the product as well as the cooking dexterity of the chef.
Offered with the dish are two choices of side. We settled for roasted new potatoes with caramelised onion butter; and organic tomato salad with aged balsamic dressing. Both were spot-on.
Desserts, such as grandma-styled apple tart with pistachio ice cream, buffalo milk custard panna cotta, dark chocolate lava cake and traditional tiramisu, are offered at a lovely price of 190 baht.
I went with the latter, which is airy in consistency and compelling in taste, and it proved a very good decision.
As a place for convivial gathering, Salvia invests in beverages and mixology.
From a lovely-yet-hidden secret cocktail bar tucked at the end of the dining room, there’s a wide range of Martini, Negroni and Italian sodas as well as natural Italian wines and ice-cold craft beers.
During the very busy Friday evening that I visited, service was truly enjoyable despite some tiny flaws. The staff were brisk and genial and always smiling, and that added to the restaurant’s charm.
Private rooms, home delivery and take-away services are available. Reservations are a must especially for dinner and on weekends.