Smith

It might be already too late to talk about the Smith now. This famous western restaurant has been the talk of the town for months. And that’s even before their soft opening. As it has been promoted as the newest dinning place produced by the team behind renowned Hyde&Seek.

Smith position themselve as meaty dish expert with ‘nose to tail’ concept. Sounds like a perfect dining place for a meat lover like me.

We began our meal with a starter that perfectly fits their concept. ‘Tuna with braised pig’s tail and foie gras torchon with foraged vegetables, rosemary, citrus and peas’ Braised pig’s tail came in a form of meat jelly charcuterie. Only the meat jelly alone could make a fine dish out of it. As a plus it’s accompany with fresh tuna carpacchio. This is an appitizer version of surf and turf. Herb and vegatable gave the dish a refreshing touch.

 Here come another meaty appitizer. Half pan sausage; 4 kinds sausages accompanied with deep fried coleslaw. Sausages were good over all. Personally I didn’t find deep fried coleslaw a good side dish to those sausages. Way too oily.

One of the decent starters, Fried egg salad. Refreshing greens and apple were intensified with Ricotta cheese and pistachio nuts. Fried egg was at perfect soft boiled stage and wraped with crispy shell outside.

I am a big fan of Steak tartare. Yet It seems that Smith offer something different to original version of chopped beef and raw egg. The dish was chopped tenderloin fillet acconpanied slow cooked egg and various fresh herb. Meat is flavored with Thai spiced and fried caper. This bring a traditional dish like Steak tartare to new dimension. But with all respect, this old minded me prefer a tradditional one better. I wish I could enjoy the creamy taste of the beef more. 

  

Probably the best dish of the meal. Verjus Glazed Briased Pork belly with pickle stone fruit and spiced lentil. Pork belly was very tender and juicy. Glazed with sweet Verjuice syrup. Lentil is flavored with mint and coriander giving it a cool and refreshing touch. A very pleasantful dish indeed. This  is as good as the one they serve at Hyde&Seek, with bigger portion and cheaper price.

Another good dish to be mentioned, their original burger with Black Ink Brioche and Wagyu Beef Patti. Blank Ink Brioche was full flavor and rich in texture. Wagyu Patty was cooked medium rare, packed wih juice inside. Lip smacking burger indeed.

Lightly Smoked Salmon in Crème fraîche sauce. Salmon is half cooked, the flesh was tender and juicy to the extreme. The flavor of salmon goes well with zesty sourness and creamy taste of Crème fraîche sauce.

I expected a few tricks from the chef when I ordered Unbaked Lasagna. But it turned out to be what is written in the menu. Just a plain unbaked Lasagna. Imagine a big sheet of pasta with tomato sauce and bechamel sauce. Not a bad one but it just me that expected too high.

The last savory dish landed on out table, Slow Roasted Lamb Ribs. The only portion available is 1.5kg (2,350B). We went there with a big party. Or else we wouldn’t dare ordering this. Lamb ribs is rubbed with coffee spice before slow cooked to tender. The meat was packed with juice. Yet I wish the layer of fat outside was allowed to be heated directly some more. For the browning and getting rid of excessive fat.

We ordered only 3 dessert. Which were good overall. Unlike its name and unlike the original version, Eton mess came with refined and elegant presentation. Vanila cream are rich and smooth. Contrasting with crispiness from meringue and crust. Strawberry was plentiful. A pleasantful dish. 

  

Looking for a performance to end you meal with some excitement? Baked Alaska is your man. Lighly baked meringue, stuffed with icecream with a mellow touch from rum. The icecream was passionfruit flavor, which is also new.

I must say there were few seconds of hestitation before we order Banana Split. As the title sound so plain. But I found this one of the hilight among dessert. As burned honey ice cream was so delectable. We asked waitress if they serve this ice cream alone as extra. Unfortunately, the answer is no. LOL

Overall, our dining experince at Smith was delightful. Most of the dishes I like it there are available, and more refined at Hyde & Seek (Wagyu Burger, Pork Belly, Poached Salmon). Yet these are served at more reasoinable price at Smith. Smith is the newest baby from this team. I am looking forward to positive delopment. And of corse, I would like to visit Smith again. (Actually I dined there twice already within a week.)

Smith

1/8 Sukhumvit Soi 49, Bangkok,

02-261-0515-6

Regular Holiday : Mon

Tue – Sun 18:00 – 24:00

Bangkok Biggest Brunch @Imperial queen park hotel

Biggest Brunch is the latest Sunday Brunch offer from Imperial Queen Park Hotel. Combining their 3 restaurants; Park View(International food ), Imperial China(Chinese food) and Kachou(Japansese food) together. The offer splits in to 2 chioce;1,600B nett for food and soft drink, or 2,100B nett for food and alcohol drink including wine and beer.  

With this pink strap on your wrist, you can get in and out all participating venues as many times as you want. I found this playful and entertaining as if I were in an amusement park.

Our first stop was the International food restaurant, Park view. The buffet line has so many selection and was in wide range that I didn’t know where to begin. As we have Japanese and Chinese cuisine waiting ahead at the rest 2 venues, I decided to skip sushi line and Chinese Roast Duck/Crispy Pork station. I went straight to western food hot station and got myself Egg Benedict and Pan-fried Foiegas.

I found Egg benedict a pleasantful dish. Poached was cooked to the right doneness. Hollandaise sauce was nicely smooth and creamy. Intensified with Cayenne pepper sprinkled on the top.

It was smoked ham under the poached egg. I wish there were an option of smoked salmon also. (Actually if only I had asked the cook, I am quit sure he would be more than willing to make one. As smoke salmon is also included in Buffet line as well.)

Pan seared Foie gas was packed with juice. It could have use a little bit more  crispiness on surface texture. As i personally like it browner than this. The seasonings  were with berry sauce and reduced balsamic. Adding refershing sweet and sourness to the dish.

There were Lamb chop and Australian Beef Skewer available at meat station. I ordered one each of them. Pity, the cooker was a bit too careless, the meat was slightly overcooked.

They have got so many, actually almost too many ,varieties of cheese. I intented to come back for a plate of cheese as after meal dessert. Unfortuantely, at the end of our meal, I was too full to eat anything. 

Our second stop is Chinese Restaurant, Imperial China. Argubly the most renowned dinning room of Imperial Queen park hotel. They serve both traditional and creative original food here.

 The high light of Imperial China would be the Shark Fin soup. They are bold and generous much enough to serve 2 kinds of Shark Fin soup. The thick soup one and the light soup one.

Common thick shark fin soup is made by chicken broth disolved with thicken agent like startch. But the thick Shark Fin soup here are thicken by stewing Shark fin over night. The thickness came from collagen in shark fin itself. This is argrublyt one of the most luxurious shark fin soup in town.

I came from a Chinese family myself. I am pretty familiar with Shark Fin soup  yet this is the first time I had clear light Shark fin soup. As a plus, it’s ccompanioned by  another classy ingredient, Veiled lady mushroom. This is delectable and throat soothing that I had to ask for second.

Dimsum are slighly above average. Beside from Hargow and Shumai, What I found an addictive was this double layer spring roll. These crunchy deep fried spring rolls are warapped in chewy rice paper. The deep fried layer remains crunchy all entire meal. I don’t know how they do this. Stuffing were Crab meat and mushroom, which was delghtful.

It was a bit too early for the dessert, but I couldn’t resist the temptation of another creative dish, Hot steamed Coconut juice with Ginkgo seeds & cubed aloe vera. There is nothing better than a hot soup dessert after a Chinese treat. And this original dessert sure was a pefect one.

Finally we made our journey to the final stop, Kachou. At this point we almost too full to eat any solid food.

Highlight of Kachou is the Sashimi freshly sliced by the chef after you order. There were 2 types of Salmon, Seared and Raw. All these Akami (Tuna red meat), Hokki Kai (Surf clam) and Otopus were satyfying. I am a big fan of Akami myself, I had plenty.

After a few plates of those sashimi, I grab a plate of Oden (Japanese fishmeat balls Pot-au-feu) to warm up my stomach. Everything was  tender amd absorb the soup well. (I wish they provide us a soup blow for this oden. Not the plate though.)

I had Japanese sweet red bean soup as dessert. Overall it was a satisfying dinning expersince. And the word Biggest Brunch in town is not a mere caption. It’s a truful fact. We had so many dishes from 3 venues before our eyes. I wish I were a bigger eater than I actually am to give this Biggest Brunch a toe-to-toe fight.

Imperial Queen's Park Hotel

199 Sukhumvit Soi 22, Bangkok 10110, Thailand

Tel: +66 (0) 2261 9000

Fax: +66 (0) 2261 9530-4

Email: reservation@imperialhotels.com

http://www.imperialhotels.com/imperialqueenspark/

Delicatezza

I used to be a regular customer of Delicatezza. There were an exact period of time that I dine there weekly. That was 2 years ago. I havn’t visit this Italian joint since I found the food quality has droped dratically, as the owner chef  doesn’t cook the food herself anymore.

I happened to have a chance to visit Delicatezza again recently. And I couldn't be happier to find out that they have some positive improvement. Or else I won’t wasting my time writing this entry.

Despite their name, Italian word meaning Delicacy, ‘Delicatezza’ serve mostly zesty and full flavour dish. They use Sufficient amount of garlic and Thai dry chillies on most of the dishes. Thin long shape pasta, Capellini is being used on every dish of pasta regardless what the kind of sauce is there. The result is every bite of pasta you take in to your month is soaked with pasta sauce. Also considering how big portion of every pasta dish they serve, ‘Unrefined’ might not be too strong a word.

Anyway, Thai people love full flavor and a bit over seasoned food. And the bigger means the cheaper and the better. This Italian joint sure have their own strong point. They are doing great in business. The place is packed with Thai almost every time I visit.

The dish I would recommend would be any full flavour and zesty dish. For example, ‘Blank Ink Pasta’. Capellini is cooked to perfect Al Dente. They never let me down with the doneness of pasta. Squid Ink was deep and mellow. Intensified with garlic and dried chillies. They use White wine vinegar to slightly  add tanginess as hidden flavor. I wish the seafood were a bit more plump and in higher grade. But I enjoy the sauce and the pasta itself so much that I don't feel like complaining at all.

Carbonara is another good dish. I love traditional Carbonara made with Cheese and Egg yolk only. No fresh cream is needed. Imagine a rich and cheesy Carbonara made with thin Capellini. As full flavored as a Carbonara can be. The only dissapointment was that there used to be a big piece of crispy fried Pancetta on the top of Carbonara. But not anymore.

The only dish as good as it ever was, and stil argrubly the best in town is the Seafood soup. There are 2 version of seafood food you can pick. Tomato one or White wine one. Tomato one is my fav but this time we tried something different with White wine version. The soup was so concentrated and enjoyable that we licked the plate clean. Seafood were fresh and generous in portion. This is the most satisfying dish of the meal.

What I found a good improvement of Delicatezza is that they are now serving special menu, updated monthly. On the day of my visit, Seabass with Sauteed Sun dried tomatoes was on the list of special menu. I LOVE sun dried tomato so I siezed the chance ordering one. Seabass was nicely cooked and perfectly fresh. The portion was generous. Also they use plenty of good quality Sun Dried Tomato. Another delectable dish I must say.

  

We were too full for dessert. (Personally, the desserts here are only slightly above than average, yet way too over priced anyway.) Overall , It was another nice dining experience. Those empty plates of savory food left us a big smile. I would like to visit Delicatezza again for Pasta and Seafood soup.

Delicatezza Italian Restaurant

145 Sukhumvit 55 (Thonglor Soi 10) North Klongton , Wattana, Bangkok

Open : Tue - Sun        

11:30 - 14:30

17:30 - 23:00

02-392-4977

The Seafood Bar

There are so many Restaurant & Bar opening lately. When I heard that a new one popped up at Sukhumvit Soi 16, I was so glad it wasn’t another low quality French bistro joint with no originality. On the opposite I found this newly opened ‘Seafood Bar’ a playful seafood joint serving satisfying food.  (I know, They should have come up with a better name reflecting their characteristic though.)

We visited Seafood Bar on Tuesday. As the place close regularly on every Monday as it’s the day they ‘Go Fishing’. The place now hold a generous promotion serving fresh oyster only 50B each. As a plus, Local Draft beer and White/Red glass Wine are only 50B per glass. Also special dish of the day is on discount. All these applied only during 17:00-19:00.

On the day of our visit Hamachi fish fillet steak was the special menu on promotion. We had a nice thick cut Hamachi fillet Steak. The flesh was so tender and juice. Lightly seasoned only to bring out natural sweetness from the fish itself.

We seized the chance ordering 6 of Oysters which is on promotion. The waitress was able to tell all of us which one is what kind, also where it being caught. Again these Oyster are very fresh and sweet. Each of them are plump and creamy.

Later We had deep fried oysters also. The deep fried oyster came with Mayonnaise based sauce with Wasabi which is also a nice dish. Anyway, personally I like the fresh one better.  

Lobster Bisque soup came in an espresso cup. I expected it would be a little bit thicker or richer (as it came in small portion.) But it was a average Lobster Bisque. Nothing special, except the portion. (It was only 80B per cup by the way.)

Surprisingly, Seafood Bar serve a decent Pasta. (You may have some pavement that I am very picky when it comes to pasta.) We had Pasta with Seafood in Tomato sauce. The pasta was cooked Al Dente. Tomato sauce pulled a perfect balance between sweetness and sourness, which was refreshing. Intensified by roughly cut basil leafs. Shrimps, Clams and Squids  were generous in portion, and again, fresh and plump.

Another impressive dish was Clam in white wine soup, accompanied by Belgian Fries. Clam are cooked at right doneness. The soup was concentrated and full flavor. (Packed with Umami is the word.) We almost licked the plate clean.  

The rest 2 dishes were just slightly above than okay.  Grilled Romaine salad with small shrimp was not a very bad idea, I like warm salad myself. Romaine was aromatic, crispy and refreshing. But the shrimp topped on Romaine is not as fresh as expected. Rather salty and the texture is rather like a frozen one.

The last savory is Grilled Grouper on Lentil bean with Balsamic sauce. Grouper was fresh and nicely cook to the right doneness. But I don’t think Balsamic sauce is a good combination to fish dish. Also Lentil were tasteless.

We had a small dish of dessert. Mango tart with Lemon curd, which was an okay dessert to end the meal.

Anyway, despite some complains I made at the end of this entry, actually Seafood bar serve decent food at reasonable price. And the service was very friendly and attentive. I would like to visit them again. The ambiance was unique. The restaurant is divided 3 zones. The counter bar in front of fish tank. The dinning hall. And lastly the private room with blue lighting (Remind me of aquarium. Which is nice IMHO by the way.)

The Seafood Bar
Lunch : Sat/Sun 12:00 - 15:00
Dinner: Tue – Sat 18:00 - 23:00
              Sun18:00 – 22:00
41/2 Somerset Lake Point,
Soi Sukhumvit 16, Sukhumvit Rd.
Klongtoey, Klongtoey, Bangkok 10110
02-663 8863

http://www.theseafoodbar.info/

Muu Tod Jae Chong (Chong Auntie's Fried Pork)

It’s been a big while since Muu Tod Jea Jong (Jong Auntie’s Fried Pork) has come in to my attention as it located on Rama4 road which is not far away from my office.

This fried pork topped on rice joint has a curtain strong point of marketing, Generous portion and reasonable price. The price of a plate rice topped with fried pork starts from 17B for take away. (No mistyping here. YES, you got it right, 17B! ) For dining inside, the price starting from 22B, as the restaurant  provide all you can eat fresh Vegetables and after-meal Banana for free. Also water and all kinds of seasoning sauce are self-service  and  free of charge.

Other than their signature Fried Pork, They also have so many kinds of meaty topping. Fried micned pork meat ball, Garlic pork Liver, Fried fish cake, Sausages, Boiled Egg and so on. My friend and I both ordered the renowned Fried Pork with additional topping, Fired fishcake(5B) and Chinese Dumpling(5B) for me. Fried micned pork+crab meat ball (10B), for my friend. Most of the additional topping cost 5B each. Only Fried micned pork+crab meat ball costs more, as it came in big portion and the cost of Crab meat is higher.

We found their fried pork is a decent one with intensively flavored batter and tender pork meat. Considering the price, other topping was okay overall. Even though Fried micned pork+crab meat ball has too less crab meat. The only serious problem is that all the topping was completely cooled at room temperature. As there are too many people lining up in the queue, they cooked everything beforehand and leave it cools.

Overall, It was an okay place. The place is packed with local Thai folks, yet the management is quite considerable good. The queue was flawlessly flowed. Might be a perfect place if you are so starving, yet you have limited budget to spent. Or for those who want a quick meal with meaty selection to go with rice.  

Muu Tod Jae Chong (Chong Auntie's Fried Pork)Behind Lotus Rama4 branch.
083-013-2574