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Wednesday, December 26, 2007

Le Bouchon


47
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The bistro at Patpong

If there wasn’t our French buddy also a food consultant in 5-star hotels showing us Le Bouchon, we would never have found this gourmet sanctuary in the Bangkok Patpong red light district. Judging from the eatery name we expected the fare was a bit provincial to the Southern France as ‘bouchon’ means a bistro in Lyon, and we later found that our guess was right as the owner Serge Martiani is from this peaceful and beautiful town.


Decoration of Le Bouchon promotes our imagination of being in a bistro on the street of Lyon, with a taste of French and homey added some romantic ambiance as bonus, prompting it a perfect place to cheer your girlfriend or even for friends gathering as we did on the night of boxing day. Good food doesn’t need fancy decoration to do the cover up. We were so glad that Le Bouchon do home cooking (both classic and bistro dishes) which matching well with the atmosphere in the bistro and our appetite. Choices of wine in Le Bouchon were extensive not only limited to French labels, but we chose the French red wine recommended by the house to kick off the dinner.

Le Bouchon didn’t have a big menu instead their limited daily selections were written on a blackboard as a bistro will do. Savory dishes started with the starter Petits Clams a La Cream (baby clams in cream sauce), and the Salade de Chevre Chaud (warm goat cheese salad). The goodness of the clam was on the cream sauce and the goat cheese salad was aromatic in taste and rich in mouth I almost didn’t want to share them with friends.

Soup selection was limited as Le Bouchon would like to offer only its specialty and freshness from the market. We had Soupe de Lentilles (lentils soup), and the Bisque de Ciqales de Mer En Croute (lobster bisque in puff pastry). Didn’t like to place a comment here as I would like you to see for yourself how good it could be. Especially the lentils soup was worth us a ticket to Bangkok.
We shared two entrees, they were the Cuisses de Grenouilles a La Bressane (frog legs Bouchon style), and the St. Jacques Gratinees aux Epinards (scallops with spinach gratinated). Simply good!




Followed were our main courses. We had, Jarret d’Agneau Sauce au Romarin (lamb shank in white beans sauce), a dish of French specialty and Le Bouchon version didn’t let us down either. Also we had Fillet de Daurade Facon ‘Bouchon’ (sea beam fillet Bouchon style); then two duck dishes as Cuisse de Canard Confit ‘Maison’ (home made duck leg confit), and Magret de Canard a l’Orange (duck fillet in orange sauce). The succulent taste of duck confit was the traditional culinary art of French while duck stored in its own fat preserved the meat for a long period of time before brought to a gourmet table. We also ordered the Lapin Faqon ‘Bouchon’ (stewed rabbit in white wine sauce), and the Filet de Sole Sauce Champignons (sole fish in mushroom sauce).

We did blame the pleasant waitress for not warning us ahead that the portion was big, so we left no room for desserts. But the honest waitress did warn us that their kitchen was too compact to prepare home made desserts. So they sell what they got from next door. Oh, in this case we didn’t owe ourselves some sweet.

Bread served in Le Bouchon was good although they didn’t bake it, but they ensure matching quality to their dishes. As most brilliant French chef will do, Le Bouchon makes the use of native ingredients to ensure freshness, and the technique in French culinary. This is the way leading Le Bouchon to define French home cooking to its highest array in Bangkok, the unpretentious way.

Our Ratings (1 to 5 the higher the better): Le Bouchon has [4.1]
(Ratings are based on Food, Service and Ambience, with Price taken into account in relation to Quality) Food =4, Service=4.5, Ambiance=4, Money Worth=4


Price range for two without drinks (incl. local water) in Thai Baht = BBBB
(B=below 200, BB=201-500, BBB=501-1,000, BBBB=1,001-2,000, BBBBB=over 2,000)

Details: Open daily Dinner only 6-11pm (Reservation highly recommended)
Le Bouchon French Bistro, 37/17 Soi Patpong 2, Surawong Road, Bangrak, Bangkok; Tel.: 02-2349109
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1 comment:

Stella said...

The more I look at this the more I want to try. Please add this into our possible restaurant visit for our upcoming trip.
The more I look at your blog, the more I am impressed. You are not too far off from Rickmond Wong(the ramen blog writer).
I suggest you mentioned the price range(or average price) too so the readers have some idea how much it costs. Particularly when you mentioned the price is unbeatable so we would like to know how unbeatable. :)