Mayflower

60
.

CNY dinner
The Mayflower
@ Dusit Thani Hotel Bangkok

The Mayflower has been a prominent Chinese restaurant focusing on carefully selected traditional Cantonese fares for decades, as one of the most expensive Chinese restaurants in town with food prepared the way any Hong Kong chef will do, surprisingly the chefs are not even from Hong Kong like other hotel’s Chinese outlets do, they are Thai-Chinese born locally but definitely cook as good as most Hong Kong chefs in Bangkok.

The local high-so(ciety) figures chasing after this renowned restaurants probably because the Mayflower earns the honor to offer its barbequed Peking duck to the Palace on a regular basis. Regular patrons are local politicians and high profile business tycoons, as well as a number of tourists (esp. the Japanese) and Taiwanese expats in Bangkok, just lacking Hong Kong customers.

On the occasion of Chinese Lunar New Year, we chose the Mayflower to celebrate the beginning of the Year of Mickey Mouse with close friends in Bangkok. In Chinese Lunar Calendar, this year falls into the year of Golden Rat. Last year we had suckling pig for the year of the Golden Pig, so this year we should order barbequed rat perhaps. But answer from the waitperson was disappointing, so we went for the Suckling Pig Hong Kong style instead, we ate the skin with condiments, and had the meat stir-fried with black pepper. The pig came out good but not outstanding.

Followed was the must order Roasted Peking Duck, this famed ducky dish was good in preparation and grand in presentation, slices of duck skin were carved thin without any fat left by the waitperson at our table, wrapped in a rice flour mini pancake together with cucumber and spring onion in hoysin sauce, eaten with the help of my two fingers. The skin was crispy with aroma leaking out from my teeth. The remaining meat could be stir-fried or made duck broth but we put the meat and bone in a doggy bag for my congee tomorrow morning.

To clean our palate after these greasy dishes, time for the soup, choices were Braised Bird Nest Soup with Minced Chicken or Braised Shark’s Fin in Supreme Broth. I had the bird nest one.

Our few main dishes to accompany supreme jasmin rice were Baked Duck with Black Moss, Lemon Chicken Fillet, Sweet and Sour Pork Ribs, Stir-fried Lotus Root with Prawn, Stir-fried Asparagus with Shrimp Roe, and the must order Wok-fried Beef Fillet in HK Sauce.

We didn’t forget the fish. The Steamed Live Red Grouper in Warm Soy Sauce came out pretty good, not over cooked (and not under cooked either) as many local restaurants keep repeating this mistake. Since the fish was live to steam, the meat was of course ultra fresh, and it tasted naturally sweet in its full gear.

We didn’t order desserts but the Mayflower prepared a generous portion of fruits plate as a celebrating gesture.

Overall, the meal was good and much better than our gathering dinner held at the Chinese @ the Grand Hyatt Erawan Hotel last year.


The Mayflower Chinese Restaurant ***
Dusit Thani Hotel Bangkok
946 Rama IV Road
Bangrak, Bangkok 10500
Tel.: +66 (0)2.236.9999
Dusit Thani

Open daily: lunch 11:30 am - 2 pm; dinner 6 - 10 pm
Pay (food only for two): expect THB 2,500