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.Affordable luxury lunch deal
Madison is the steakhouse in the Four Seasons Hotel, which offers luxury beef cuts such as Matsuzaka and Kobe to Wagyu and USDA Prime, prepared in an American twist. It is one of the most luxurious steakhouses in Bangkok, and arguably the best in the 90's when the Four Seasons Bangkok was the Regent Hotel.
A meal for two at Madison may cost a local junior manager a month of his salary, say THB 20,000 with a bottle of nice wine, or half of the price without wine. Luxury does sometimes come with promotions, during weekdays Madison offers a tempting sixty-minute business luncheon deal, which is a 2-course lunch set below the mark of one thousand Thai baht, including Madison's renowned all-u-can-eat salad bar. It is a good chance for non-regular customers to sample Madison food and decide if it is justified to pay a luxury price for a-la-carte or dinner on another occasion.
Two weeks ago I revisited this once talk of the town steakhouse in Bangkok with an American foodie friend during lunchtime. The 3-course lunch set, THB 890++, consists of a soup or the all-u-can-eat salad bar, a main course with choices, and a desert with choices. It is a fairly good deal at this classy grill room. However the food didn't live up to expectations; the salad bar isn't as 'wow' as before, choices cut back and quality declined, for instance, scallops in one of the salad dishes had an artificial texture and tasted bland. Imagine the taste of an eatable rubber or Japanese fake scallops those kids eat! For mains I opted for pan-fried sea bass and it was quite good; but my friend wasn't as lucky as me. His grilled sirloin steak in black pepper sauce didn't have a decent beef flavor and was not tender, though not over-cooked. He described it as coffee-shop quality. The dessert, a creme burlee, was fine.
The food quality and taste aren't as good as last time I visited Madison, which was two years ago.
Madison ***1/2
Four Seasons Hotel, Bangkok
155 Rajdamri Road
Pratumwan, Bangkok 10330
Tel.: 02.126.8866
Open daily : breakfast 6 - 10:30 am, lunch 12 noon - 2:30 pm, dinner 6 - 10:30 pm, Sunday brunch 11:30 am - 3 pm
Pay (3-course lunch set without drinks): THB 890++
(a la carte 3-course around THB 8,000 without drinks)
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.Fusion or confusionA visiting friend stayed at Le Meridien Hotel on Surawong Road. We did dinner pretty late after a day of business meetings and a little bit of shopping. At almost 10 pm, most decent restaurants were closed. Since choice was not on our side and we were pretty hungry, for convenience we picked a bar, cum restaurant, across the street (from his hotel) to comfort our stomachs.
It was Baruza, a bar, a beer house, a Thai restaurant (proclaimed traditional Thai cuisine), a steakhouse and a Japanese fusion eatery under the same roof, all dishes cooked by the same chef. The interior is very Tokyo's Shinjuku feel (as it is investment from Japan), and the bill is of Tokyo standard - in Bangkok this means quite pricey.
We opted for Thai food that Baruza proclaimed is traditional and ended up worse than any tourist-palate-friendly standard, with a lack of any trace of authentication. I wonder if the chef uses purified sugar in stead of palm sugar in the kitchen. We ordered six dishes for a table of three persons (my visiting friend, my personal aide, and me). We started with somtum Thai (spicy shredded raw papaya salad, THB 130+); the salad was decorated with a piece of lettuce that made it seems funny, and taste lacked of any depth, not pungent hot, but very salty. Next dish was tord mun goong or deep-fried minced shrimp paste cakes (THB 150+), the color of the shrimp cake was nice, but the texture was too mashed-like, and pork belly seemed to be the main ingredients, not ground shrimp as they should be in a good balance. The next dish, was stir-fried chicken fillet with cashew nuts, for THB 220+ the portion of chicken and cashew nuts was thrifty, and the taste was ultra MSG enhanced.
We almost would like to leave the table to keep our taste-buds from suffering, but we needed to finish our order. We asked for fried fish, like the popular sea bass or grouper, but to no avail. The only fish available there was tabtim fish. It is a kind of fresh water fish developed locally by CP Farms and the cost is around THB 40 per fish at Tesco Lotus; decent restaurants don't have tabtim fish on the menu, while open-air pochanas or khao tom joints may offer it at around THB 100 to THB 150 per fish. At baruza it was THB 390+. The deep-fried tabtim fish appearance made me think of an over-sized cockroach, deep-fried in overnight cooking oil! Before we were free to have a cup of coffee, we needed to finish two more dishes, tomyumgoong (sour and spicy soup with prawn, THB 220+) and stir-fried seafood in yellow curry sauce (THB 290+). The tomtumgoong again had lack of depth in taste and was quite salty; the stir-fried seafood in yellow curry sauce would be better renamed to stir-fried vegetables in yellow curry sauce.
After dinner we went to Starbucks, the three of us never thought that drinks and pastry at Starbucks can be such a treat!
Baruza Restaurant **
135/18 Surawongse Road
Bangrak, Bangkok 10500
Tel.: 02.634.4433
Open daily : 11 - 1 am
Pay (food only for two): around THB 1,300 (Thai food)
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.
Southern charm lights up Thonglo
Before the first time I ate at this little eatery in Thonglo, Khao Chao, I (always) guessed that this is an ordinary Issan somtum hut or Ayutthaya boat noodle joint when I passed by it; who knows; it is actually an extraordinary Thai restaurant with a Southern twist.
Extraordinary is that the restaurant is homey and of Baan-lae-Suan style; even the wait-staff look like someone's domestic helpers at home.
Extraordinary is that the restaurant has only a single page laminated menu, but everything on that is delicious.
Extraordinary is those Thonglo high-so aunties, who are hotel fine dining major sponsors, are also Khao Chao's regulars. Didn't I mention that I had passed by the restaurant many times but hesitated to step inside due to its nondescript shop facade that made me think it is ordinary. Thanks to one of the 'auntie' regulars who brought me there after a business meeting, finally I sampled her food, and had my palate experienced some joy for the day.
One more extraordinary, is that the bill doesn't match with the Thonglo high-so standard.
Two days ago I revisited Khao Chao with two friends, we ordered these.
gai phad takrai (stir-fried chicken meat with cashew nuts, lemongrass and herbs)
gaeng ju (clear soup with minced pork), THB 60
phad sataw (stir-fried stink bean with prawns in shrimp paste), THB 80
stir-fried minced pork in Thai basil and chilies with fried century eggs
gaeng kiae waan phad han (stir-fried green curry, with pork), THB 60
pla daeng tord cumin (deep-fried offshore fish with cumin), THB 110
lod chong nam kati (pandan flavored glutinous rice flour in smoked coconut milk)
chao kuay (herbal jelly with ice)
Khao Chao Thai Restaurant ****
341 Thonglo Soi 17
Sukhumvit 55 Road
Wattana, Bangkok 10110
Tel.: 02.712.5665
Open daily : 10 am - 8:30 pm (close 3rd Sunday of the month)
Pay (food only for two): around THB 350
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.Tea by the tree and creeperMy foodie friend brought me to Cassia Cafe two months ago for brunch; since then I revisited this lovely tea room several times, either with friends or alone. Once I went there for its English afternoon tea after I was dismissed from a (boring) business meeting on Soi Sawasdee (Suk Soi 31). Thanks to Cassia Cafe, I relaxed and took a sip besides the cassia tress which rescued my tired mood at that moment!
The Cassia's English afternoon tea set consists of choices of tea (among them, some are rare teas brought by the owner from around the world) or coffee, finger sandwiches, and a pair of scones. The finger sandwiches being so-so while the scones were beyond expectations. The pair of butter milk scones, served with (real) clotted cream and jam, did pose a decent Scottish accent. They had an excellent crispy-moist texture, and rich buttery flavor. Simply yummy!
The service was friendly and pleasant, though slow.
Cassia Cafe & Tea Room ***1/2
20 Sukhuvit Soi 31 (Soi Sawasdee)
Wattana, Bangkok 10110
Tel.: 02.662.0325
Cassia
Open Tuesday-Sunday : 9 am - 10 pm (Sunday opens at 10:30)
Pay (afternoon tea set): THB 199+ per set
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.Encroachment deliciousAroi Nae Non (literally delicious definitely) Restaurant, located at the beginning of Ladprao Road, serves a wide variety of classic Issan (northeastern provinces) fare. The menu covers an extensive selection of country-style favorites of Issan region, like different kind of somtum and yum to gaeng and jim-joom. My favorites are namtok moo yang and gai yang.
The owner really has guts to name its restaurant Aroi Nae Non or Definitely Delicious! However, I found, every dish I ordered was flavorsome, they are delicious, and wallet friendly too.
1. yum eggplant salad with seafood THB 90
2. grilled pork, with mint, in namtok dressing THB 60
(CNNgo world most delicious foods no. 19)
3. grilled chicken, marinated in Issan recipe THB 70
4 deep-fried sea bass THB 290
5. fried prawn in tamarind sauce THB 150
6. tomyum goong the CNNgo world 8th most delicious foods, THB 100
Aroi Nae Non Issan Restaurant ****
Ladprao Road
near Ladprao Soi 1
Chatuchak, Bangkok 10900
Tel: 02.939.3808
Open daily : 3 pm - 1 am
Pay (food only for two): around THB 400
