Will keep a running log on here with way too many pictures of food. Last thread with good info was Marshall’s in 2010, so figured it was worth a new start.
Airport to town - when clearing customs, there’s a circular desk that provides car service into downtown. If I was vacationing, I probably would have grabbed a taxi, but the mid-range car was 1200 baht (~$40) and it was 11:45 PM. Didn’t want to screw around with a taxi stand (400-600 baht). If you go this route, make sure you get the 1200 Camry driver; the lady at the desk told me 2300 baht and was trying to get me in a BMW.
Staying at the JW Marriott. Nice hotel, located next to the BTS (Bangkok Skytrain). Not sure I’d stay here again, as it feels like a pretty sketchy area, located to an up-and-coming porn district (Nana plaza and yes, that was intentional). Can be a little louder at night than I like, mostly due to cars. Hotel itself is reasonably priced at 4400 baht a night (~140) and includes a typical buffet breakfast.
Traffic at peak hours is horrrrrible. It isn’t just that the drivers are bad; the traffic itself just doesn’t move. So far, anything from 5:00 - 7:30 has be a joke and I’ve had to expect a good 30-45 mins to go 5-7 miles each time we’ve gone out. We haven’t had any issues with drivers, but have always made sure to use the hotel/restaurant queues, rather than flagging down a random driver, and had the local explain where we were going. I’ve used 3 taxis so far, and none of the drivers speak English.
Day 2
Didn’t get out of the hotel on Day 1. Was jetlagged like crazy, hit the sack at 1:30 AM, but was up again 6:00 AM. I crashed after the sessions and rallied for Day 2.
Cloud 47 Bar - [CLOSED] Cloud 47 – Bar & Bistro – AroiMakMak
Rooftop bars are a big thing here. I went as part of a work function, so we skipped all of the great stuff in the link above and settled with Asahi and lower-end buffet stuff, but hey. Great venue with live music, overlooking the city. I don’t necessarily know that I’d go out of my way to come back, however I’d definitely hit one of the rooftop bars if you’re visiting as a pre-funk stop for a nearby restaurant.
Tawadang German Brewery - http://www.tawandang.co.th/
Small group of us went out and wanted to do something fun/loud that included drinking, but minus the ping pong balls. If I was here on vacation, it’d be a skip, but I could see going back again with a group from work. Funky mix of traditional German food (see schweinshaxe pic below), tableside beer poles and live Thai pop-music shows. Lot of locals getting hammered and dancing to Thai music and at one point somebody came out with a big train costume with a horn and started a train through the venue. Only weird thing for me was using the urinals (we’re going through 4L beer poles) and having the bathroom be “open air” above the shoulders; nothing like taking a leak while watching people walk by in the parking lot. Good time, totally G rated.
Found this place on the internets, rooting through TripAdvisor top restaurants that specialized in Thai food but were relatively close to the hotel and looked more upscale, but not going to demolish expense accounts. Definitely a great stop for food and price point. The restaurant has a very unique feel, as it’s off the main drag and is really two large houses connected to each other via a deck patio in back. It’s generally not something I’d expect in downtown Bangkok.
Cocktails here were great, but definitely on the sweet side. At 220 baht a piece, they were also pretty cheap. Think lots and lots of fresh fruit, leaves and other stuff, with syrupy alcohol tossed in, as well.
Ordered the “appetizer set,” which is basically a sampler. View below is a “half serving” (we had 3 people, waitress recommended 1.5 orders) and they were all great. Not a huge fan of the spongy texture on the fish ball, but hey.
I still have no idea who ordered this dish or what it’s name was. We all ended up with noodle bowls in a peanut broth/sauce. It tasted good, but wasn’t overly memorable.
Next up was a charcoal grilled river prawn, served with shrimp paste and chile sauces (on the side, pic 2). I probably would have opted for a different preparation, as again it was good but not great. Didn’t help that it sat on the table for 5-10 mins before we could get to it.
I have no idea what this dish was called; it had 300 letters. Something about fresh picked leaves from brackish waters with quail eggs… and it tasted really, really good. The great thing about most of these dishes is that they ranged from 220 - 350 baht (nothing over $10), with the exception of the giant prawn, which was 940 baht ($30).
We had to try a Massaman chicken curry dish! Good stuff.
Pork soup in a lemongrass broth. Couldn’t get over the flavor pop on the broth; I could have filled one of the beer poles from the German brewery with it and just plowed through it for the rest of the night.
Last one. I’d wax poetic, but it’s 1 AM. Crab dish with green stuff. Another one of the 300 letter menu items that didn’t show up in the picture version of the menu, but was a recommendation from the waitress when asked for a crab dish. I’m fully convinced they make random stuff depending on their mood and bring it out, as nothing on the menu looked close to the description. It was good, not great.
We also had a couple of orders of mangoes with sticky rice, along with a coconut milk and dumplings dish, for dessert. All in, with 3 rounds of cocktails and service charges added was 5500 baht, which translates to $57/person. Wine note (given it’s a wine board) - they had a short list that was pretty pricey. Looked at a couple of Hugels but the Gentil was ~$65/bottle (6x mark-up) and the other two were $130ish. Said screw it and stuck with cocktails.
As noted above, I’d totally come back here. Was a low-key experience with good-to-great food, a great atmosphere and not over the top on the bill. They won’t be winning a Michelin star any time soon, but hey, that’s later this week
Day 4 - Got sucked into a series of work meetings on one of my “off days,” so everything got shifted around. Took my own walking tour of the Sukhumvit area, which I wouldn’t repeat, more out of boredom than anything else. Stopped by the shops at Terminal 21 (skip), hit up a British pub (The Robin Hood) and another bar (Oskar). Oskar was ok, if you’re staying in the Sukhumvit 11 area (Aloft, Ambassador) and like cocktails. This was hanging over the toilet in Oskar -
Met up with a group of younger guys from the local office and headed to Supanniga Eating Room for dinner. http://www.supannigaeatingroom.com/ Urban/contemporary, hole in the wall type place (I’d make resos) with great food. Given we were getting 10 plates at a time, it would have been obnoxious to take a bunch of foodie pics, but check the web site, hit menu and then scroll through. Things I enjoyed, fwiw:
Ma Hor - Minced pork stir-fried with garlic and peanuts served on tangerine. Sweet, salty with citrus tang
Fried Isan Sausages - Pork fermented with rice, served with local condiments. A little sour, a little salty
Fried Chicken Wings - fish oil, reminiscent of Pok Pok, but much smaller. Nothing is on the same level as Pok Pok wings.
Pad Nam Prik Sa-taw Goong Sod Southern wild beans stir-fried with prawns, & premium shrimp paste from Koh Chang
Ka Lum Tod Nam Pla Fried chinese cabbage gravied with premium fish sauce from Trad province
Khai Yud Sai - Sauteed pork and prawns, seasoned and wrapped in thin omelet sheet
Can’t seem to find the crab/curry dish we had, which was un-freaking-believable. I handed a 1000 baht note over for my share of dinner.
Next stops were trendy hipster-ish bars. The first one was directly across the street, behind a “BOSS” sign and down an alley. There was no signage, no name and no menu. Head down the short alley, there’s a metal door that opens up in the wall to your right and you’re there. Reminiscent of Bathtub Gin in Seattle, but at least there’s a little sign at BG to indicate you found the damn place. You tell the bartender what kind of drinks you like and he makes something up for you… I had a Monkey 47 gin drink, which is a favorite. Go up to the second level, and you’ll find plush chairs and a big bear rug (with claws and all). Pretty cool, if you’re into the speakeasy scene.
Jumped in a cab (people were lazy) and went to Iron Fairies - The Iron Fairies | BK Magazine Online What an experience. Just bizarre freaking place. Owner is a metal-worker, sculptor, creative type mixed with Sarah Winchester (Winchester Mystery House) and you’ll find starecases to nowhere in the bathroom, random gargoyles and bottles of fairy glitter everywhere. Good drinks, good time, but a little on the crowded side.
Last note - traffic was still horrible after midnight and it took me at least 45 minutes to get from Sukhumvit 55 to 2.
Am a bit remiss in updating this. Next stop was lunch with friends from school. More of a fast food stop, but I don’t believe this was a typical fast food stop, as it’s reviewed pretty well in Trip Advisor. Somtam Nua Siam is in the Siam mall, right off the Siam BTS stop. Was a bit of a wait and our waitress didn’t speak English. Was fortunate that my friend grew up outside of Bangkok, so didn’t have any issues there.
Finally, you can’t get out of Bangkok without mangoes and sticky rice; it’s the national dessert. We had to hit up Mango Tango, as well. Located next to Siam center in an outdoor market area. Smoothie was great!
Typical wine list in BKK. Conversion rate is 1:32.78, so as a benchmark, the Mondavi Oakville is $671 making the Caymus Special Selection a steal at $421
Dinner at Bo.Lan. Another “go down to the end of the dark alley” dining experience that turned out to be entirely typical in Bangkok.
Overall, great venue and one of the higher-end places in town. Restaurant is in a house-like setting, similar to The Local (see above). Whole spectrum of dishes ranging from spectacular (duck curry was the single best dish I had on the trip) to unenjoyable (lukewarm soup dish that was just wrong on so many levels). Tasting menu below, but having issues rotating.
Everybody makes passion-fruit cocktails; here’s a passionfruit caipirinha.
Wine list wasn’t as ridiculously overpriced as some of the other places we went to. I enjoyed this bottle of Senorio de Barahonda ‘Epistem No 3’. Have never heard of the producer (there are some other bottlings in CellarTracker) and it was actually a pretty good bottle at the $60 pricepoint.
Any tasting menu that starts off with a cocktail is A-OK. The fruit portion was a bit weird, served as a sour, salt and spicy course (salt and chile peppers on the side).
Small-bite apps were all fried, with most containing fried pork. You cannot go wrong with “fried” and “pork” in the same sentence.
See the above statement, but quadruple the fried pork.
Duck Curry. Out of this world, would roll around in it naked, good. I’m sure that isn’t an appetizing visual, so I’ve included the pic below. Bottom left dish and yes, that’s a ginormous pepper on the other dish. I thought it was a carrot at first
Ahhh the terrible, lukewarm, puke-colored soup. If you go and get served this, try and negotiate a trade with the table next to you for more duck curry. #justsaying
First of three dessert courses, with a granite dish and a sticky-caramel crunch. Nothing inherently Thai about this dish and was a bit forced.
Final plate was a smorgasbord of dessert stuff. Nothing stood out and I got another cocktail, instead…
Gaggan was the last stop and I’ll post as soon as I have more time. Other note - Nahm has always been one of the top places in Bangkok (Gaggan asked if we were going there, too), but everybody I know has panned it. I didn’t have a chance to eat there, so cannot comment.
Just realized I never put the Gagan pics up. If you like Indian food with a molecular gastronomy spin, it’s the top spot in the world. They’ve also got some amazing beers, including the Westvleteren 12 and Ferran Adrià’s beer. Great time!
Alright, here goes with dinner at Gaggan. Overall, was a fantastic experience. The service was not overly impressive. Some friends had gone the night before and had a poor experience to kick things off (reservation issues, etc.). One of them is a fairly well-followed food blogger and somebody actually got her feed while they were at dinner and called the restaurant I crashed the tail-end of their dinner for cocktails on the patio and everything was great. Came back two nights later for the full dinner, with some friends.
I’m not going to rattle everything off here, as I took a pic of the menu. Overall, it was a great dining experience. Not spectacular, but great. I’d go back again at the price point (we took the middle tier meal, as my buddy had made movie reservations and wouldn’t have made it if we went with the 20 course meal.
