Vientiene Kitchen

Vientiene Kitchen is a large, wooden, thatch-roofed restaurant down Sukhumvit Soi 36. It serves Isaan and Laotian cuisine to a live musical accompaniment ranging from traditional country songs to, err, Eric Clapton. The waitresses are elegantly clothed in off the shoulder, long-skirted dresses and there are beer girls galore too.

You can sit at a table, or for a 'true' Isaan experience, lounge on the floor. There's no aircon but fans and sprays of water keep you cool. It's a relaxed atmosphere. I would say three-quarters of the clientele are foreign.

So far so nice, but what's the food like? We ordered 4 dishes. The vegetables arrived first - why do they always arrive first with the rice so that by the time any substantial dish like beef arrives, the rice and veg are cold? Anyhow, we had morning glory and it was tender and tasty, with the leaves melting in the mouth and the stalks filled with saucy juice.

Then came the Laotian steak.



Can you see it there at the back? Pale and uninteresting. And tough. Absolutely NOT recommended. To the right was gai yang (Isaan grilled chicken). It was fine, though we've had better. Juicy enough.

But the piece de resistance has to be the last dish at the front. Here's a closer peek:



What can it be? Well - and I can see you rubbing your tummies now as I speak - it's grilled duck's beaks. We had to try them right? Actually, they were the best part of the meal. It's basically the bottom jaw of the duck with the tongue attached and as ducks tongues aren't anything new in Chinese cuisine, I had no qualms about tucking right in. They're infused with lemongrass and grilled to a crispy chewiness. Excellent.

The bill though was pretty steep - 1200 baht with 3 big bottles of beer. I think we could have ordered better. There was plenty of seafood for instance. And I suppose we could have tried ants eggs salad (seasonal). I guess what with my budget limitations now though, I don't think I'll be coming back in a hurry. Also, I think the Isaan food is better at Sara Jane's - though obviously, Sara Jane's gets 0.2 on the atmosphere scale.

Fumi

Hurray! Let's revive a dying blog!! With less and less money to spend though, we're going into the slightly more cheaper eating side of Bangkok now.

Today, I'd like to rave about Fumi - a nice, cheap Japanese joint on the 5th floor of Emporium. We go practically every week to Fumi and it's not just getting loyalty stickers that keeps us coming back. The food is very good whilst being great value for money.

The bento boxes (above) are filling and filled with a great variety of titbits: tempura, chicken, sashimi. They cost about 230 baht and that's what Fatt always has.

I usually go for the grilled salmon set. It's quite sweet but tasty, with fluffy rice and soothing miso soup. Cost is about 130 baht. There's also a good selection of sushi, sashimi, rolls, noodles, donburis and salads, and also Japanese barbecue. In fact, that's one of the best things about Fumi: you can sit at the 'bar'-becue area and watch the kitchen in action. The cooks are super-clean and super-efficient - it's a real pleasure to see them fly!

Mahanaga

Mahanaga - nice looks, shame about the food/service

Mahanaga is a Thai-fusion restaurant on Sukhumvit that is a beauty to behold. Gorgeous Moroccon decor makes you feel like you're more in a north African souk rather than polluted Bangkok. There's a large outdoor dining area and a stately indoor area with heavy wooden tables and some rather bizarre red orange lighting - all very tasteful though.

Mahanaga gets some rave reviews - people at Fodors can't get enough. I really wish it served what its decor promises i.e. Moroccan food - I'm dying for it! Instead, all this Thai-fusion lark can be, well, like all fusion food, rather hit and miss. So I was disappointed.

We started with calamari rings in mango sauce. Nice - but so few rings at around 300 baht! I could get triple the amount for half the price at as good (if not better) a taste eating in Old Cedar. We also had lamb and aubergine salad - now this was worth it - practically a meal in itself, smothered in deep fried lemongrass, very strong dressing to go with the lamb - it was good.

For mains, we had scallops with vegetables - the scallops were big and juicy. And sea bass deep fried with ...hmm I've actually forgotten. The waiter warned us it wouldn't be a fillet but ...different. It was like that Thai crumbly fish bits that are vapourised in hot deep oil. OK but what a shame to waste sea bass like that. Oh well, our fault. We were warned.

We finished up with some dessert. I had a macadamia brownie with icecream. I kid you not, 2 x 2cm squares came out - miniscule!! Were they running low? Fatt had some creme caramel thing in a pumpkin shell.

We asked for the bill. It took ages. Everyone was now fully preoccupied with a table of ten next to us. We went to the paying area and were shooed away abruptly and rudely by some old hag behind the counter. Fatt later complained to one of the 'managers' but sod it, they know their priorities - the manager hustled us out. Table of ten it is then, eh?

I really wanted to enjoy the food and the restaurant - it was supposed to be a celebatory dinner - but I couldn't help feeling that while some bits were good, nothing was divine, and the service at the end was dismal. And at almost 3000 baht, there are a zillion other restaurants which would have done a far better job. Go somewhere else.

Dalian

I am so happy to have found this little gem of a restaurant which specialises in North East Chinese cuisine. This is the hearty stuff - ideal nosh for cold wintry nights. Not exactly fitting for the 35 degree celsius weather in Bangkok, but still can't help coming back to this place at least once a week.

Firstly, this is pretty much genuine Chinese food, just like the little eateries in mainland China. The people who run the place all speak Mandarin and there is usually a Chinese tv soap opera showing in the corner.

Secondly, the food is very good. As mentioned, it's hearty, filling stuff. Quite oily actually and I'd recommend that stir-fried dishes are balanced with a soup, stew or boiled stuff.

The way the Chinese (sorry, we) cook aubergines is divine. The succulence of the flesh, the crispiness of the outer edges, the absorption of oil and juice and sauce... oh my. They have about 3 or 4 aubergine dishes: braised, with brown sauce, with pork, with peppers and onions (pictured). We can never remember which one we ordered before. I think maybe it's the braised one which is best. Say "qiezi" (chair zer)!

Another outstanding speciality is the dumplings (jiaozi - or jowzer in English). These can be fried or boiled. They can be veggie or stuffed full of pork and cabbage. We get the meaty ones boiled. Dipped in vinegar, tasting these little bundles of delight simply transports me back to cold winter nights in Beijing huddled over a big steaming bowl of satisfying, delicious dumplings.

Also pictured is 'Dalian stew' - a tasty soup full of cabbage, greens, and seemingly random pieces of pork. They have quite an extensive menu and it can get quite hard to choose what to have!

Service is OK. Punters don't seem to be Thai but either ex-pat mainlanders, Japanese or Korean. Fatt is usually the only farang in the restaurant.

Dalian is located on Suk Soi 40. No sign in English, but as you enter the soi, look to the right and you'll see lots of red lanterns.

Uomasa

87 Soi Akkapat (Thonglor Soi 13)



Oh wow, we think we've just found our favourite restaurant in Bangkok and to our enduring shame, it's not Thai but... Japanese. Oh dear!

We stumbled into Japan Town one Saturday lunchtime after yet another trip to Samitevej Hospital. A lot of Japanese people were going into this particular restaurant so we decided to follow them. Oh boy are we glad we did. We liked the restaurant so much we went back for dinner the next day!

So what's to like? Well the atmosphere is buzzing as it's busy but not overcrowded. There are seating areas but also you can sit by the sushi bar which is more fun as you watch the slabs of fresh fish before you. The service is very pleasant. The menu is extensive to say the least - perhaps even a little confusing at first. The food though! The sushi and sashimi is divine: fresh, succulent, melt in the mouth ...



The tempura is crisp without being smothered in batter. The salads are tasty (we had salmon skin salad). The agadashi dofu comes with salmon and umm aubergine I think. Anyhow, v. yummy. They have a big range of ox tongue for some reason and their best seller is apparently the grilled beef tongue skewer - which was surprisingly tender and tasty. We also had a lightly cooked burdock dish - though I still don't quite know what burdock is exactly. Also, at dinner time you get little freebie dishes - we had an eel one last time - v. good! And there are lunch set menus.

Needless to say, it's not cheap - probably looking at around a tenner a head, which is still a bargain compared to London.

Anyhow, we now know where to go if the Fatt is feeling down.

Somboon Seafood

The best crab curry in town must be at Somboon's. I reckon it beats Seafood Market and probably every other crab curry I've ever had. It's eggy, the crab is full of meat, the sauce is just crying out to be dolloped onto rice and scoffed and scoffed again.

Sometimes, if you don't go at peak times, you order crab curry and it's before your eyes in two seconds - they know that a table will want the curry soon so must have them stacked up ready for serving faster than McDonalds!

And the rest of the food is delicious too. Sea bass is succulent. Deep fried fish in NE Thai style gave us a fleshy meaty fish in a sour spicy light sauce. The fish eaten with the supplied raw cabbage leaf is extremely tasty. Spare ribs with gaai lan (chinese brocolli) was great (though a little tough). The veg is all very nice too, though to tell the truth, they get rather neglected as soon as the seafood arrives.

Somboons is a large restaurant with floor after floor of seating. The service can be ...nonchalent, but who cares! The surroundings are not lush either, but again, who cares! The prices are very reasonable and it's the food that counts!

Lord Jim's

Wow, been doing even more scoffing, so got loads to catch up on.

Lord Jim's then - another Mandarin Oriental institution. To sum up: fine seafood, superb views, excellent service.

Lord Jim's has apparently been recently refurbished. It's certainly an eye-catching place on the inside. As you enter, an entrancing tank of tropical fish lines the corridor at eye-level. Cute booths are lined on the other side for a quiet drink. Otherwise you enter a cool glass interior, with chefs slicing sashimi, beds of ice displaying the latest catch of the day, fridges lined with varieties of beer...

We were given an excellent window seat without even asking. Here you can see the activity on the river as the dinner cruises sail by with their Christmas decoration lights. The menu contains a range of seafood favourites together with freshly caught catches of the day such as lobster, grilled or steamed and served with a variety of sauces.

We ordered sashimi to start: toro (tuna belly) and salmon. Both very good. Naturally the toro was very pricey and one piece had a bit of gristle (or I don't know what it was, couldn't eat it though) in it. We also had the pan fried scallops - only 3 are given, but it was cooked perfectly and was v. tasty.

For the main course, I had Cajun salmon which I hoovered up very quickly indeed. It was so moreish. Fatt wanted fresh lobster but he didn't want it too dry and so settled for stir-fried Thai-style (not on the menu). In fact, I think Fatt wanted it stir-fried Chinese style e.g. with spring onion and ginger, but they couldn't do that. Unfortunately, the lobster in Thai chilli sauce was overly salty - we just couldn't taste the lobster at all. Our fault I suppose. The waiter obligingly asked the kitchen to re-cook and reduce the saltiness which helped improve things slightly. But it was a lesson - why have lobster cooked Thai-style at such an expensive place when this way of cooking was not on the menu and is not the speciality of the place?

We still had a great time and finished off with a really gorgeous chocolate fondue desert. And the service was impeccable. The bill came up to about 6,500 baht. Of course this is v. expensive for Thailand. Yet when I think about a mid-range seafood restaurant in the UK and a 3-course meal with beer - we'd be paying more. Here, we have 5-star service, surroundings and food. I'd go back v. easily (if there weren't so many other restaurants in Bangkok that I'd like to try first!)