Good View - Chiang Mai

Summary: good view - shite food.

I realise that we are straying out of the Bangkok zone here but sometimes it's nice to get out and see the rest of Thailand. I whisked Dad up to Chiang Mai for some relaxing, scenic trips. Unfortunately I wish I'd asked for serious advice on where to eat in Chiang Mai first.

Like a divvy, I took my dad along the riverside to eat. We ignored Riverside (though how I wish now that we hadn't) and instead were enticed into Good View by the pretty lanterns they suspend from the trees. It was busy and had a small stage with live music/karaoke (hard to tell). The menu was funky and nicely presented and I really really liked their slate beer mat thingys (temporarily have forgotten the word).

But besides that the food was lame. It's possible that one could class Good View as more of a bar than a restaurant, but if you're going to pay the same amount of baht I reckon one should expect the same quality.

First up: steamed fish. My dad picked at it and immediately said it wasn't fresh. The flesh was all mashed as if it had been defrosted. He also said it smelt 'very fishy'. This of course sounds absolutely wacky - after all, it is fish! But in Chinese there's a word 'xing' which means to smell very fish like and not in a good way. We returned the fish and the waiters didn't seem surprised. My dad slipped one of the managers a card for Seafood Supermarket.

Next the rice: cold. Sent that back. It was returned luke warm quite a while later. The veg was OK but nothing to shout home about. And then the beef trundled along - beef in garlic. Very mediocre and hard to chew. Overall with the dishes coming in dribs and drabs and it all so ... crap... we left very unsatisfied.

I'm probably terribly spoilt by Bangkok food but I hate it when I have a crap meal.

Seafood Supermarket

Motto: "if it swims we have it"

Sukhumvit Soi 24



I've been to this restaurant twice in the last week. That doesn't quite beat my 2 KFC meals in one day record but does certainly prove that I LIKE this place. I first saw this restaurant on cable TV when Anthony Bourdain did his Cook's Tour in Thailand. Here was this massive 1000-seater restaurant painted to resemble some bizarre happy sea-world, with surreal floating sharks and fish suspended overhead, port holes and fluorescent lighting. (Why not go the whole hog and dress the waitresses as mermaids and the waiters as seals, eh?)



The concept is simple: you pick the seafood and you tell them how you want it cooked. But everything is done on a grand scale. You whizz around with a supermarket trolley, pick your fish (still flapping), crab (still clawing) or shellfish, pop them into a plastic bag, grab any other sundry items like vegetables and check out.

Needless to say, I've fallen in love with another tourist / concept restaurant. I don't care! It's not for the squeamish but the food is magnificent. Curry crab is cooked with egg and that light yellow curry which you just want to scoop up and suck all evening. (The crab is also pretty cheap compared to the other seafood). Sea bass with ginger and spring onion was cooked to fresh perfection. Vegetables were crisp. Prawns with black bean very nice. The only down fall is that the rock lobster didn't have much meat!

Yum.

Le Dalat

We've been to Le Dalat a number of times and like Suppatra, it never fails to disappoint. These 2 are my favourite restos in BKK. I don't care if they're aimed at farangs, or if there's a quaint touristic twist to the proceedings (Le Dalat waiters sport Vietnamese costumes straight from Tintin & the Blue Lotus comic book): it's the food that counts!

We took my dad here and I gave him a few leaves to try from the fresh herbs basket. A bit of basil, mint etc. We had fresh spring rolls. My dad pronounced the herb inside to taste like 'rubber'. I really wish he hadn't said that because what was a previously gorgeous dish for me suddenly did indeed begin to have a hint of petrol to it. But I pushed the thought firmly to one side and still enjoyed the rice paper wrapped delicacy.

What if dad didn't like the prawn salad? That had its fair share of 'rubber-tasting' herbs. Nervously we waited as dad tucked into his first very large prawn which was smeared with a chili and garlic sauce. He didn't say a word. But that was because he was trying to get every last morsel from the crustacean (including of course the brains - best bit!) After about five minutes, he just said 'Delicious' and then helped himself to the catfish.

The catfish dish is a stew but reduced so much that you only need the tiniest bit of sauce and fish to give you an intense fish-pepper taste. You have to eat it with rice and it's absolutely delicious and also hubby's favourite. We also ordered beef 'sukiyaki' which is DIY beef cooked in coconut juice, plus other herbs and flavourings should you wish. We wrapped the beef up in a lettuce leaf, herbs, rice noodles and chili sauce. Bliss. Dad approved too and drank the resulting sweet soup ad infinitum.

Hubby was eyeing up the mango and sticky rice but his tummy hadn't been feeling right (though that did not stop him from scoffing the main meal) so we paid up. It came to about Baht 1,500 with fruit drinks for the 3 of us - a bargain for the quality.

Tip 1: we always go to Le Dalat which concentrates on Vietnamese food. There's another one called Le Dalat Indochine which expands to, yes, dishes from Indochina. Personally, I prefer just plain Le Dalat.

Tip 2: I think the water is a tad expensive there and the waiters will constantly top up opening bottles and bottles. You may wish to keep an eye on this!

UPDATE 18th Jan 2006: went recently with some friends. Food was good, but service can only be rated as OK. They put our table next to 3 middle-aged Japanese couples. Nice quite ambience, right? You must be kidding - they were so fudging noisy we had to scream to get ourselves heard. Waitresses evantually moved us to another table but wouldn't let us sit upstairs. Don't know why. Anyhow, am not sure I'll be back in a hurry. Specially if I find a better Vietnamese place somewhere.

Suppatra River House

This has to be one of my fave restos in Bangkok. It's an absolute pain to get to but once there, the food never fails to disappoint. Compared to Calderazzo with its outrageously inflated prices and mediocre (in taste & size) meals, Suppatra was two-thirds of the price and we ate a banquet.

Admittedly, it's a bit of tourist favourite, what with the Thai traditional dancing and the river setting, but it's nice sometimes to see the boats decked out in Christmas light chugging up and down the river. And the food is sublime. Some standouts: chicken in pandanus leaves - juicy and tender little pockets of delight; deep-fried soft-shell crab - admittedly, you can't really go wrong with this; sea bass cooked in lemon sauce - there was a thick layer of garlic, but it still managed to retain subtle flavours and was cooked to tender perfection; even good old noodles with prawns was a sweet yummy complement.

The service is also very pleasant and cordial. Can't wait for the next visit.

Calderazzo

I've been to Calderazzo (on Soi Langsuan) three times now, and each time I come away with the vague feeling I've been ripped off. So why do we keep going back? Convenience, I suppose, and nice decor probably. Mainly I guess because a pal likes to eat there. But there are much better Italian restaurants e.g. the pizza parlours at the beginning of Sukhumvit Soi 31.

What's wrong with Calderazzo? Well, I ordered a salami and rocket pizza there and it looked more like spinach and bacon bits (the dried convenience kind you put on salads) and tasted of garlic - and only garlic. Hell, I didn't complain. It was one of my first meals since arriving here and I wasn't paying. The second time, I ordered one of their pasta dishes with beef. That was quite nice but did have more than a hint of Chinese noodles with double-cooked beef about it. So I guess the first thing to say about Calderazzo is that the Italian food is not quite what you would expect.

Another thing is that for the pennies, I really don't think it's worth it. Hubby ordered a four seasons pizza which contained what looked like sliced tinned mushrooms and defrosted prawns - you know the small shrimpy kind that is used in prawn cocktails. I ordered spinach ravioli - 4 fairly large pieces came out full of green stuff. Perfectly edible, but rather pricey. And to be frank, I'd have more satisfaction and a fuller belly from a bowl full of vegetarian jiaozi (Chinese dumplings) at at least half the price.

OK I've learnt my lesson and I'll shut up!

Lemongrass

Mmmm... this was really yummy. Lemongrass is a Thai restaurant on Sukhumvit Soi 24. It's full of farangs - probably because the food is very farang-friendly. And the service is also very good - busy but attentive.

We had beef fried with crispy basil - a dry dish and yummily crunchy. We ordered a pomelo salad which was juicy and subtly sour. Best of all - and the menu was very specific about this - 2 prawns and aubergine cooked in a curry sauce. Prawns were very big and cut in half, so if you're easily fooled by these kind of things, it was like having 4 prawns! There was not much curry sauce but enough and it didn't blast your tongue to oblivion but was just spicy enough for bkkmei.

We finished off with fried banana. Good - next time we'll have it with icecream.

As they say in the guides: 'booking advised'.

Tidbit Treasure

Dear me, fallen way behind in the review stakes. But rest assured we have certainly been checking out a plethora of Bangkok restos. I'm pleased to report that Tidbit Treasure on Sukhumvit Soi 33/1 is really quite a little treasure too. Decor-wise, we're talking Wanchai greasy spoon or London Chinatown cheap Poons which is fine by me so long as the food is good and the price is right. Luckily, Tidbit Treasure scores highly on both points. We ordered Mah Po beancurd, prawn baked with glass noodles, and - I just couldn't resist - half a crispy aromatic duck.

The beancurd was wonderful - soft tofu and minced pork with the slight peppery & chili flavour unadulterated by Thai additions. The prawns were a nice contrast with a healthy hint of coriander. The duck itself was just like Chinatown: crispy skin, moist meat... But alas no bone to chew on as they had shredded all the meat off it and taken the bones away. Oh well, so long as there is hoi sin sauce... The only problem was the pancake which was sweet. Yuk.

We came here for dimsum too, but unfortunately this did not live up to our dinner experience. I won't go into detail. Just that Shanghai dumplings (xiao long bao) should have some juice in it?