The Old Cedar

Hooray, should just be able to bung in another June entry.

The Old Cedar is a Lebanese restaurant located near to Samitivej hospital. Get checked out by the doc and then have some yummy babaghanoush. mmmm...

It isn't as cheap as the Middle Eastern restaurants round Sukhumvit soi 3, but the mezze portions are pretty large. It costs 120 baht for a mezze dish and around 300 baht for a main course. Fatt and I like to get our fingers messy with the mezze dishes though.

So far we've had wonderful smoky babaghanoush, a fine fatoush salad, rather dense and packed falafel, those cigarro pastry things with cheese inside (OK)... the mezze I really like are the chicken wings though. They seem to be cooked differently each time, but last time they were grilled and came with a herb and garlic oil dressing. It was divine.

The Lebanese beer is tasty and makes a nice alternative to the usual lager. I would say it's a white beer with a lemony taste. But that could be because they smear lemon juice around the lip of the glass.

It's a nicely decorated place with small carpets hanging from the ceiling. The service is sweet. It's not particularly busy so you can hear neighbouring conversations very well. Especially the loud English mother of two who was at the table next to us the other night. Fatt and I were 'discussing' some money matter and during a rare lull in the conversation next to us, Fatt happened to declare: "well I don't want to fuck around the bank for an hour trying to sort it out!".

The English mother was not amused...

Admakers

oooh, better post something for June eh? I have been eating honest, but been travelling too much and over-scoffing on Chinese food. While I wish I could post up reviews of my yummy experiences in Honkers and Shanggers, well, let's concentrate on Bangers.

There is nothing better on a week night than to meet Fatt after work and toddle off to Admakers for a cold glass of Heinekin and some yummy Thai food.

Admakers will never get top marks for its cuisine, nor for being particularly cheap. But it's the consistently good fodder that I like about this place. Alan Hanson would approve.

First and foremost it's a bar with rustic wooden seating. A lot of foreigners patronise the place and around 8 o'clock, the live music starts: guitars and renditions of classics such as 'Scarborough Fair'. If you go to Admakers a lot this could end up being a little repetitive, although fair dues to the guys who do sing and play beautifully.

The menu is very extensive and takes ages to plough through. We'll usually have a green chicken curry with roti, a steamed sea bass in either lime or soya sauce, prawn toasts and maybe a spicy salad. All of which will be consistently tasty. Seafood is such a great bargain in Thailand. It would be also easy to over- or under-steam fish. But Admakers seem to get it right every time.

The only drawback about the place for me is the service. They can be quite sneaky about opening up extra bottles of beer that you haven't ordered. And there's one waiter who looks like he'd rather spit at you than take your order. Maybe he really does want to spit at me. Oh well.