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!)

China House

I was pretty sceptical when Fatt suggested we go to the China House after the fasting we endured for our health check ups. I am soooooo glad that I was persuaded to go now.

My initial reluctance stemmed from the fact that it is a Mandarin Oriental restaurant, ergo bound to be pricey. I was completely won over by:

a) the setting - it's a house outside the Mandarin Oriental. White, clean, colonial with tasteful Chinese settings. The girls wear the most gorgeous cheong saams (Chinese dresses) and tables are discretely spaced apart.
b) the dim sum menu is concise and very reasonably priced. Starting from about 75 baht per dish to 120 baht (NB more for things like fried rice etc.)
c) the dim sum is divine. We had a 100% hit rate in terms of getting good dishes. The freshness of the ingredients was simply bursting - it was all wonderfully home made. We had prawn cheung fun (which normally I am not keen on but this was fantastic), spring rolls, prawn and mango wrapped rice rolls, spare ribs in black bean (subtle) and prawn dumplings. A range of dipping sauces complemented the dishes nicely. For afters we had the mango pudding (which came with cream - tasty) and the sago & pomelo & mango pudding.
d) service of course was impeccable

I only have 2 grumbles which was one waitress was being a bit pushy on the Shanghai dumplings (after watching 'Ramsey's Kitchen Nightmares' we're a bit suspicious when servers are trying to push a particular dish). The other thing was the price of the tea: 150 baht per person for a pot of jasmine tea!

However, I will gladly go again and again. It's some of the best dim sum I've ever had in my life!

Abyssinian Cafe

Wha hey! ate loads and loads over the weekend and as a result Fatt has announced an overspending on food and requested I find cheaper restaurants. Pah!

Anyhow, the Abyssinian Cafe is a small Ethiopian eaterie on Sukhumvit Soi 3 - it's about half way up, past the Grace Hotel. You have to wade through all the street stalls, tourists and a few girlies to get there but once ensconced, it's a real gem.

The menu has stews of either chicken, beef or lamb plus some vegetarian options. The stew is plonked onto Injera bread on a tray (sourdough flat pancake/bread). You tear the bread off, scoop stew and any additional spices and scoff. Wash your hands beforehand!

Actually we made quite a mess, but it was yummy stuff. We had one of the spicy chicken dishes and a mild beef one (basically the one without green peppers as I am not overly fond of them and they cause constipation). The beef was very good indeed. The chicken was sour and I think I'd have preferred rice rather than the Injera bread with that.

Anyhow, it cost us around 300 bhat each with beer. The service was very sweet and graceful - Ethiopian girls are very beautiful. We'll be coming back.

Next up: 2 amazing experiences at the Mandarin Oriental.