FOO D & D RI N KS xuan mai
ENOTECA ITALIANA
comings and goings around him. What’s his story? A former chef at the nearby luxury Sukhothai Hotel, Uncle John uses his fivestar skills to recreate the magic here. The rest is history. From a slow trickle of customers when he first opened, word has spread, particularly among expats, groups of whom sit inside and outside on stools, waiting for their food to arrive as they chat over a cold Leo beer or sweet glass of wine. And wait you must. As Uncle John cooks up everything himself, the waits can be long – often half an hour or more. Still, if you don’t have to be somewhere in a hurry, it’s worth it. Though he’s upped his prices a bit recently you still won’t find a lobster bisque this good for B129 elsewhere, even in this town. Dishes we keep coming back for include the seabass fillet with ratatouille and side of creamy, garlicky mash potato (B229); and the succulent grilled duck breast with gratin potatoes and blueberry orange sauce (B269). Others swear by Uncle John’s salads, steaks, pastas and specials board. Fine-dining touches like fancy plating are included, while others, like starched napkins, slick service and spotless toilets, aren’t.
อังเคิล จอห์น สวนพลู ซ.8
italian ENOTECA ITALIANA [map 3/k8] 39 Sukhumvit Soi 27 (enter from Soi 29 or 31) | BTS Phrom Phong | 02-258-4386 | www. enotecabangkok.com | 6pm-midnight | $$$ A small bar, arch shapes, and exposed brickwork; arty posters, a blackboard menu, a seven-table slice of northern Italy in downtown Bangkok. Chef Stefano Merlo arrived here with a respect for tradition and a flair for theatrics following spells at the Michelin starred Le Canlandre, in Padua, and the Tokyo branch of Enoteca Pinchiorri, another Michelin stalwart, in Florence. His six-course tasting menu (around B1,400 and only available for the whole table) offers the chance to try a wide selection of dishes. The opener – a tidbit of luxury carbonara sauce, cleverly served in a hollowed egg shell, and eaten 7 8 | A P RIL 2 0 1 3
il bolognese
with a teaspoon – is followed by black ink cappuccino, in which cubelets of tender slow cooked squid in its own ink are topped with creamy whipped potato. Presented in a glass jug, it resembles blackcurrant fool, with equally comforting tastes and textures. Later, there’s saffron risotto flecked with the strong dark flavours of liquorice; rich suckling pig intriguingly balanced by coffee-laced chestnut puree.
เอ็นโนติก้า สุขุมวิท ซ.27 IL Bolognese [MAP 5/H8] 139/3 Sathorn Tai Soi 7 | 02-286-8805 | www. ilbolognesebangkok.com | 11:30am-2:30pm, 5.30pm-11pm | BTS Chong Nonsi If the name itself doesn’t tip you off, then the living room décor will: Il Bolognese says tradition from the floor-to-ceiling of its spacious low room in the glass conservatory extension of a soi villa. Just inside the entrance are a brick crescent moon counter and wood fired pizza oven, where they flip and paddle thin and thick crust pizzas. There are cold cuts and cheese displays; wooden wine racks; and shelves with hanging hams and strings of garlic bulbs. Simple square wooden tables stand on terracotta tiles with Mediterranean floral inlays similar to fragments at Pompeii and Rome’s Ostia Antica. And the food completes the picture, with both the à la carte and a special menu that changes every 15 days including surprising regional dishes that leave you with an impression of actually having travelled to Italy for a couple of hours. Good quality cold cuts (B420++ and B650++) come with home-pickled vegetables and gnocco fritto (small diamond shapes of light, deep fried bread, all puffed and airy in the middle) that are a clean and crispy foil for the tasty meats. Tortellini Emiliani (B350++) is billed as “not mama’s or grandmama’s, but the original recipe”. The pasta rings have fillings of ground pork and beef, all topped with a rich creamy sauce finished with nutmeg and parmesan. And the lasagna spinach with Bolognese sauce (B300++) has spinach mixed into the pasta dough,
which allows an unusually soft texture. On the all-Italian wine list, with bottles from B900++-B6,900++, there’s one sparkling and three each of red and white by the glass (from B190++, also available in half and full litre carafes B450++ and B800++). Add well priced meats, including Aussie tenderloin with porcini sauce and rib eye with red wine sauce at B750++ and B780++ respectively, and Il Bolognese ticks a lot of boxes. It’s a 15 minute walk from Chong Nonsi, with entrances on both Sathorn Tai Soi 7 and Narathiwat Soi 7. อิล โบโลก์นีเซ่ สาทร ซ.7
vietnamese Xuan Mai [MAP3/Q5] 351/3 Sukhumvit 55 (near Thong Lor Soi 17) | 02-185-2619 | BTS Thong Lor | www. xuanmairestaurant.com | Tue-Sun 11am2:30pm, 6pm-10:30pm A couple of years back, former FBI agent and unintentional chef Meyung Robson’s popular Vietnamese restaurant left the homey confines of Soi 13 for the main stage of Thong Lor. Small, friendly and delicious, this homey restaurant has an army of followers that will surely be migrating along with Meyung. Spring rolls are definitely the way to start and the feather-light, deep fried Imperial rolls still had us salivating the next morning. Follow that up with a healthy portion of young lotus shoot salad with shrimp and BBQ pork, contrasted beautifully with a side of peanut crackers. The ridiculously tender tamarind braised pork with rice was delicious, but despite being a Vietnamese restaurant, you’ll be doing yourself an injustice if you don’t save room (be warned: portions are massive) for the brilliant passion fruit crème brulee. Served in a coconut, it’s irresistibly creamy and you won’t be able to stop from scraping the tender and aromatic meat off the sides of its shell.
ซวนมาย ทองหล่อ ซ.17. รร.โนโวเทล สยามสแควร์ bangkok101.com