FOOD & DRINK | review
Crave
Craving the ideal business lunch? Go on, build it yourself!
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mid the dizzying throng of eateries to be found around the Lower Sukhumvit area, afternoon tucker hunters are invited to take a pleasant sojourn down Soi 11, where Crave Wine Bar & Restaurant— located on the 8th floor of the Aloft Bangkok Hotel—offers their ‘Build Your Own’ lunch menu featuring a trio of lunchtime favourites. The venue itself is spacious and airy, with the main floor—tastefully contemporary and not at all overdone—boasting generously high ceilings and glass walls all around which make for a bright and welcoming ambience. A sparkling show-kitchen where diners can watch their order in progress, and an attached outdoor terrace with wrap-around seating and grill station, complete the overall layout. Catering to Bangkok’s businessand weekend lunch seekers, the Build Your Own Menu (B250) is fast, flexible, and simply dripping with choices. Choose either the burger, pasta, or pizza option and customize like crazy. BURGERS: With bread choices like the classic sesame bun, Ciabatta, and bagel, Crave’s burgers come dressed out more like gourmet sandwiches. Meat options include beef, chicken, or pork, with choice of sauces—we were absolutely enamoured with our creation of chicken (very nicely seasoned) with guacamole sauce on Focaccia bread. PASTA: Whereas you don’t often see burgers and decently-done pasta dishes coming out of the same kitchen, Crave’s cooks clearly know their way around a pasta pot. With five noodle varieties and six sauce options on offer, including penne, linguini and fusilli (among others), in classic tomato, pesto, arrabiata and other sauces, the choices are sufficiently varied. Our Fettuccini olio was spot-on al dente, with garlic, sweet basil leaves and dried chilies adding a nice but none-too-overpowering bite.
80 | OCTOBER 2016
PIZZA: With its authentic pizza oven, and a staggering selection of toppings, Crave serves a right tasty pizza. Go ahead and enhance your pie with up to four toppings from a list that includes all the standard pizza add-ons, plus highlights like smoked duck, emmenthal and salmon. Our tomato, mushroom, blue cheese and black olive combo was fantastic, and the ultra-thin and crispy crust gave every bite a satisfying crunch—far less filling than the conventional, breadlike variety. The ‘Build Your Own’ lunch menu portions are just right for one, but can be shared if accompanied by another dish or two. Other tempting, off-theBIY menu starter selections include the Chicken quesadillas (B200), Chicken or Salmon Caesar salad (B150/190), and
the tasty Vietnamese vegetarian spring rolls (B200). Finally, don’t even think about taking your leave without trying one or two of the devilishly toothsome desserts on offer, such as the yummy Blueberry-Oreo cheescake or Apple crumble (B120 each) which graced our table. And say goodbye to that cursed “double-plus good” (++) symbol so common on hotel restaurant menus— the price you see is the price you pay. by Gary Barber
Crave@Aloft Bangkok
8F, Aloft Bangkok Sukhumvit 11 35, Sukhumvit Soi 11 Tel: 02 207 7000 Lunch served daily: noon-4pm www.aloftbangkoksukhumvit11.com bangkok101.com