Level 15 of the Hilton Pattaya hotel is no longer a bastion of Continental fine dining. All the gourmet surf 'n' turf thrust has decamped 19 levels above, to Horizon, the fashion-forward rooftop restaurant and bar.
Well, someone had to make way to meet the expectations of the hotel's cosmopolitan clientele, the majority of whom are visitors to Thailand and could hardly go home without indulging in a banquet or two of real Thai food, as opposed to the adulterated versions that preponderate in areas where the essential ingredients can only be flown in.
And so Flare fine dining is now "Flair Thai Cuisine". The swish de{aac}cor has been tweaked only a tad because the signature subdued lighting and dark sheers that enshroud the dining booths, providing symbolic separation while still being intriguingly revealing, describe a minimalist stage on which you could pretty much set any upscale f&b experience. Happily the archetypal Maitre D, Khun Sunny, has also been retained and is as ineffable as ever.
Meanwhile the prices are a little less "special occasion" than the previous incarnation so you can have lunch or dinner there more than once. That's just as well because the quality of the food, both composition and ingredients, is good enough that you will want to mine the menu's depths.
Working in cahoots with the hotel's celebrated Executive Chef, K. Supoj Suwanwong, Flare's new Sous Chef, Chef Pattpong, has created an intriguing menu that melds classics with a twist together with rarities meriting reappraisal and some cheeky new ideas.
Chef Chou has the advantage that he's spent his whole career from age 18 learning Thai cuisine, a journey that has taken him to restaurants in all the regions of Thailand, thereby gaining an uncommonly in-depth knowledge and appreciation of an astonishingly broad haul of dishes. A contract in demanding Dubai, meanwhile, acted as a kind of finishing school for learning to fine-tune the authentic cuisine to the tastes of the pickiest globe-trotting diners.
TripAdvisor reviewers have been rating the restaurant's Masaman Nue (450), tender cubes of Australian beef shank stewed in red curry sauce served with roti, off-the-charts but I'd had one elsewhere just recently and so looked for something else.
But first was one of Chef Chou's amuse bouche offerings. This was a plump miang kham, a dish from Thailand's central region but with Indian origins, basically comprising a fresh, waxy beetlenut leaf encasing a finely balanced mix of dried coconut, lemon, ginger, peanut, chilli, tamarind and dry shrimp, here enhanced by an edible pink lotus petal. You pop it all into the mouth in one go. Hopefully you have a big enough oral orifice for what is quite a massive morsel. Be prepared for the fireworks as all the flavours explode. Don't worry about it being over-spiced. It's not. But the combination is still mind-blowing.
At this point my drink arrived - an excellent Thaijito, with a Sang Som Thai rum base adorned with lemongrass, ginger and a couple of slices of red chilli - a kind of tom yum cocktail. Very concentrated and well-made, the flavour lingered to the last sip.
Our appetizer was one of the novelties, Hoy Prick Thai Dum (350), seared Hokkaido sea scallop with pepper corn sauce & morinda leaves, such a sophisticated dish that wouldn't have been out of place in the old Flare. The scallops were sublime and the pepper sauce just the right combination of spice and texture.
This led us to be curious as to what Chef Pattpong would do with the Northeast's most famous dish, Som Tum (350) and the answer arrived in the form of a tableside presentation charmingly orchestrated by K. Ple, our waitress and, incidentally, the hotel's preferred collaterals model. The presentation is a good idea because it's a colourful apparition, with all the ingredients, from the kung haeng to the lemon juice, presented mise-en-place in glass jars , thereby allowing diners to select or reject the various elements and personally supervise how many chillies go into the mix. Or none. And while you're about it, why not have a go yourself, under K. Ple's expert eye?
However, we decided not to pursue that line any further on this occasion, instead opting for a balanced selection of four "mains" to enjoy together with spoonfuls of finest jasmine rice.
These included Yum Khamin Koong (350), a less common spicy salad of white curcuma & grilled tiger prawns, shredded coconut, cashew nuts and crispy shallot. This was juicy, mildly spicy and satisfying with the prime prawns accentuating the enjoyment.
Also of aquatic origins was Kaeng Som (450), sea bass battered in egg mixture with acacia leaves and deep-fried until crispy on the outside and firm and fluffy on the inside, onto which is poured at the table a hot and sour Thai curry with tamarind paste soup, also state-of-the-art.
And we dove into one of the special items, yellow curry whole crab (1,500) equipped with shell crackers and managed to extract the delicious white meat without getting messy.
Our only carnivorous selection was Kaeng Phanaeng (450), tender Australian beef strip loin in red and coconut curry served with half a boiled egg. Rich and satisfying.
By now we were too full to contemplate exploring Flare's take on mango sticky rice (200) but the Bai Tuey Creme Brule (200), Pandan & taro custard base topped with a contrasting layer of hard caramel, sounded like it might go down without too much trouble. My host, on the other hand, could not resist Tub Tim Krob (200), Stuffed water chestnut in syrup and coconut milk Served with crushed ice, very fresh and prime as it brought memories of picking water chestnuts from paddies in Chiang Mai in his childhood.
So there you have it - great appetizers, salads, soups, curries, wok fries, grills and specialties of the house as well as desserts. Quoted prices are nett so this is not extortionate considering the quality of both the cooking and the prime ingredients. The tally starts to rise when you fall under the spell of the House Specialties, such as the crab, sea bass or tiger prawns (all at 1,200) but the grills begin reasonably with the likes of fillet of sea bass (650) and Hor Mok Salmon (650), before rising to Grilled Striploin 250gr (1200) or Seafood Mixed Grill (1200). But when it's this good, it's still impressive value for such authentic cuisine prepared with such passion.
FLARE. HILTON PATTAYA. 333/101 Moo 9, Nong Prue, Banglamung. T: +66 (0)38 253 000. E: pattaya.sales@hilton.com pattaya.hilton.com
