A selection of Australian, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Spanish and Thai cuisines comprise our favourite restaurants
Veganerie Concept
Soi Methee Niwet, off Sukhumvit 24 Call 02-258-8489 and 087-443-3728 Open daily 10am-10pm. Park on the premises. Most credit cards accepted.
Compassionate cuisine is not the only reason this vegan eatery, Veganerie Concept, has made our best-loved list. It is also because of a comprehensive and mindful variety of plant-based fare, as well as the taste-bud pleasure it has on offer.
There are more than 50 savoury items, in categories such as all-day breakfast, salads, pasta, burgers, wraps and Asian-style rice bowls. Most dishes are gluten-free, while allergen-free options are also available.
To ensure the strict vegan standard and high quality, most of the ingredients are either crafted in-house or selected from the very best producers. Its home-made ice cream, yoghurt and mayonnaise, for example, are coconut- and soy-based.
The super quinoa summer bowl is not only hearty but also tasty: an ample jumble of quinoa grains, cubed roasted sweet potatoes, fresh Romaine lettuce, cucumber, raisins and roasted mixed nuts tossed with tangy sweet tomato-pineapple salsa and vegan Parmesan cheese with balsamic dressing.
Also among the best-sellers is the "royal Thai pantry", a vegan rendition of som tam thad featuring a combo of spicy green papaya salad accompanied by stir-fried rice noodles, crispy caramelised mushrooms, deep-fried spring rolls and fresh vegetables.
For those who crave something "meaty", the restaurant's vegan take on the American BBQ pulled-pork burger promises wholesome fulfilment. A few of the wraps worth trying are the Caesar-roasted mushroom wrap and the satay tofu wrap.
You can finish off your meal with some of the ready-made desserts, such as carrot cake, fruit crumble, brownies, cheesecake and banoffi pie, to name a few, available from the display fridge. Or order from the dessert menu for the sweet treats to be prepared fresh and hot from the kitchen. Go for the waffle and you won't regret it.
The service reflects the warm-hearted nature of the brand. The staff, including the owners, are friendly, knowledgeable and willing to go the extra mile to accommodate.
Saneh Jaan
Glasshouse@Sindhorn Building Witthayu Road Call 02-650-9880 Open daily 5-10pm. Park at Sindhorn Building. Most credit cards accepted.
Despite its glamorous interior setting and astronomically-priced dishes, Saneh Jaan, which opened a few months ago in the newly renovated Sindhorn Building, offers Thai cuisine other eateries can hardly surpass.
The restaurant's culinary concept, banking on time-honoured homestead fare that celebrates the country's abundance of seasonal ingredients through well-balanced meals, is built from the owner's deep gastronomic passion and recipes accumulated from throughout Thailand.
And though the food is traditional home-cooked in style, the dining is more haute gastronomy.
The menu is of a decent size but not too sweeping, comprised of 50 dishes from various regions.
Nam phrik poo, a platter of assorted vegetables with herbal chilli-crabmeat dip, is among the recommended dishes.
Worth ordering are beef-shank massaman, stir-fried string beans with shrimp paste, and hor mhok, or steamed fish-curry souffle in a banana-leaf basket.
For a personal dish, try the khanom jeen sao nam, or Thai-style rice noodles with fresh pineapple, ginger, garlic slices, dried shrimp, fish balls and coconut sauce.
For dessert, do sample the exceptionally delightful som chun, or, as described on the menu, assorted seasonal fruit in citron and kaffir lime syrup.
As an upscale dining establishment, the food is complemented by a wide range of wines and cocktails, including signature concoctions.
Suhring
Yen Akat Soi 3 Call 02-287-1799 Open daily, 6pm to midnight. Park on the premises. Most credit cards accepted.
The fine dining establishment owned and run by German twins Thomas and Mathias Suhring opened in the middle of this year just as discussions began to arise about where one can enjoy notable German wines paired with fine German cuisine in Bangkok.
Suhring occupies an expensively renovated house in an upscale residential neighbourhood of Yannawa. The glass-facade dining room is equipped with a lounge zone and cigar terrace, all blessed with a nice garden view.
For more privacy, a table for up to four diners is set in an intimate corner behind translucent drapery. But if a convivial dining vibe enlivened by a dynamic cooking station is your preference, then book a seat at the dining counter or one of the three private tables in the kitchen zone.
Such a casual setting speaks to the Suhrings' ideal of refined gastronomy, that of exquisitely executed food, properly served in a fun and comfortable atmosphere.
The restaurant offers a degustation menu, featuring modernised dishes with a touch of farm rusticity. It includes nine courses and 12 courses and is revised daily according to the availability of seasonal produce.
You can expect to find treasured dishes such as pumpernickel with kohlrabi cream and first-harvested red radish; a paper-thin, brittle pork-knuckle sandwich with sauerkraut cream and marjoram; and wine-seethed duck liver terrine accompanied by Austrian sweet wine.
The chefs take great pride in their bread, which here is a highlighted centrepiece, not just a stomach filler. They are made fresh daily with imported German flour and a batch of yeast fermentation made in-house a year ago. The Suhrings' "brotzeit" is presented in a style of roadside picnic and featuring rustic sourdough bread with Oldenburger butter and schmaltz, soft pretzel with obatzda, and cold cuts with a jar of pickles.
For the main course, superb are the wild sea trout with sweet white asparagus, rapeseed and mustard, and the Simmentaler-steak tenderloin with kasespatzle, a German-style macaroni and cheese.
It is highly recommended to top off the food with wines from Germany and nearby regions. A selection of pairing wines can be customised by the restaurant's sommelier according to the guests' preference and budget.
The service complements the dining concept: cheerful and friendly but precise. Reservations are highly recommended.
Siam Spring Bistro
Natural Place Suite condominium, Ground Floor Ngam Duphli Road, Rama IV Call 087-777-3555 Open Tue-Sun, 11am-9pm. Park at Natural Place Suite's car park. Most credit cards accepted.
In the eight months since it opened its doors in a prime city location just a stone's throw away from Rama IV and Sathon roads, Siam Spring Bistro may have been marketed more as a culinary extension of the award winning, riverside boutique hotel Praya Palazzo.
But the kitchen flair of the bistro itself is why it makes the list.
The restaurant serves a decent variety of authentic Thai cuisine prepared according to age-old recipes -- palatial and home styles -- with seasonal ingredients.
Highly recommended are the goong talai, a hybrid between Spanish prawn ceviche and Thai-style yum served chilled in shot glasses; gaeng taphap nam, or red curry of streaky pork and hairy eggplant fragrant with holy basil and kaffir lime leaves.
Mee kathi, or rice vermicelli dressed with minced shrimp, pork and tofu in thick coconut cream is another worthwhile option.
Meanwhile, the nam phrik kapi khua pla duk yang thod, featuring thick and spicy shrimp paste dip with deep-fried roasted catfish and a vegetable assortment, promises to delight even the most discerning Thai-food connoisseur.
Upon its seasonal availability, don't miss the sataw phad goong, or stir-fried Thai flat beans with prawns, shrimp paste and yellow chilies, which proves one of the best in the city.
For the sweet ending, the khanom inthanin, a bowl of pleasantly silky, pandan leaf-seethed glutinous rice dough dumplings with young coconut flesh in lightly sweet warm coconut milk, is a must.
The ambience is a blend between humble sophistication and high-born glamour. Service is efficient and sweet.
Freebird
Sukhumvit 47 Call 02-662-4936 Open daily 5.30pm till late. Park on the premises. Most credit cards accepted.
'Funky", "diverse" and "umami" would be the three words to describe the 65-seat, modern Australian-cuisine eatery that victoriously kicked off in Bangkok in August of this year.
A joint-venture between a Melbourne-born chef, New York architect and Singapore-based coffee roaster, the restaurant serves up innovative Western-style dishes in a 70s-style house revamped to blend a modern industrial vibe with a sense of home.
For dinner, guests may choose to go à la cart, or settle for "A Taste Of Freebird", the multi-course degustation menu designed to take diners on a culinary journey through the chef's various original creations (roughly, six savoury dishes and two desserts).
Flaxseed crackers with rich uni cream, a blend of organic sea urchin and Parmesan cheese, and fresh sea grapes garnish proves to offer as luxurious a mouthfeel.
Should you be a fan of foie gras and cream pastry, the duck-liver parfait profiterole with truffle honey and macadamia milk promises to delight you to all extents.
But if you're in for something light, sour and refreshing, go for shaved squid with oyster cream, cucumber juice and seaweed butter. Meanwhile, an exhibition of fresh ricotta cavatelli pasta with roasted and raw Chioggia beetroot, marjoram and whey sauce is a brilliant entrée option.
For the main course, you won't regret having pan-fried ocean trout with mussel escabeche and Avruga caviar, or and slow-cooked kurobuta pork collar with pistachio, green-olive purée and fennel.
A lusciously sweet finale is promised by the blackberry ice cream with candied buckwheat, vanilla cream and meringue, as well as the lime-leaf posset with whipped coconut, honeydew melon and elderflower.
Meal here is complemented by "sommasake" (a wordplay integration of sommelier, omakase and sake), from which the restaurant's Australian manager and wine sommelier smartly matches the food with a selection of wine, sake and cider.
Service is executed with top-class dexterity and friendly sincerity. Reservations are recommended.
Il Fumo
1098/2 Rama IV Call 02-286-8833 Open daily for dinner, 6pm-1am. Park on the premises. Most credit cards accepted.
Opened a year ago by visionary restaurateurs Choti Leenutaphong and his wife, Debby, who team up with influential Italian chef Luca Appino, the establishment dubbed a "charcoal and cocktail house" proves one of the most dominant and best-established of its kind.
Il Fumo offers contemporary Italian cuisine, prepared with an exclusive selection of top-notch seasonal produce (most of which you won't be able to find anywhere else in town), from state-of-the-art wood charcoal grilling stations.
The menu is built upon the availability of the season's best harvests and revised every three months. Beef and pork are manually sourced from artisan farms and exclusive suppliers in Europe, while seafood such as French turbot, Ligurian violet prawn and Dutch eel come directly from the Rungis, the world-famous fresh food market in Paris.
Wood fire-grilled anguilla eel from the Netherlands is a delicacy highbrow epicures don't want to miss. Meaty fillets of the sustainably harvested saltwater eel has been marinated in aged Modena balsamic vinegar to absorb the rich, fruity sweet notes before being charred over flame and served with cauliflower-almond purée and creamy polenta.
Also praiseworthy is charcoal-grilled Mora Romagnola pork sausage served with house-made charcoal-toasted bread. The sausage is exclusively crafted for Appino by an Italian charcutier in Piedmont using meat from free-range, black-haired pig in an artisanal estate farm in the Emilia-Romagna region.
Among the red-meat choices are champion-quality Diamantiana Australian wagyu, legendary Florentine-style steak from the Italian Chianinas breed, and a hearty cut of Rubia Gallega beef from Galicia, Spain.
The steak is cooked on a traditional Spanish grill that allows the beef a nice burnt crust while helped to retain its juiciness and pleasant chew.
When it's time for dessert, the bombolon, or Italian deep-fried doughnut, is an all-time best-seller.
Whether your preference is at the bar or your dining table, it's recommended that you start off with some of the inventive concoctions from the cocktail bar. They are house-revised renditions of vintage, forgotten formulas by the restaurant's award-winning mixologist.
Service is efficient with a gracious touch. Reservations are recommended.
Meatlicious
8 Ekamai Soi 6, Sukhumvit 63 Call 091-698-6688 Open daily from 6pm-midnight. Parking on the premises. Most credit cards accepted.
The congenial Gaggan Anand (chef/owner of Gaggan -- Asia's Best Restaurant of 2015 and 2016) built this new food shack, Meatlicious, for his yearning to offer comfort cuisine with humble service amid a totally nonchalant, fun-filled ambience.
Thus this venture, opened 12 months ago in Ekamai Soi 6, which plays on the decor concept of rusticity and carried a motto that reads: "Burnt, Beer, Burp."
Food-wise, the eatery offers a variety of beef-centric fare cooked before your eyes in the open kitchen with wood-fire heat.
Appetisers include the Foie Gras Breakfast, featuring creme brulee-like foie gras custard with a crusty burnt caramel face, cherry compote topping and toasted buttered brioche; a selection of house-rendered ceviches featuring the likes of sashimi-grade yellow tail, salmon and tuna; and B&B -- a platter of burnt onion topped with beef brisket and Indian-style chilli-ginger curry.
The vongola pot prepared with fresh clams in spiced wine and cream bouillon also sells well here. As do the signature roasted whole country chicken with rustic-style vegetables; gaucho-style steak with Argentine chimichurri sauce; grain-fed Australian beef Tomahawk; Iwate wagyu strip loin steak with kobosu chilli paste; and grilled lamb cutlets.
For a sweet ending, go for the bread-and-butter pudding, a homely rendition of bread, butter, raisins and stewed apple, all slow-baked and served topped with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.
Mugendai Steakhouse
Siam Paragon, Canal Zone, G floor Rama I Call 02-129-4555 and 089-510-4555 Open daily 10am-10pm. Park at Siam Paragon's car park. Most credit cards accepted.
Though the star of the show at this first teppanyaki-styled steak joint of the Mugendai restaurant brand is always the high quality red meat, the subtlety of taste in each dish here is never taken for granted.
Choices of protein range from various cuts of Australian black Angus and Japanese wagyu beef to Spanish Iberico pork chop, kurobuta pork collar, New Zealand lamb saddle and Argentinian ox tongue. Seafood options, meanwhile, include scallops, abalone and king crab -- all from Hokkaido -- wild Japanese eel, Norwegian salmon and Canadian lobster.
It is recommend that you start off with the Cube, a scrumptious showcase of intricately marbled A5 wagyu tenderloin flash-torched and laced with vinegar-seethed onions and citrus-soy sauce.
Beef aficionados don't want to miss the dry-aged Australian wagyu prime-rib steak, portioned to feed up to four ladies, accompanied by truffle-red wine gravy, roasted garlic, grilled vegetables and edamame mash, and providing utmost taste-bud satisfaction.
If pork is your preference, go for the bone-in Iberico pork chop, which, when compared to its super-tender kurobuta counterpart, lends a more substantial, chewable texture.
Meanwhile, do save room for the superb truffle carbonara kamameshi, a rustic-style baked-rice casserole topped with morsels of bacon, mozzarella and Parmesan cheese, egg yolk, and freshly shaved black truffle.
The restaurant's small dessert menu basically consists of fresh soft-serve ice cream made with Hokkaido milk, and is extraordinarily silky.
Le Salon de L'Atelier de Joel Robuchon
Central Embassy, G floor Phloen Chit Road Open daily 10am-10pm. Park at Central Embassy's car park. Most credit cards accepted.
When an establishment boasts such a prominent name as Joel Robuchon's, you can expect nothing less than sublime world-class gastronomy.
And it is also the case for Le Salon de L'Atelier de Joel Robuchon, Bangkok's latest dining venue by the globally-glorified, 28 Michelin-starred French chef.
The nonchalant tea salon, which opened two months ago, focuses on offering a high-end gastronomic experience through a collection of lavish light bites and desserts. There's no compromising on the top-notch quality of ingredients, subtlety of taste or impeccability of service.
Reflecting the style and scale of the eatery, Le Salon's menu is rather small and fun-filled, snappy yet easy to understand.
Le Betterave, featuring apple and beetroot tartare with guacamole, herbs and green mustard sherbet, is among the most-ordered appetisers, as are foie gras torchon with chutney; home-made smoked salmon with sour cream; niçoise-style salad with tuna; and traditional quiche Lorraine.
Exclusive only for Le Salon, however, is a repertoire of mini sandwiches that might be miniature in size but never in sensation. All are gourmet-crafted and boasting house-made bread that yields a soft and plushy bliss in every bite.
Highly recommended are the lobster sandwich with avocado, imperial caviar and cocktail sauce; warm wafer sandwich with king crab; salmon sandwich with fennel, dill and sour cream; and chicken sandwich with mimosa egg and toasted quinoa.
Le Salon's traditional Brussels waffle that comes with a choice of topping on the side is worth all the buzz it gets. The waffle, prepared with ale yeast-leavened batter, showcases an extraordinarily soft and airy texture that comes with a slight beer taste underneath the crusty exterior.
From various topping options, the best-selling are Tainori chocolate Chantilly with salted caramel and macadamia nuts; Sicilian pistachio and Bahibe milk chocolate cremeux with confit cherries; and a wintry special Montblanc waffle.
Service by a team well-trained staff is brisk, knowledgeable and wholeheartedly cordial.
Thyme Eatery & Bar
411/2 Nang Linchi Road, Off Rama III Call 02-678-1333 Open daily 11.30am-11pm. Park at the premises. Most credit cards accepted.
The glass boxlike eatery serves up Spanish gastropub grub as well as a number of neo-Iberian dishes amid a modern industrial decor that encourages convivial dining and a chilled-out feel. It also proves one of the best Spanish restaurants in Bangkok.
It's a good idea to kick off your meal with the roast-beef toast, featuring thin slices of baguette bread topped with pulled meat from slow-cooked beef short ribs, caramelised onion and creamy Brie; and Galician octopus, showcasing marvellously cooked octopus tentacles with silky potato cream and Spanish paprika.
Paella buffs are spoiled for choice here with six different styles of the Spanish rice dish, including mixed seafood paella, squid ink paella with Galician octopus, porcini mushroom paella with pancetta and asparagus, chicken paella with chorizo and vegetable paella with goat's cheese.
Do not miss the Mediterranean herb-crusted rack of lamb served with goat-cheese crumble, baby vegetables and buttery layered cake of bacon and potato if you are a lamb connoisseur.
Meanwhile, the Castilla-style suckling pig with apple mushroom compote, celeriac purée and pomegranate promises to offer a heavenly mouthfeel thanks to the pleasingly chewy and flavoursome meat enhanced by the very crispy skin.
Some of the best Spanish desserts in town can be found here. Twist's rendition of churros boasts a forever-crispy exterior lightly powdered with cinnamon sugar that reveals a nice and airy bread centre, while its torrija, a hybrid between a very light French toast and rich Japanese honey toast, is served with dehydrated raspberry granules and fruit coulis and is not to be missed.
Thyme has a wide range of wines, spirits, whiskeys, cocktails and non-alcoholic beverages.
Crab and Claw
Siam Paragon, G floor Call 02-683-9300 Open daily 10am-10pm. Park at Siam Paragon's car park. Most credit cards accepted.
Reflecting what's in season, Crab and Claw's cuisine is typical to that of a New England-style seafood shack, with additions of signature creations by Hawaiian head chef Colin Stevens.
His cuisine, as thrilling to the taste buds as it is to the eyes -- exhibits classic American flavours, while honouring genuine quality and freshness of ingredients, mostly sustainable cold-water produce from Europe, US and Japan.
Each day, up to 300 live Atlantic lobsters are flown from Maine to the kitchen. The gigantic crustaceans, which yield a very succulent, springy and naturally sweet meat, can be prepared in various styles.
Having it simply steamed and served whole in its shell with drawn butter proves an easy decision that yields a truly pleasing result. Or enjoy it as a warm and tasty lobster-roll sandwich, in which the lobster meat is poached in butter and served diced on toasted home-made bread.
The house-made squid-ink fettuccine with pancetta, organic uni butter, uni roe and Parmesan, aptly titled "uni-ara", is a very scrumptious deep-sea translation of carbonara and not to be missed.
Another of the chef's originals, dubbed "uni crostini", exhibits creamy lumps of certified organic sea urchin's roe on top of house-made squid-ink toast smartly complemented by local sea grapes and marsh samphire.
For a delightful, comforting finish, the New England-style baked fruit crumble, featuring stewed strawberries, rhubarb and blueberries underneath buttery crumbs and accompanied by Tahitian vanilla ice cream, provides a heavenly wrap-up.
Simply V
22 Ramkhamhaeng 187/1 Min Buri District Call 02-041-2016/8 Open daily 11am-9pm. Park on the premises. Most credit cards accepted.
Good food is what makes this indistinct-profiled eatery in an off-track location one of my most memorable restaurant visits of 2016.
The 200-seater boasts a variety of classic Thai cuisine together with American-style BBQ, from its highly-invested, state-of-the-art professional kitchen.
Not to be missed here are chicken wings -- Buffalo- or Texas-style, served with celery, carrot sticks and ranch-mustard dressing, while another appetiser is the sour-and-spicy salad of smoked and succulent pork collar.
Mee krob connoisseurs have to try Simply V's rendition of the sweet and crispy noodles garnished with brittle morsels of tofu, fluffily crispy egg, pickled garlic and lime-like Seville orange zest, simply because it's proved to be the best in the country.
Equally delectable are the super-fiery sautéed duck fillet with cumin leaves and chillies; wok-fried, finely julienne morning glory with nam phrik kapi; and stir-fried green beans with shrimp paste and fresh prawns.
And if you're in the mood for green curry, you'll be gratified by the chicken green curry accompanied by warm roti.
The venue is decked out in a contemporary style with four sections, including the main dining hall, coffee bar, al fresco garden terrace and private room.
Service is executed with Thai-style cordiality by knowledgeable staff.
