With its cake icing columns and cornices, polished parquet and pineapple yellow paintwork, Paii, the new concept restaurant in the 130-year-old mansion out front of W Bangkok, already abounds in allure.
But all that is incidental to the main attraction since the venue was renamed after the Thai word for an oar-like paddle such as were once-upon-a-time used to navigate small craft around Far Eastern Venetian canals and pristine mangrove fisheries before the advent of outboard motors and coastal erosion.
Yet more remarkable is the epic quality and supersize of the aquatic animals that grace the plates in perfected classic and occasionally innovative culinary styles for which the commanding Executive chef Weeraket “Joe” Nilayon is chiefly responsible.
Crab claws the size of pirate belt buckles, lean tufts of crab meat like macaw beaks, and prawns more meaty than Atlantic lobsters appear like throw-backs to the days before over-fishing. Clearly the kitchen has tapped into exceptional sources.
The sheer size of the servings is shocking, in particular the crab fried rice graced with 500 grams of pot-caught Samut Songkram mud crab and organic egg (2200). Tellingly the crab is cooked separately to the organic Nakhon Pathom rice leaving its flavour integrity intact. Further setting the dish apart from your average or even above average Khao Pad Poo is chef’s seaweed butter that beats out garlic for binding and flavour-framing. The dish does for 4-6, putting the price in perspective.
Also recommended is a whole 1 Kg. giant mud crab (3600) surrounded with Thai herbs, wrapped in banana leaf, baked in clay which doesn’t look particularly appetizing until all its fleshy components are presented accessibly on a plate. Crab cravings were ne’er better satisfied.
Quite as spectacular is Choo-Chee Goong Mae Nam (1950), large and lean char-grilled giant river prawns, their heads overflowing with creamy natural fat, cut with the sweet-savoury heat of the accompanying choo chee red curry sauce poured over at table.
Specializing in Thai treatments, the team makes all the curries, chilli jam and sauces fresh daily. The first evidence appears with the complimentary Paii Nam Jim, a hot salsa-like chili sauce with passionfruit and garlic. A paddle is provided to scoop the sauce onto carrot & prawn and mushroom & prawn crackers that are hard to put down.
It isn’t just the shocking dimensions: sea-sweet octopus tendrils and razor clams evoke pristine ocean scenes. Among appetizers, French razor clams slathered with chef’s XO sauce (520), the full-Monty with Yunan ham, dried scallops, shrimp and squid, dried chilli and oyster sauce, flambéed with Mekhong whisky at table, is signature. Though the sauce sounds too strong for the molluscs, they shine through. Deliciously smoky char-grilled Spanish octopus mated with chef’s take on larb salad and separate sauce (1200) pulls of a similar trick. The dish is traditionally created around squid but the artfully-garlanded octopus trumps the lot. A side of forest mushrooms (210) pan-fried in more of that mystery seaweed butter is another treat.
Notwithstanding its “Serving Modern Thai Seafood” slogan, the romantic restaurant doesn’t shy away from meat altogether, ranging Grilled Pork Shoulder Panang Curry (490) to Char-grilled Crying Tiger Steak (490).
Nor does it stint on desserts, including insanely creamy Lemongrass Panna Cotta – (400) with sago, chilled mango and passionfruit. And must-try Thai Tea-ramisu (450) with lots of mascarpone.
11-course Paii Discovery (2,200) and 12-course Paii Experience (2,900) tasting menus require a minimum 2 persons. 2- and 3-course set lunches are priced Bt790 and Bt990.
Paii is open daily from noon until midnight.
Email thehouseonsathorn@whotels.com or 02-344-4025. Visit paiibangkok.com.
