Suan Bua Thai Restaurant In The Sofitel Centara Hotel In Bangkok

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Suan Bua Thai Restaurant In The Sofitel Centara Hotel In Bangkok

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Five-star hotels in Bangkok, Thailand are not generally known for having excellent Thai restaurants on their premises but the Sofitel Centara Grand Hotel is a notable exception as its Suan Bua Thai restaurant serves up an excellent selection of Thai food that is both traditional and also a bit modernized. And long-time chef Thongbai Prasarnsup is part of a growing number of highly accomplished female Thai chefs who are making their mark on the Bangkok restaurant scene.

This Thai food restaurant in one of Bangkok’ s most well known hotels is a moderately –sized place with a dark, inviting décor and a serene atmosphere. Comfortable seating completes the scene and attentive service from traditionally-clad waitresses adds the last component necessary for a great meal.

Other than the food, of course, and on this, my very first visit to Suan Bua, I was to find that the food is the most reliable part of the total dining experience here.  From flavor to presentation all was right from the beginning with each of the six dishes that I sampled. Okay, I did a lot more than sample but fortunately I had two lovely dining companions who were able to help out somewhat with the delicious dishes that were placed in front of me so and which I had a hard time consuming in moderation.

I have only one minor criticism and so let’s get it out of the way first. My wife makes tom yum goong with coconut milk, which is actually not the traditional method, but I like it better and the chef here serves hers in the traditional mode. The chef’s was very tasty and I did justice to it, leaving only a small amount in the bowl. Is that a criticism? Perhaps not, but it’s the closest I could come and I want to appear as objective as possible.

The other five dishes – a fried prawn salad with a tart mango dressing, minced pork with herbs southern-style, soft shell crab with hot basil, fried rice with crab and a modern version of phad thai (the chef’s own creation that has no noodles) – were all rendered with elegantly styled presentations and distinctive, well-defined flavors. Thai chefs have a way of presenting vegetable garnishes on their plates like nowhere else (and you’ve never seen fruit carving until you’ve been in Thailand) which makes the dishes look all that much more attractive.

I had a hard time staying away from the soft-shell crab (I did, after all, have to leave some for my companions) and had a similar problem with the fried prawn salad. The minced pork was, however, also extremely flavorful and the fried rice with crab had fluffy flavorful rice and nice chunks of crabmeat so that was popular also. And the pad thai without noodles is a creation of the chef’s and touches along the line of fusion cuisine with deep-fried wonton layers substituting for the usual noodles you would find in this dish and providing an interesting accompaniment to the other, traditional ingredients. Good grades for both creativity and flavor should go to this dish.
Suan Bua puts to rest the notion that you have to go to little specialty Thai restaurants, as most residents tend to do, to find good authentic and delicious Thai food in Bangkok. One stop here will give you a real good look at the face of both modern and traditional Thai cuisine.

See http://bangkokdining.ning.profiles/list/blogs.com for more information about Bangkok restaurants.