5 Superlative Dining Experiences in Bangkok
January 21, 2019.
Tags: Bangkok, Cuisine
The Michelin Guide published a Bangkok edition of their restaurant ratings in 2018, which served to help open people’s eyes to all the fine dining experiences available in the city.
Bangkok is known throughout the world for the quality and variety of its street food, but the cosmopolitan city is also becoming known for offering some of the world’s finest dining experiences.
After all. When you want to celebrate a special occasion, street food is never the first thing you’d think of, no matter how good it is. You’re looking for a combination of great food, a unique and elegant ambience and exemplary service.
Here are 5 of the restaurants in Bangkok that deliver those three criteria on a thoroughly consistent basis. As the city is cosmopolitan in character Japanese Fusion, Progressive Indian, French, and Thai Fusion cuisines are represented in these restaurants. But people from all over the world enjoy their dining experience at Mezzaluna, Gaggan, Le Normandie, L’ Atelier de Joel Robuchon and Le Du Restaurant.
Mezzaluna
Make a reservation at Mezzaluna the next time you visit Bangkok. This fine dining restaurant has two Michelin stars based on the innovative Japanese fusion cuisine using only the finest in locally sourced and imported ingredients. This opulent dining experience also offers some of the most stunning views of the city.
Mezzaluna is located on the 65th floor in the Dome at the Tower Club at lebua. You can dine while enjoying a breath-taking 180-degree view of the city. Chef Ryuki Kawasaki is in charge of the menu and kitchen. The chef’s tasting menu is seven courses with included wine pairings.
After dinner feel free to visit the Sky Bar for a nightcap. This is an alfresco bar right outside Mezzaluna that also shares the best views in the city.
Gaggan
Gaggan is a restaurant that has rocked the culinary world ever since it first opened in 2010. Voted the best restaurant in Asia in 2018 for the fourth consecutive year by Restaurant magazine, Gaggan earned two Michelin stars in 2018. The restaurant placed fifth in the World’s Best Restaurants in 2018 and it’s the only Indian to reach the top fifty.The Restaurant is the brainchild of Gaggan Anand, who came to Bangkok after working at the legendary elBulli restaurant in Spain where he learned the art of molecular gastronomy. He terms the restaurant’s cuisine as progressive Indian and his dream was to refine Indian cuisine to the same level as French and Japanese.
Gaggan offers a 25-course tasting menu that uses only emojis to describe the dishes. Anand describes as “a way to transcend language barriers”. If this restaurant piques your interest you had better make reservations while you can. Anand will close the restaurant in 2020 to start a new venture in Fukuoka, Japan which will draw on Buddhist principles.
Le Normandie
Another restaurant in Bangkok’s two Michelin star club is Le Normandie. Located in the Garden Wing of the city’s venerable Mandarin Oriental Hotel situated right along the Chao Phrya River, Le Normandie serves exquisitely prepared, contemporary French cuisine.A sumptuously appointed dining room featuring floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the river greets diners who are asked to follow the restaurant’s elegant dress code, with jackets being required for men.
The menu is overseen by the Chef De Cuisine Arnaud Dunand Sauthier, who combines the freshest local ingredients with fine imported delicacies and wine pairings to create both set and a la carte menus for the restaurants two daily sittings at 12-2 PM and 7-10 PM.
L’ Atelier de Joel Robuchon
This restaurant opened in 2015 and reservations whenever you want them can still be tough to obtain. It’s one of the most popular and frequently booked restaurants in the city. There is a very good reason for this.Joel Robuchon has been called the “Chef of the century” by the Gault Millau Guide and while he isn’t in the kitchen every day, his influence and high standards certainly are. His restaurants have been awarded a record 28 Michelin stars in all and his take on French haute cuisine with its reliance on bold flavours and rich textures is the reason why.
The Bangkok restaurant is located in the MahaNakon Cube building in the Silom area of the city and its kitchen run on a daily basis by Executive Chef Olivier Limousin. To be sure of experiencing the stunning variety and exquisite preparations that Joel Robuchon is famous for, make your reservations as early as possible.
Le Du Restaurant
You could be forgiven for thinking that this restaurant serves French cuisine. But the name ‘Le Du’ means ‘season’ in Thai. With the creativity of Chef Ton and his team (who graduated from the Culinary Institute of America with the highest scores in his class), you’ll probably have trouble categorising the menu as well. It might best be described as young creative cuisine with Thai origins and influences.This is restaurant was included in the 50 Best Restaurants in Asia by Restaurant Magazine and you should definitely visit while the word is still getting around. Within a couple of years, reservations may be hard to come by.
It features one of the innovative, surprising and delicious takes on Thai-style cooking that also includes influences from many international cuisines. They serve a vibrant menu of four and six course meals that will leave simply you speechless.
The restaurant is hidden on a narrow soi between Silom and Sathorn roads. Nevertheless, food lovers from all over the world have been beating a path the door of Le Du since it first opened.
