Nahm (Bangkok, THAILAND) ★★★☆☆

Australia-born chef, David Thompson went back to Thailand, the country where he discovered his culinary inspiration with his first-ever restaurant in Bangkok - Nahm. Nahm Bangkok situated at the Metropolitan Hotel, was a much lighter version of his Michelin-starred Nahm at The Halkin in London. Lighter as in the sense that it's much more easy-going and casual, while still preserving the authenticity.

In 2012, Nahm Bangkok was rated by S. Pellegrino as the World's 50th Best Restaurant, the first Bangkok restaurant to ever break into the top 50. That certainly added some extra incentive to our much anticipated visit to this restaurant. Is it a rising star in the making or just a one-year wonder? We are about to find out.

On our way to the restaurant, we had a chat with our taxi driver and he told us, "If you want the best Thai food in Bangkok, try Celadon at the Sukothai Hotel. Nahm is no comparison.". Perhaps our taxi driver knew something that we didn't...

Over the years, Thompson has never hidden his passion for Thai street food and he does not shy away from bringing these wonderful street food to Nahm. Out of the 2-page lunch menu, one single page (actually 5 items only) was dedicated to some of Thailand's best street food and today's theme was rice noodle. On the second half of the menu, there were other selections for starters (4), soup (2), main (5) and dessert (2). Not what you call a comprehensive lunch menu but nevertheless adequent.

Lunch began with an interesting amuse bouche - a chicken and pork ball on top of a slice of pineapple. The sauce was made quite sticky while tasting both sweet and spicy (5/10).



We ordered one of the rice noodles just to get a read on Thompson's interpretion of this popular street dish. Unfortuately we could not hide our disappointment. The noodle was a bit cold and the chicken and wild ginger sauce was underwhelming (4/10). 




There were all kinds of curry in the main course and what better else to start with a green curry with tiger prawns, apple eggplant and thai basil. The tiger prawns were good. The curry was okay but not finger-licking good (5.5/10).



Next up was a grilled duck breast with red curry and sour tomatoes. I liked the thickness of this curry but the grilled duck breast was a bit too chewy (4.5/10).



Perhaps I was too hyped up about this lunch at Nahm that I got a bit carried away thinking that this would be my best meal in Bangkok ever. My perception was wrong.

Despite my lack of knowledge in Thai food, I do trust my taste buds on this one. This was not an impressive showing I was hoping for. Places like spice Market, Sweet Curry etc. offered so much more exciting selections.

And one more thing, the management team here should do a better job training up their waiting staff. They gave me an impression that they did not know their menu all too well. Perhaps we should have taken our taxi driver's advice - Celadon?

Food Rating: 5/10
Price: ฿฿฿
Address: Metropolitan by COMO, 27 South Sathorn Road, Bangkok, Thailand
Closest Metro Station: Lumphini
Tel: +66 (0) 2625 3388
Website: www.comohotels.com/metropolitanbangkok/dining/nahm
S. Pellegrino World’s 50 Best Restaurants: 50th (2012)
S. Pellegrino Asia's 50 Best Restaurants: 3rd (2013)



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