Before we started our indulgence in their wonderful cuisine, the 90 year-old colonial style building where the restaurant is housed, already set the tone for us. Very lovely ambiance and relaxing mood as we looked ahead to this highly anticipated meal.
The interior of Gaggan has very much the same pedigree. Nice rustic vibe with white-washed walls and wooden framed windows everywhere.
Three exciting menus were waiting there for us, with the number of courses being the only difference in between: Taste Of Gaggan (10-course menu at 1800 THB++), India Reinvented (12-course menu at 2800 THB++) and Best Of Gaggan (16-course menu at 4000 THB++). As we've already scheduled a spa session in about 2 hours, we decided to simply take the shortest menu.
As soon as we placed our orders, our amuse bouche was ready to be served and it's a parade of street eats from India with a contemporary twist starting with a burnt mango panna.
With Chef Anand's background as an El Bulli alumni, how could we not have spherification tonight? The Yogurt Explosion was the answer to this million-dollar question and it was everything one would expect from spherification - explosive with an intense burst of flavor which I could only describe as lassi.
Next up were some edible plastic spiced nuts - an assortment of nuts including peanuts, pistachio and peas packed inside an edible plastic bag made with something a little sweet. That was surprisingly good.
"Pani puri" (or watery bread in English) is a popular street snack in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nepal that often consists of a mixture of flavored water in some sort of bread. With this chocolate Pani puri, the white chocolate shells serves as the bread here and was infused with flavored water that had a strong flavor of coriander and spices. Very interesting mix of exotic flavors.
Potato 2-some-crispy and liquid - a bird nest shaped tart made of deep fried potatoes with a citrus jelly and tamarind chutney on top creating a beautiful egg presentation. A decontructive take on a Kolkata street food and a very clever one.
Bengali mustard and noori pakoda - Tasted like cheese topped with something like seaweed powder. A little buttery in texture. I thought just OK.
Papadam and tomato chutney - a little rice cracker with tomato chutney in the middle. Definitely one I could do without.
Keema pao - Lastly, an Indian style mini-burgers with spicy minced lamb. This was hot, hot, hot! That wrapped up a very interesting parade of small bites (8/10).
Say Cheese, 5/10
Finally, we were ready to start and first up was a hot souffle of four different types of cheese served with crispy rice cereals and green chilli oil. This was fun texture-wise although the taste wasn't particularly special.
Sandwich, 6.5/10
The second course was foie gras mousse, onion chutney and hazelnut candy sandwiched between a pair of onion water baguette. I had something very similar at Osaka's Michelin 3-starred Fujiya 1935 a little while ago. But what we had in Fujiya 1935 was a dessert named blue apple meringue and it was a little more foamy but this one tasted (or felt) more like styrofoam. Very interesting texture and thought the taste, especially the foie gras, was a little too mild.
Down to Earth, 5.5/10
Next we had a wonderful soup of summer vegetables featuring asparagus, morsels, mushrooms, artichokes and 62°C egg yolk. The flavors were neatly elevated by the truffle aroma and chili.
Charcoal, 7/10
You gotta be kidding me - charcoal as main course!?
Very nice smokey flavors came out as soon as they removed the lid but at first, we couldn't tell exactly what it was.
It was a little crunchy on the outside but warm and moist inside. Turned out to be sea bass blended with what I thought was potato purée and some exotic Indian spices.
River King, 6/10
Our seafood course was a fresh water prawn grilled in tandoori with a curry leaf infusion and mango chutney.
Angry Bird, 4/10
Before dessert, one final savory dish - slow cooked country Thai native chicken in a spiced Chettinad style curry served with rice idiyappam (rice noodles South Indian style). This dish didn't work very well for me.
Made in Japan, 6/10
I thought dessert was pretty refreshing - matcha tea-cake, mascarpone cream, vanilla salt and fresh wasabi.
Magnum, 5/10
This was inspired from the famous Magnum ice-cream. Not bad.
For someone like me who knows very little about Indian cuisine, this was certainly an eye opener and the molecular twist kept me on the edge of my seat all night long. This was definitely well worth the pilgrimage trip.
Food Rating: 6.6/10
Price: ฿฿฿
Address: 68/1 Soi Langsuan, Ploenchit Road, Lumpini, Bangkok 10330, Thailand
Closest BTS Station: Chit Lom
Tel: +66 (0) 2652-1700
Website: www.eatatgaggan.com
S. Pellegrino World’s 50 Best Restaurants: 17th (2015)
S. Pellegrino Asia's 50 Best Restaurants: 1st (2015)
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