Mango Tree at Suvarnabhumi Airport (Bangkok, THAILAND) ★★★☆☆

Like every trip to Bangkok, this one ended with a meal at Mango Tree in the Suvarnabhumi Airport.

In case you haven't heard of Mango Tree, it's a very good Thai restaurant managed by Coca restaurant group which has recently expanded outside of Bangkok to London, Tokyo, Korea, Malaysia and Hong Kong.



Their Thai iced tea with milk comes in a special tall glass and it's one of the smoothest Thai iced tea you will find in all of Bangkok.



Mango Tree's signature dish includes this pad thai noodle and its secret sauce.



They also have my favorite omelette with crab meat. Let me correct that, they used to have my favorite omelette with crab meat but they have taken it off the menu recently. Now they only have omelette with chicken or shrimp. What a big letdown!



And the most disappointing dish of the meal came courtesy of this deep fried prawn cake. Even the honey sauce didn't taste right.







Food Rating: 5/10
Price: ฿฿฿
Address: Unit 4-74, Level 4, Suvarnabhumi Airport Concourse D, Bangkok, Thailand
Tel: +66 (0) 2134-1360
Website: www.coca.com/mangotree

Eat Me (Bangkok, THAILAND) ★★★★☆

Head chef Tim Butler, a former graduate of the CIA (Culinary Institute of America) in 1998, burst onto the dining scene in Bangkok having started as a pastry chef in his hometown of New York. He brings along an impressive resume which includes Aquavit and Daniel in New York.

His transition from a pastry chef proved to be a smooth one as he continues to turn heads since his arrival at Eat Me in 2011. The two-storey gallery-turned restaurant is now one of the most popular restaurants in all of Bangkok at one of the most unusual location (it's hidden in an alley in the Silom area) for a relaxing dining venue.

At Eat Me, expect a modern cuisine by Chef Butler that combines high-quality ingredients from different corners of the world with exotic Thai flavors.



The restaurant also doubles as a bar and it's always buzzing after 7pm (luckily we arrived around 5:30pm). 




The chef must be a huge boxing fan as the dining room walls are totally filled with colorful photos and posters of boxers.


 

A small terrace is available on the second floor if you want a bit more fresh air.



We started things off with a nice loaf of bread that was served with different types of herbs and spices.



The food menu offers a great balance between vegetables, seafood, poultry and red meat. It's a difficult call. Where should we start?

At the end, it was the white asparagus with scotch duck egg, black winter truffle and chives (฿475) that helped us hit the ground running. We didn't know the origin of the white asparagus but they were very sweet and flavorful with the black truffle shaving providing that extra kick.



The onsen egg was just right. The runny egg yolk was the perfect companion for the white asparagus and bread (7/10)!



This is Chef Butler at his best - mixing top notch overseas ingredients with exquisite Thai flavors and the result was this lovely line caught Japanese black cod with spicy coconut cream and oyster mushrooms (฿575).

I thought the sauce was a little too spicy but the texture of the black cod was perfect and the flavor was irresistibly sweet and tangy with a very rich aroma (7/10).



A little less interesting was the spicy lemongrass chicken with green mango salad (฿475). The seasoning was more on the sweet side with an absolute lack of spiciness (5/10). 



We were really looking forward to the former pastry chef's dessert menu but unfortunately, time was our biggest enemy with our spa treatment about to start in a few minutes. So we hesitantly skipped dessert and went straight for the bill.

Conclusion: To be honest, we didn't know what to expect here but at the end, it was a very enjoyable meal, much better than the overhyped Nahm in my opinion.




Food Rating: 7/10
Price: ฿฿฿
Address: Alley, Silom, Bang Rak, Bangkok 10500, Thailand
Closest BTS Station: Silom
Tel: +66 (0) 2238-0931
Website: www.eatmerestaurant.com
S. Pellegrino Asia's 50 Best Restaurants: 25th (2015)


 

Harrod's Tea Room (Bangkok, THAILAND) ★★★☆☆

Harrod's is best known in the world as London's landmark department store on Knightsbridge but very few people actually knew that the company started off as a small tea merchant back in 1849. Harrod's Tea Room has also been a best kept secret until most recently, when the brand expanded internationally with 5 outposts, 3 of those in Asia including Kuala Lumpur, Tokyo and Bangkok.

Harrod's Tea Room in Bangkok can be found at the always popular Siam Paragon Shopping Center. The spacious two-storey establishment, which boasts a colonial style design, can easily accommodate around 80 customers at the same time.

With one of the toughest table to book during the weekend, Harrod's Tea Room offers the likes of traditional English breakfast, afternoon tea set, egg benedict, fish and chips as well as over 50 other food items.



But we have just enjoyed a wonderful afternoon tea at the neighboring Mandarin Cake Shop no too long ago. Let's not waste any more precious time off my shopping schedule!



I asked the server to wrap this Battenberg Cake for me.

Battenberg Cake, also known as a "Domino Cake" or "Church Window Cake", is a light sponge cake covered with jam. Based on the traditional recipe, it should have a distinctive two-by-two checker pattern, with alternate pink and yellow color.




The cake was nothing to write home about. Perhaps that's the reason why Harrod's is still better known as London's iconic department store rather than a quintessential cake shop.




Food Rating: 5.3/10
Price: ฿฿฿
Address: Shop G32, G/F, Siam Paragon, Bangkok, Thailand
Closest BTS Station: Siam
Tel: +66 (0) 2610-9433

Bangkok, Thailand, cafe, dessert, patisserie, British, pastry, cake, Central Embassy