Gianni Ristorante
34/1 Soi Tonson
Ploenchit Road
Bangkok 10330
Tel: 02 252 1619

I had heard that this was a good restaurant but somehow had never actually found it. I had driven past a few times and it was not until I finally got a cab to go slow enough before I spotted the sign and the rest is here.
Gianni is a grand restaurant in a big space with some almost out-of-place large modern art paintings standing out in an otherwise classic decor of white table clothes and wood.
I had barely glanced at the menu when my eye caught the Degustation menu. I hardly looked at the rest before I was ordering that. I did later glance through the whole menu, which is typically Italian. There seemed to plenty for everybody including a page full of specials some of which also appeared individually in the menu I had ordered.
The menu started with breaded Calfs sweetbreads. These came with a cauliflower croquet strangely called a flan, and with a parmesan sauce. It was pleasant starter and, as I so often say, a good change in this city where so much is similar. I am sure it is the first time I have had sweetbreads here.
The next course was artichoke soup with smoked salmon. A creamy soup of Jerusalem artichokes, but I wondered about the smoked salmon dumplings as they were called. I thought they may have had slightly too strong a taste for the soup.
The next course was cannelloni filled with eggplant and mozzarella with a tomato sauce. The tomato sauce was wonderfully fresh, but I was not so convinced about the cannelloni, or more particularly the filling, which I thought under seasoned and not really hitting the spot.
As a main course, the options were “large pork sausage on a bed of balsamic lentils and mashed potato,” or “Pan fried fillet of grouper clothed in potato and on a delicate mushroom sauce.” I had the sausage and it was wonderful home-made sausage beautifully moist, and the lentils, with a hint of balsamic, set it off very well. I had a piece of grouper and it was also nice and moist with plenty of taste.
The final course was lemon meringue tart, which is the only item I found truly disappointing. I could have had coffee or tea to finish.
I was sort of writing this in my mind as we ate the meal and as I finished, I realised I was being inequitable in some of my comments, if they were taken the wrong way. But I am treating Gianni with the due respect I believe he deserves. Basically the price for the meal was 900 Baht. That is under 15 quid, or less than 20 Euros. In Europe you would pay that for a main course in a decent pub. In fact it was very interesting and inventive menu cooked to the highest standard to a market budget. I felt a few items did not work out quite as well as they were intended to! I suppose the word degustation is what got me going. Degustation peasan would have been a better description. And in fairness to that budget price, if it had been 2,000 Baht I doubt if I would have had it.
The wine list was long and entirely of Italian wines with a good selection of both younger and older wines. I had a bottle of Pinot Grigio to start and followed it up with the house Merlot, which was excellent for a house wine.
Clearly this is a very good restaurant and I had a very interesting meal. I look forward to going back. There is no point in being a food critic if you can not be picky with the best!