Number 43,
Cape House,
43 Soi Langsuan
Bangkok 10330
Tel: 02 658 7444

I am always a little suspicious of restaurants that are part of serviced apartments. They are seldom much more than a dubious eatery surviving off the laziness of the people who live in the apartment. Of course in this soi there are enough food options to make certain that the sub-standard has little chance of surviving unless that block is full of limbless sloth’s. So rather than being an ordinary restaurant, Number 43 is a serious Italian operation.

The restaurant features a good food display topped off with some nice high flowers. There is normally some anti pasta dishes displayed here, although I have never actually seen anyone taking from them. There is also a big basket of bread, suggesting that all that good looking bread is made here. It is.

I always get into a muddle with the menu because the anti pasta section starts of by suggesting that everything in that section is a kind of brucceta made with forcacia. In fact it is only the first three items! And as usual I ordered too much and received one of these offerings which was a full round of plain pizza bread with tomato and anchovies in olive oil on the side. Very pleasant, but I fear not as described and certainly not as I expected. The other starter I had was carparccio of beef. I thought a touch too much lemon juice went on mine. My friend had minestrone soup which looked very good.

For mains I as usual avoided all the pizza and pasta options, and since I had feasted too well on starters, decided I would just have a risotto. It was described as coming with saffron and Italian sausage in a Parmesan cheese basket. I had been told the sausages here are home-made and very good. Well they are, and this was a first rate risotto. I really wanted to gobble my way through the entire basket bit but settled for only about half! This was a great dish which showed a lot of attention to detail and skill in the kitchen. The ossobucco of my companion was equally well received.

Yet another very good Italian restaurant in this remarkable soi. I suppose the reality is that in Soi Langsuan there is so much competition, no restaurant can afford to be anything but good.