Trader Vic's
Marriott Resort
On the Chao Phraya
Tel: 02 476 0022 ext 1416
It was a Sunday following a quiet Saturday, brought on by a very un-quiet Friday night and thus unusually I awoke bright-eyed and bushy-tailed on a Sunday morning, and quickly decided a good lunch would be in order. Being fond of jazz, I headed for the jazz brunch at Trader Vic at the Marriott Resort on the river. I checked on the internet for details and found a Marriott Thailand internet site and thus booked by email.
It is not often that I even get to the river let alone over to the other side. It was a journey that I would not want to do in traffic. However it turned out to be a pleasant Sunday drive, even if it was quite a bit further then I expected. Incidentally we came back by Marriott boat to the Taksin Bridge which connects to the Skytrain but we walked up to the main road and caught a cab. The free boat trip back was the first time I have actually been on the Chao Phraya River, so a bit of an adventure it was too!
But back to the actual visit. My first impressions at the Marriott were not good. There were no signs to tell us where to go and although a hostess-type girl did direct us, it was quite a long way from reception to Trader Vic’s and the odd sign would have been reassuring! When we arrived in the restaurant, it was total confusion. There were no greeting staff and as I had booked, I was keen to make some kind of contact with somebody! In the end I asked a waiter at the buffet and finally a girl appeared and showed us to a table in a side room. Maybe I had booked late, but I really did think I had a bad table. I guess the river side tables are at a premium.

The buffet was extensive and to an extent confusing as there were no menus. Fair enough but somebody might have told me the main courses were outside on the terrace! The main buffet area was a good collection, primarily of seafood with a few assorted starter dishes thrown in. There was a good sushi section as well. At the high end there were European oysters, Phuket lobster tails, various smoked and cured salmon and a pruschutto. I had a couple of moderate gos at this buffet before spotting the outside carvery and more. Here there were various joints as well as a couple of cooked dishes, but what caught me eye was foie grass, cooked to order. So I had that then, collected a little rare beef and created my own version of Signor Rossini’s famous dish and very good it was to! On the pudding side the patisserie department had clearly been working hard with some lovely subtle sponge and fruit offerings wrapped in white chocolate, not to mention various other goodies. But for me the piece de resistance was the chocolate fondue machine - a fountain of chocolate to douse fruit in! There was also a not-too-bad cheese board to fill up any holes left in ones intestine!
The booze was included and there was a decent French red and white wine from Lanqodocq as well as cocktails and a free flow of beer. The waitress started of by offering one glass at a time but quickly realised that she was about to spend a couple of hours running backwards and forwards and a convenient bottle was placed within reach. Where I did screw up, was I did not see the Bloody Mary mixing kit in the middle of the buffet area. I found it with the cheese course and had good BM to basically my own specification!
As to the whole experience, the food was difficult to fault since there was a good range of very good food served well. The music was pleasant being easy jazz played well, and the booze flowed reasonably easily. One niggle was that with all this feast including alcohol, there was a charge for water. So my bill was for two meals at 1299 Baht and two waters at 60 Baht, both plus plus. It made the Marriott look very petty. I suppose my only real bitch was that I was stuck in a back room with a view of the garden not the river. From that point of view I may as well have gone up the road to my local five star hotel, and had the same deal without the travel!