Villa Bangkok
71/1 Saladaeng soi 1
Bangkok 10500
Tel: 02 234 2225

Sadly Yves and the chef have left thus much has changed!

This is the review that very nearly did not happen. Not that I must stress for the usual reasons that I do not review a restaurant - because I do not rate it! I am not quite sure of the exact number, but there are a number of reasonably well-known restaurants that I have visited and declined to write up. But in this case the problem was slightly more fraught. I could not find the place! And the reasons for that were equally simple: one was that I was looking for a restaurant called Bistingo and two, somebody had removed the lighted sign on Soi Saladaeng. In the end I got there more by luck than design and thanks to a determined taxi driver who eventually stumbled upon Villa Bangkok and found it was indeed home to the said Bistingo.
First to location. Villa Bangkok is in a charming old villa that was apparently once the Aussie ambassador's residence, gladly before the era of Sir Les. This is a true gentleman's house. The location is in the narrow Soi Saladeang 1, parallel to what most maps call Saladaeng 1 and runs into Soi Saladaeng about 50 yards before it's twin soi, if you are coming from Silom Road. You can now see why with a Soi Saladaeng 1 address we had such a problem. However we found it and inside we found Yves, who as befits the building, is a total gentleman but this time from Paris. In Paris Yves was an advocat, and that is not part of a fruit or veg quiz question.

Yves rushed out when we finally arrived and greeted us warmly before handing us over to a very efficient Thai waitress. Yves had a good party in a back room and was regularly popping backwards and forwards to make certain we, the sole occupants of his main restaurant, were happy. Needless to say, Yves has only recently acquired this restaurant and has changed it's name. In addition he has brought a Belgium chef to Bangkok. As Belgium food is one of the best kept secrets on the European culinary trail, that is a massive plus, a fact we discussed with Yves on one of his flying visits.
As usual, I started with the wine list and found a very interesting list, predominantly French, but very different from most other lists about town. It is not long and occupies a single page. The whites contained a couple of wines from Chile, then from France a Vognier, a Bordeaux, a Bourgogne Chardonnay (not a Chablis) and a Rhone. In the reds there were four petite Chateaus, as well as a Micheal Lynch Bordeaux, a Saint Amour and a Minervois among others. It was clearly a well chosen list by a man who likes wines, and it shows. I had the Vognier to start and then had an interesting, and excellent, Graves called Chateau Mayne D'Eyquem. That started another round of conversation when the charming waitress removed the Mayne when referring to the wine.
So to the food. The menu is not that long and clearly is produced to order. It would be easy to say it had a Parisian feel to it. It is modern in parts and traditional at the same time. I had fish soup, but nearly went for the Gazpacho; there was also foie gras in various forms, a crab dish and black truffle risotto to name but a few. Mains were divided into pasta dishes, fish and meat. I had venison chop with Dauphin potatoes which was first class. There was also steak, lamb and pork tenderloin in a lime sauce, which On had and enjoyed enormously. All in all a first class meal, and it was perfectly complemented by, praise be to Bacchus or whoever, some wonderful ripe, but not cold, cheese. Such joy after all that driving around Saladeang.
Clearly I enjoyed my trip to Villa Bangkok and I wish Yves all the best. I am sure Villa Bangkok will be a fun place, the wine will be first rate and the Chef appears to be well up to his allotted task. I do not think it will ever be a stiffly formal restaurant but it will be proper, a fact that suits it's Aussie heritage!