September 19, 2006

L'Opera: An Italian institution

L'Opera
53 Soi 39 Sukhumvit Road
Bangkok 10110
Tel: 02 258 5608

There are hundreds of Italian restaurants in Bangkok, however many Italians regard L’Opera with some reverence, partly because it is a venerable operation with over 20 years in existence and partly because they regard the food as being spot on. I shall draw my own conclusions but clearly to survive so long, and to still be so popular something has got to be right. I am sure the main reason is the owner who I saw on my recent visit; I did not speak to him but saw him in animated conversation with the manageress among others, clearly a man who is passionate about his operation. That normally leads to a place well worth visiting.
The outside of L'Opera is not auspicious; it is somewhat bleak and certainly not welcoming; I really wondered if I was in the right place. However once through the door that reservation was quickly dispelled. It was the smell more than the looks. There is a small bar and then down a level a restaurant with several display fridges issuing from them, that perfume of Italian charcuterie.
I was quickly settled at a table and soon had a bottle of Gavi di Gavi at 1,400 Baht in front of me and was able to get into the menu. The menu was long enough and typically Italian with a good, large specials section but what caught my eye was the Gastronomic menu at 1,280 Baht that stated 4 antipasta courses, 2 pasta and 1 main plus desert and coffee. That looked like a suitable challenge both for the chef and I, however I tried without success to find out what was on the proposed menu. Both the waitress and the manageress could not enlighten me or even give me a decent clue. I do not mind it when a chef says I will feed you; and that is what was being said here, but at least I like the option to say hey I do not like or I am allergic too… In the end I took the chance, On and I where off on a gastronomic adventure!
The first course was a small salad of rocket and strawberries with cheese and Parma ham around it. It had a balsamic dressing. It was very good, light; lots of flavour and a dressing freshened up the mouth.
Next came scallop with prawns wrapped around it on a bed of spinach with pesto sauce. For course three we had Italian sausage with mash potato and a mushroom sauce, with plenty of mushrooms, after which came two large mussels in a tomato sauce. Then pasta with a light tagliatelle version with mushrooms and fresh tomato which was good but the next dish of penne with a meat sauce (The sausage again I think) was a course to far, On had most defiantly begun to wilt. Part of the problem was there was no real intercourse break. At least two dishes did not arrive at the same time, but almost immediately after a dish was cleared another came. For the mains we had been asked what meat we wanted and I opted for lamb and got two nice chops suitably pink.
I had a pick at the pud plate and accepted a Grappa, as a much needed digestive!
All in all a good meal, the one problem was the timing. This would have been a great meal to start at 3 pm and finish at 10 pm! However I now understand why my out of town restaurant friend (who owns an excellent establishment himself,) always comes here when in town!

Posted by Sam at 2:50 PM | Comments (0)

September 14, 2006

Harvey, Thonglor has a great chef

Harvey
129 Sukhumvit 55, Thonglor Soi 9,
Sukhumvit Road, Klongton-Nua, Bangkok 10110
T. 662 712 9911
Website:

Harvey is the latest trendy restaurant to open in Thonglor. Worse than being trendy it claims to be Californian cuisine. I am not trendy and Californian cuisine should be left to weight watchers, so I wondered why I was going as I was whisked down Sukhumvit in a cab. Well, of course, it is my job to try a hit on the newest places and be one jump ahead of my readers and, as I was to discover, the use of Californian cuisine is a loose description. In fact the chef is Charles Christiaens who I last came across in Villa Bangkok just after in had changed from being Bistingo. Charles is Belgian and a very fine classic chef.
Harvey is in a purpose built elegant building in this leafy soi very much in the centre of trendy Thonglor. I saw somewhere that that the building cost 50 million Baht and I can believe it as this is much more than a restaurant; there are various banqueting rooms as well as a cigar smoking lounge and what is effectively a wine bar. The staff are kitted out in cream leather gear and the restaurant decor is modern with knives that should be put up, and not flat, contrary to what Mummy taught me!
I will first get excited about the wine list, and there is really good reason to do that, because the prices are by this town standards, ridiculous! And for once I mean low not high. There is plenty of good wine priced at under a 1,000 Baht a bottle and there is wine at fewer than 700 Baht a bottle! The list is barely typical Bangkok with a large Claret section including some very big Chateaus, and virtually no red Burgundy's but they also had an impressive list of good whites from the Cote d'Or. I had a bottle of St Veran at 1,100 Baht and a bottle of Cheval Noir (St Emillion) also at 1,100 Baht. Both those wines in the UK would be over £20, if not £30, so the prices charged here are less than I would pay in England! Considering everywhere else in this town is the other way round this is very interesting. My only comment would be that I thought the wines were not in the best condition. In the case of the Claret that did not matter but I fear the St Veran was nearly undrinkable (yes I should have sent it back!)
Now to the main event, if indeed that is what the food is after that exciting wine list!
I am not sure why this is called Californian cuisine, after all there is an excellent French chef and the menu, to me, is little more than a good modern French one. I do eat in France every year and normally add a few stars (Michelin) to my repertoire that way. And this was very much a modern menu with some light starters, as well as traditional items like Foie Grass and a good range of salads and soups. The presentation is meticulous and very carefully thought through. We had a duo of seafood and seafood with avocado. My Seafood with avocado was typical in that it was crab meat mixed with avocado, bound with a light mayo and put in a cup (or mould) to form it then put onto a plate decorated with two colour contrasting vinaigrettes. Lettuce leaves were on top of the crab mix, a grilled rock lobster tail was then placed next to it and an avocado sherbet (ice cream) put in a small dish next door. Every detail of the dish had been carefully thought out including the crisped leaf that garnished the ice cream. This is modern cooking which requires great attention to detail and planning. Because not only must it look good but it must taste good, and it did!
To the main courses, which for some reason were called maian courses. Is that California speak? This is where I got really confused because there are pasta and pizza section as well as meats, seafood and char grilled seafood. But there were only four meat offerings, at last a hint of the Californian ethic with clear discrimination against meat eaters! But then one of those dishes was beef cheek, a great French dish that I had. I must admit that Charles did me proud with wonderfully moist meat and a really rich gravy, wonderfully unhealthy. I just wondered why it was served in a soup bowl! On had stuffed chicken breast that again looked good and was declared as being first rate. Again the soup dishes came into play, trendy I know but not the best thing to eat meat out of!
There was a nice treat in the final offering; a menu item marked cheese and containing four choices. So no pud for me and some nice ripe, and not cold, Camembert. I topped that off with a decent Calvados, once again there was choice here.
It was a very good meal and having enjoyed Charles cooking before that was not a surprise, although I did not know he was here when I started out! As to Californian cuisine I am not certain. With pizza and pasta and a French chef the actual cuisine would always be confusing so maybe it is Californian gastronomy on the grounds that it is a bit of this and some that, at least there was no Tex Mex although I am not sure about the maians. But with good food and a very competitive wine list it really ought to be a must visit venue!

Posted by Sam at 4:57 PM | Comments (0)

September 4, 2006

Le Beaulieu - a touch of class in the culinary department!

Le Beaulieu
Sofitel Residence Asoke
50 Sukhumvit Soi 19
Bangkok 10110
Tel: 02 207 3333
Website

Note July 2008
The original write up was astonishingly nearly 2 years ago. All I can say is Le Beaulieu has gone from strength to strength and has an awesome reputation for exceedingly good food. The lunch menus represent great value for money - overall Herve offers probably the best cooking in Bangkok.

Le Beaulieu has only been open for a couple of months, I had heard about it's forthcoming emergence having met Chef Herve Frerard a couple of times around town. Herve was formerly a chef at the Cascade club in the Ascot Building in South Sathorn road.
I have had several culinary conversations with Herve, (who hails from Marseille) and know that he is a very serious chef, as is his brother Dominic who oversees the stoves at the Trois Forts in Marseille. So I really expected Le Beaulieu to have a touch of class in the culinary department!
The restaurant is a nice compact size with a small bar attached and the kitchen viewable through a semi glass wall. The furnishings are minimalist with no table clothes and low dividers that break up the area nicely. Shelves with bottles and polished glasses catch the eye but the main feature is a Picasso style painting.
The wine list had good depth to it with a sensible collection of both French and Italian wines as well as a few new World offerings. Later when I talked to Herve about his wine list, he bemoaned the difficulty of regular supplies of the same wines and thus had a list that was too long, as a result of an expensive investment in wine. We had bottles of Pinot Grigio and Cotes du Rhone both priced at 1,450 Baht that were, price wise, at the bottom end of the list.
The menu is essentially, short, certainly by Bangkok standards, but it is a well-crafted menu that has been given a great deal of thought. On the Accor website the restaurants cooking style is described as Thematic cuisine. Well I have not a clue what that means and I should have asked the man, but I did not. I have researched and got no further forward on what it means other than the suggestion it means not in chronological order! So I am still in the dark.
A welcome feature is that the menu is not written in obscure foodie speak.
I was tempted by several dishes which was good; but just as I was about to order, Herve arrived to enlighten me with his way of thinking. So I had baked Alaskan scallops with endive and horseradish. Now that dish tells me several things. Firstly, Herve is buying premium products, there are two items there which are unusual; the Alaskan scallops and this is the first time I have see endive in Bangkok! The scallops were huge and the endive nice and crunchy, however I would have liked more bite from the horseradish. But it was an inventive and well thought through dish. On had marinated salmon which was most certainly not out of a packet. For mains he wanted us to have Marlon lobster which came as kind of pasta dish with fresh tagliattelli. I was not sure what a Marlon lobster was (other than expensive!). In some ways it is like a Phuket lobster, of a similar size but very red, has claws and comes from Australia. On had it and was very impressed. I had the duck confit-which, I was told, is made from French duck and as a result it was that much bigger. I always think that duck confit is a good test of a chef. It an easy dish to cut corners on, short cuts that are obvious however to those who know, in the final result. But this duck was moist with plenty of flavour.
Being a good boy, for a change, I opted for cheese tart instead of pudding. This was very good with great pastry and a strong blue cheese filling topped with sliced gingered pear. I was just thinking how good that was (and how good I had been) when Herve arrived with a plate gourmand which included a wonderful chocolate souffle, strawberry tempura and mint and pepper ice cream; trashing any remote attempts at sensible eating!
So all that remained was to get on the wrong side of several calvados and send for a very large taxi to take me home. I said at the beginning that I really expected Le Beaulieu to have a touch of class in the culinary department.
I was not disappointed!

Posted by Sam at 3:59 PM | Comments (0)