Monkeys Chinois
Thong Lor Soi 11
Tel: 02-392 2392
Website

I make no pretence of knowing much about non-European food. That does not mean I do not like it; it means that I have no in-depth knowledge and as such do not feel competent to write about it in detail. But I do know what I like.
Recently, Beefsteak and Burgundy Club lunched at Monkeys Chinois. One or two members were not excited by a trip to the Chinky but I looked forward to it and got something different. Monkeys is owned by Eddie, a Thai restaurant entrepreneur who already operates the well-known Witches – Witchs Oyster Bar in Ruamrudee Village on Ploenchit Road and the Witchs Tavern in Thong Lor.
Monkeys, according to Eddie, is a modern restaurant with contemporary decor and food served with a modern interpretation. My lunch with B&B certainly tickled my appetite but what really impressed me was that, at the end of the meal as conversation turned to the usual banter, Eddie gently withdrew to a comfortable sofa and went to sleep. I had all those years running restaurants, being bored out of my mind by groups who hung around after a meal chatting and drinking, and hard as I tried I could never quite get myself to nod off.
After this introduction, I wanted to go back and try Monkeys out as a normal customer and duly took Her Indoors along the following Sunday.
The restaurant has a minimalist decor with big lampshades, comfortable chairs and, rather oddly, Formica bonquet seating. There are several big windows, a central bar-type area and a tiled floor. The staff are well dressed, with the girls wearing long dresses. Overall, I thought the message from the decor was slightly confusing. In European terms, it was cafe meets Chinese without the flock wallpaper. But this is Bangkok and Asia and it did work. I was less convinced about some of the muzac, which might have been better reserved for nearby discos, but some of the jazz was quite pleasant.
I was agreeably surprised by the wine list: it was not only extensive but very realistically priced. There were several bottles under the 1,000-baht mark and I had a bottle of Macon Villages at 1,400 baht and a bottle of good Aussie Merlot for 1,100.
The menu starts off with a large dim sum selection that is sensibly always available as opposed to being considered just a lunchtime dish. We started with dim sum in the form of the Emperors Dumpling selection; the other option was Rainbow Dim Sum. I like these options as I really do not know what I am ordering. This way, the restaurant makes up my mind for me and presumably they know enough to pick a sensible range of dumplings. They took a bit of time to arrive but were obviously cooked to order and were very good indeed.
My problem with Chinese food is that I always order too much. So we were being cautious, although the prices meant that ordering a number of dishes would not break the bank. There were expensive dishes such as abalone steak at 2,200 baht and suckling pig at 1,200, but that was a lot of pig and for a lot more than one. Most dishes were in the 200-300 baht range.
So next we ordered a small portion of Cantonese roast duck, which came interestingly served with sliced ginger and peanuts. It was very good. For our B&B meal, we had the whole duck served with pancakes and plum sauce as in Peking duck, but we got the meat as well as the skin. On my second visit, the Cantonese duck had the breast skin and meat but no pancakes, etc.
Next we had crispy roast rib of pork with special monkey sauce. It was a good slab of ribs with the meat suitably soft with a sweet and sour sauce.
We now had a problem in that a little more was called for but not too much. I was keen for On to try the crispy prawns with sweet mayonnaise and wasabi, which I thought was the truly memorable dish from the B&B lunch. This comprises large prawns in batter with a mayonnaise including a good slug of nice hot wasabi horseradish. Apart from the wasabi mayo going so well with the prawns, the batter was truly crisp and, more importantly, clean. All too often, batter is spoilt by used oil. To an extent, that is inevitable because oil deteriorates as it is used and, frankly, it is not cheap: replacing the fryer oil weekly is no small overhead and, even with filters and skimming, it is bound to get dirtier by the day. So these prawns in nice clean batter with this wonderful hot mayonnaise were a joy indeed.
Regrettably, the other dish we ordered was almost the opposite because of one of my pet hates. It was sizzling beef tenderloin with black pepper sauce. The problem was that it was covered in diced capsicum (pepper), which I dislike. The beef was nice and tender but, as hard as I tried, I could not get that distinct capsicum flavour out of it. There was no mention of capsicum on the menu, which only mentioned black pepper. But others may have been more than happy with the capsicum infusion. On certainly was not bitching and enjoyed her piece of steak.
We needed a couple of desserts as final palate cleaners before heading home replete.
Monkeys is a pleasant change: it is not a traditional Chinese restaurant but is, as it says, a modern restaurant serving traditional Chinese food in a contemporary way. The food standard is high and staff attentive.

This review was first published in Sukhumvit Eye see website