Palazzo
Soi 17 Thonglor (Sukhumvit Soi 55)
Tel: 02-712 9000
Website

Occasionally somebody gets on my website and suggests I visit their establishment. I have no objection to this; in fact, the converse. I positively encourage people as it often lets me know about a new restaurant or one I have overlooked.
So when I received a note about Palazzo Ristorante & Wine Bar, I was immediately interested in what and where. I was marginally put off by the company name of Pasta-Pasta Co. It seemed a trifle incongruous to call a place a palace and then talk about pasta. However, a glance at the website was enough to tell me I would get something more than pizza and pasta.
The Palazzo is only a few steps down Soi 17 from Thonglor and one glimpse will confirm it is indeed of palatial size. My Bangkok limo, for a change conventionally yellow and green, swept me into the drive and up to the front door. We trundled across the footbridge over the moat and the front door was thrown open by a smiling greeter who I recognised but as ever could not place. In fact, his name is Singh and he was a manager at Beccofino, one of my favourite eateries and not far away on Thonglor, near Soi 4.
Singh positively oozed greetings and wanted to rush me round this large operation. First he showed me both restaurants, then he wanted me to inspect the upstairs rooms and the downstairs rooms and the terrace. But I said no. I liked the smaller first restaurant by the entrance near the pizza oven rather than the larger front restaurant and that is all I wanted to see until I had a drink in my hand and my bottom on a seat.
The wine list was good and had a decent range of wines including a few Romanian wines that come with a sensible 900-baht price tag. I have had some good Romanian wine, particularly their Cabernet Sauvignon, so I know they are not to be looked down on. On this occasion, we had an Italian white and a Romanian Byzantium Cabernet as the red. I would not describe it as a great example of that varietal, but it was pleasant enough and came at the right price.
For the mains, I was tempted by a number of items that were not part of the usual local Italian restaurant fare, including melanzane all’ amalfitana (sliced eggplant with anchovy in mozzarella cheese and tomato sauce), cozze gratinate alla pescatore (gratinated mussels butterfly, caper, olive, mozzarella, potato and spinach) and gunghetti trifolati (sautéed mixed fresh mushrooms and parmesan cheese). However, at that moment, Pepe, the Italian chef, appeared and we seemed to get our wires crossed as I thought antipasto misto palazzo (plate of Italian delicatessen) would be a selection of starters. Instead it was an antipasto carne with cheese. It was a very good plate of mixed meat and one that I can only praise, but it was not what I was hoping for. So I never tried those interesting-sounding starters.
There were plenty of options on the mains front, with pizzas aplenty and varied pastas, somewhat unusually divided up between olive oil, tomato, cream and seafood bases. But we were interested in more meat and opted for charcoal grills in the form of steak and lamb chops. My lamb chops were nicely charred and cooked pink. They looked good on the plate served with a bundle of vegetables neatly tied together as well as some decorative saucing, but the chops had been trimmed so that the fat was missing. That is something I would expect in a PC trendy restaurant in London with several female chefs, but not from an Italian man. Surely he would know, as we all know, that it is the fat what makes the meat taste. I know Thonglor is trendy but not – please, please – to the point of removing the fat from my meat. I did moan to both the ever-present Singh and Pepe, but they seemed surprised at my unhappiness. Her Indoors had a perfectly acceptable steak, which she enjoyed.
As a dessert, I had a slice of ricotta and pear cake. This was different and in some ways good as it was not too sweet, but somehow it did not quite work for me. But I stress I think that was me, not the dish.
I suppose at the end of the day the strangest point about this Italian restaurant is that it is Indian-owned. I am told the guys that set it up regularly haunted the Italian restaurants in Thonglor and clearly one day said: "Eureka, let’s open our own restaurant." My experience suggests that is normally a recipe for disaster, but they have clearly made a very serious investment and employed professionals to run Palazzo. I am told that the owners, when they were customers elsewhere, liked to bring their own booze. Now if Palazzo starts filling up, and I see no reason why it should not, then it will make lots and lots of money – providing, of course, the customers do not all bring their own refreshments.

This revue was first published in Sukhumvit Eye