Eating experiences for Bangkok's most jaded foodies

We all know Bangkok is renowned for its foodie credentials. Apart from the thousands of Thai restaurants and stalls, there are hundreds of Chinese, Japanese, Indian and Italian eateries, augmented by cuisines as diverse as Lebanese and Finnish, Moroccan and Mexican.

But when you’ve had your fill of khao pad, Peking duck or tiramisu, where do you go? Here are a few gustatory haunts, from the self-indulgent to the blamelessly healthy, that might offer a little variety to the more jaded palate.
 

La Table de Tee is one of Bangkok's few 'chef's table' restaurants.

La Table de Tee

Chef Chatree 'Tee' Kachornklin’s new restaurant may be the only one in Bangkok to offer the 'chef’s table' style of dining. Essentially, Tee decides what his guests are going to have, offering a different fixed menu every week, with no a la carte options.

The 25-year-old, who learned his trade at top restaurants in England, seems to have taken a few tips from groundbreaking conceptual chefs such as Heston Blumenthal and Ferran Adriá; each dish begins with the idea of two often unlikely components, such as prawn and truffle, or piglet and lime. It’s like a dinner party at the home of a gastronomical wizard, with all the decisions left up to the host.

69/5 Sala Daeng, Silom. Tel: +66 (0)2 636 3220. Open Tuesday-Sunday 6:30-10:30pm www.latabledetee.com

A selection of French cheeses from Hilton's Cheese Room.

Cheese Room @ the Flow Restaurant

If La Table de Tee takes away the trouble of choosing, the Cheese Room -- the brainchild of executive chef Lorenzo Rosso -- offers choice in excess, unless you have the misfortune of being lactose intolerant.

In this climate-controlled environment, part of the Flow all-day dining restaurant, diners have a free hand with dozens of European cheeses, many of them unavailable anywhere else in Thailand, along with the choicest breads, crackers and fruit, for 950 baht ++ per person. Tuck into a wedge of Colston Basset Stilton or maybe Brie aux Truffes and watch your arteries harden before your very eyes.

Millennium Hilton Bangkok, 123 Charoennakorn Rd. Tel +66 (0)2 442 2000. Open daily, 6am-11pm.

Barley sushi, one of the Raw Food Cafe's vegan dishes.

Raw Food Café @ Rasayana Retreat

After all that richness, it might be a good idea to treat your body with a little more TLC. Rasayana’s strictly vegan menu is based on the principle that cooking destroys essential enzymes and nutrients, adding to the toxic overload that modern urban living places on our bodies.

But this is far from the bland, beige regime that the phrase ‘health food’ might suggest. You can enjoy soups, sushi, pizza, lasagne and other delights, packed with the fresh flavors of fruits, vegetables, nuts, grains and herbs, pausing only to wonder how they manage to create this delicious array without a cooker. And do leave room for dessert.

Rasayana Retreat, 57 Soi Prom-Mitr, Sukhumvit Soi 39. Tel +66 (0)2 662 4803. Open daily, 10am-8pm.

Third Floor's apple pie can be eaten by all blood types, though toppings differ accordingly.

The Third Floor

Also aiming to offer a healthy eating experience, the Third Floor structures its menu around the blood types of the diner.

This is based on the controversial Japanese theory that one’s blood type (ketsueki gata) determines personality and behavior, and that certain foods are more appropriate to those with particular blood groups.

So if you’re type B, you’re encouraged to try beef stroganoff; type A should go for chicken or turkey. That Thai classic tom yum kung is reserved for type O types, although they’re not allowed potatoes, having to make do with pumpkin. AB’s may be delighted to know they’re not allowed mung beans.

You may or may not believe in the science, but it does add a little frisson to choosing lunch.

Verasu Building, 83/7 Wireless Road. Tel +66 (0)2 254 8100. Open daily, 10am-7pm