Thailand’s Best Restaurants 2007
This
book is an annual, and one that many restaurants await with bated breath. A
good review will help bring diners. A poor review will not. Published by
Blue Mango Publishing (ISBN 13:978-974-88245-5-0) it is compiled by Thailand
Tatler.
Whilst it claims to have Thailand’s best restaurants between its covers, the
preponderance is Bangkok, with 150 entries, whilst Phuket has 15 entries,
Chiang Mai has 14, Hua Hin 11, and finally Pattaya and Koh Samui only 10
each.
The restaurants are judged in four categories - food, wine, service and
price, with the first three on a 0 to 10 scale, whilst price is in four
groups - Inexpensive less than B. 500 per person, Moderate B. 500-1,000,
Expensive B. 1,000-1,500 and Very Expensive more than B. 1,500 per person.
To make it such that the price factor reflects just the food, all prices are
exclusive of wine.
As an introduction to the provincial sections, writers give a two or three
page synopsis on the way the local restaurant business is heading, and as
well as the reviews, there are some interesting articles at the front of the
book, and at the back of the book is a list of restaurants offering
discounts when the American Express card is used. In the provincial section
this includes the reviewed venues Art Café, Manhattans and Mez in Pattaya
and Le Coq d’Or, Le Crystal and The Restaurant in Chiang Mai. And if you are
flipping through the Chiang Mai listings, be careful if eating in one
establishment which is reported as having “Waiters provide courteous and
charming service, yet remaining indiscreet.” Trouserless outfits perhaps?
There is an index towards the back of the book that lists the (Bangkok)
restaurants by cuisine offered, and makes it very easy to compare
restaurants in the four categories. This does highlight quickly those places
which are value for money.
Some culinary terms are also included in a section on its own, so you never
need feel embarrassed by not being sure of the difference between antipasto
and antipasti. (Hint: they are the same, but the former is singular and the
latter plural.) And you will never again confuse Khao suai with Khao soy (do
try Khao Soi Lamduan mentioned in the Chiang Mai pre-amble.)
With the preponderance of restaurants in the nation’s capital, many of
provincial Thailand’s ‘best’ restaurants are omitted, which is a great
shame. Just Khai Soi is missing from Chiang Mai, and the multi-award winning
Grill Room and Wine Cellar in Pattaya’s Royal Cliff Beach resort was another
to fall victim to lack of space. In their place are some restaurants which
really should not be classified as “Thailand’s best”, such as the one in
Bangkok which scored 5 out of 10 for both food and service and 4 out of 10
for wine.
That criticism, however, should not stop you from buying this book. By far
the vast majority are outstanding restaurants, and at B. 395 a cheap guide
for the gourmet. Gault Millau Thailand may have gone, but this publication
from Thailand Tatler looks as if it is here to stay.
