u/mrxtian

This is the first US restaurant from Thitid “Ton” Tassanakajohn of Le Du and Nusara fame in Bangkok. It's only been open for about 3 weeks and, unfortunately, I think they have a lot of work to do. I tried not to get my hopes up but, even in doing so, it was a bit of a let down. I will give them credit that the dishes are unique and different from any other thai restaurant in the city. They also did not hold back on the spice which I appreciated. Unfortunately, the concepts and execution need quite a bit of work. Overall, I felt like the dishes were lacking definition and dimension. The interior was nice but was too loud (are we seriously still doing this?). Service was lacking. Somewhat cold and distant. They either weren't knowledgeable about what they were serving or were not forthcoming with said knowledge. In the write ups I had seen beforehand, the food looked elegant and well-presented, but, as you can see in the pics, it is neither. The fancy serving vessels were still there, but the actual plating was kind of sloppy. I don't require tweezers to be used, but I feel that, considering what we were paying for the dishes, I would have appreciated some more thought going into this. Overall, I think the potential is absolutely there to be a great addition to the city's Thai fine dining scene, but I feel like this menu needs a hard edit to get it to where it needs to be. Some of these dishes just aren't working, either from a conceptual or execution standpoint. And the service needs quite a bit of work. Honestly, I would give this place a few months for them to figure out who they really are.....they aren't there yet.

Food:

Som tum peaches - 3/5. Marinated shrimp, peach, cherry tomato, fermented fish sauce. Where were the peaches? Where were the shrimp? This dish seemed like it was mostly radish. Very spicy which i liked but with "peach" in the title was expecting some more sweetness to balance things out. $25 felt like a rip off for a hockey puck of spicy radish if I could be perfectly honest. I also found it odd that this is the spiciest dish on the menu and it is being served as an appetizer. It kind of blows your palette out early on in the meal.

Garlic broccolini - 5/5. Great flavor. Would not change a thing. Definitely the best thing we ate (I think it speaks volumes that the humble side of vegetables is the best thing on the menu).

Root down duck, shrimp paste, makrut lime, finger root, young coconut - 3/5. Loved the actual flavor of the curry. The spice level was great! The rest of the dish just kind of got lost in it though. I didn't get any makrut lime leaf flavor at all. The coconut didn't really come through. I had no idea what finger root tasted like before I ate this dish and I still don't really. The duck was sliced too thin, fat not properly rendered. Honestly that could have been any protein in there and it wouldn't have made much of a difference.

Khao soi haeng seafood. 2.5/5. Dry-style northern Thai curry noodle, seafood, shrimp paste, and cardamom. This was a miss. Extremely one dimensional and unmemorable. Tasted like a not-amazing curry sauce on noodles with some so-so seafood. The squid(?) was chewy and tasted fishy. There were actually some tasty pickles off to the side that I didn't even know were there (no one explained the dish to us) that would have livened the dish up but by the time I discovered they were there, the noodles were already gone. Also, if they had never mentioned cardamom, I would have never guessed that it was in there. Did they forget that?

Thai tea cheesecake- 2/5. Total fail. Personally I am of the opinion that even bad cheesecake is good, but, yeah...it was bad. The tea flavor didn't come through very well and the cake itself was dry and overbaked. It was a basque style cheesecake (no crust) and is supposed to be kind of gooey, almost custard like in the center. This was not that.

I wasn't sure what I was walking into. The place has practically zero digital footprint and all I knew was that it was the buzzy new spot with two chefs with good pedigree. Normally I expect an izakaya to be more casual and fun (my normal haunts are Chome and Rintaro) but this experience was surprisingly refined. The food was exceptional and damn near perfect. I would say the food was on par with Niku Steakhouse in terms of quality. The space itself is small and tight but also intimate and cozy with original details. Noise levels were low and we could hear each other talk quite easily. They don't have a full liquor license so they only have sake and a selection of beers (and one bottle of wine.....not by the glass) to choose from.

Food:

Sashimi sampler - 9/10. We ordered all of the varieties of fish they had (Chutoro, toro, ora kind and maybe saba?). All were delicious but the Ora king salmon was probably my favorite....it was like butter.

Sear tuna tataki with chives and garlic - 8/10. Great flavors going on in this dish. Excellent quality fish. Not sure what the sauce was made of but it was delicious.

Lobster potato salad with parsnip and tarragon - 8/10. I actually really loved this but I would agree with the rest of the table that the lobster itself was pretty scant and hard to detect.

Miso ceasar salad with parmesan crumble - 7/10. Nothing remarkable but tasty and the roughage was nice.

Veggie set - 7/10. The veggies that came out were not the veggies that were advertised. The white asparagus was fantastic, the broccoli was good, but everyone said that the caramelized daikon was forgettable (my piece fell on the floor so didn't get to sample)

Salmon crudo with strawberry relish and mint - 10/10. Really loved the flavors going on here. Every component was fully conceptualized.

Mochi donut with pork belly and cured egg yolk- 10/10. Super crisp on the outside and chewy on the inside. Pork belly on top had wonderful flavor.

Tuna Wellington - 10/10. I don't know how they managed to get that pastry cooked but still managed to keep the tuna perfectly rare inside. The beef tare sauce was absolutely delicious. Rich with warm spices. We thought it tasted kind of like pho mole.

Karaage with honey butter glaze and sesame nori furikake - 12/10. Impossibly shatteringly crisp crust. Chicken itself had amazing texture and was super juicy and flavorful.

Chicken oyster with duck liver and ponzu - 10/10. It's clear chicken is where this restaurant shines.

King crab okonomiyaki - 10/10. Not your traditional okonomiyaki, but the flavors were all there.

Hojicha tiramisu - 10/10. It was more like a cheesecake custard with tea woven throughout. Really incredible.

Overall, I can't recommend this place enough. It's not cheap, but it's worth it imho. With drinks, tax and tip, we ended up spending about $150 a head. Plates are small and we actually ended up ordering more than we expected. I can't speak for consistency since they are new and I've only been once, but if they make food like this every day, I could see them getting a Michelin star. I would get in now before this place blows up.

Enjoy!