Basil Restaurant, Sukhumvit, Bangkok

The Sala

Hubby and I were planning to have buffet dinner at The Sala because I was craving for seafood and I saw their selection while they were preparing the buffet. The Sala is at the hotel's pool deck so it was an outdoor dining experience. I was already planning how to pace myself for the buffet but it rained pretty hard so we opted to eat at Basil instead with a business colleague of hubby's.

Basil Restaurant

Basilis the Thai restaurant at the lobby level of the Sheraton Grande Sukhumvit Hotel. We ordered an appetizer sampler, the deep fried fish, roasted duck slices in red curry with green apples, mixed mushrooms in red curry, chicken with cashews, and had a bottle of wine. There was no need to order rice because they served 3 kinds of rice - white, brown, and green.

Sadly, I forgot to bring my camera with me so no pictures of food for visual aid. But the food was good and the service was great. My favorite was the roasted duck in red curry. What immediately ran through my mind as I tasted it was "mmm...red meat...yumm". The fish was delicious too. The least one I liked was the chicken with cashew which was a recommendation from the server. It was ordinary and not worth the space it occupies in my tummy. I would have been just as satisfied without the chicken dish so it didn't really give any added value. The restaurant is on the pricey side but I guess it's expected of hotel restaurants. Our total bill was 5500 Baht for 3 persons.

I'm not a wine drinker. More or less I know connoisseurs swirl the glass, stick their nose in it, gargle it a bit (and spit it out sometimes) but I have no idea what makes good wine. I just go by my own taste - some wines I can't even finish a glass and some I can have as many glasses as I can afford. Fortunately, the wine was fruity and nice.

Barsu

I got a little tipsy from all that red wine plus the complimentary sparkling wine I had before dinner. Hubby's colleague wanted to check out the bar at the ground floor - Barsu. I had a mojito. If you're someone who loves 80's or 90's music then this bar is for you. I heard music from NKOTB, Bobby Brown among others.

Pictures on this post are not mine.

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Bangkok, Thailand Day 1

I'm back in Bangkok a second time. I'm staying at the Sukhumvit area this time and it's been about 4 years since my last trip here.

On my first visit, I thought Bangkok looked like Quiapo, Manila which, to say the least, is not the most appealing part of Manila - not that I didn't have fun the last time. The area we stayed at this time reminds me of Taft, Manila.

Sheraton Grande Sukhumvit

This time I'm with chubby hubby and we stayed at the Sheraton Grande Sukhumvit - nice rooms, nice service, very posh. The location is very strategic because it has direct access to the skytrain Asok station and the Sukhumvit MRT station. That means you'd seldom go down the street level to hail a taxi and ask for a meter. You can easily get around using the Skytrain, the MRT and a little walking. It's a big leap in terms of luxury from the hotel my family stayed at last time we were here. Budget really makes a big difference.

Rosabieng

We had lunch at Rosabieng on 3 Sukhumvit Soi 11. I picked it off the restaurant list in the Bangkok 101 magazine that came with the hotel room. It was the nearest one to our hotel with a $ out of $$$ rating. The description said "The shorts-clad tourists sitting in cheapish chairs might make you look for another restaurant..." so I was expecting a canteen type of ambiance. What's good about setting low expectations is that odds are higher that you will be pleasantly surprised. From outside, it looks like a house that's been converted to a restaurant but the ambiance is quite cozy and casual. Rosabieng means "train dining car" which would explain the miniature train display inside the restaurant.

Pla-sum-lee-todd-yum-ma-maong (Deep fried king fish with spicy shredded mango salad)

Kao-clook-ka-pi (Shrimp-paste fried rice with sweet marinated pork, dried shrimp, egg and vegetable / Bagoong fried rice)

Apple crepe with orange sauce and vanilla ice cream

The menu had a lot of choices but the write-up did say that the variety did not affect the quality of food they serve. So we decided to try the Pla-sum-lee-todd-yum-ma-maong or simply deep fried king fish with spicy shredded mango salad and the Kao-clook-ka-pi or Shrimp-paste fried rice with sweet marinated pork, dried shrimp, egg and vegetable, better known to me as Bagoong fried rice, and, of course, a meal ain't complete without dessert so we had apple crepe with orange sauce and vanilla ice cream. Our total bill was 430 Baht.

The write-up was right on the spot because everything we ordered was delicious! Hubby even described the fish as fantastic. I can't even pick which one I liked best. But the dressing for the shredded mango salad interests me because I've always wondered how to make that dressing. My moderately experienced taste buds would say it's a combination of fish sauce, an acid like lime maybe, and sugar though I can't imagine at what proportions.

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