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A little piece of Italy in the heart of Bangkok - Biscotti at the
Regent Hotel offers exquisite cuisine in a socially casual setting.
Mark Lindesay reports.
Dining at Biscotti in Bangkok's Regent Hotel is more than just
an excuse for a great meal - it's a social, even an educational
experience. The layout of the restaurant with an open kitchen and
"Chef's Table" encourages interaction between diner and chef, and
a communal table, which doubles as a bar, makes a useful gathering
point for diners awaiting company, or for single diners - so often
shunned at many restaurants.
The "Chef's Table", which seats eight, allows customers to chat
with the chefs and discuss cooking techniques and ingredients, and
the menu for the table is written entirely from the chefs' daily
recommendations. Décor in Biscotti is fashionably
understated, but you'll find no checked tablecloths and
Chianti-bottle candleholders here. Simple, white linen and
colourful accents of green and blue provided by the tableware
reflect the "fashion-in-food" concept of the operation and provide
diners with a pleasant, busy yet unfussy environment in which to
enjoy their food.
The menu is based around solid, tratorria-style cooking, simple
dishes easily recognisable with daily specials posted on a large
blackboard. With the open kitchen, diners can watch their meals
being prepared, adding a sense of vitality to the restaurant,
especially during slower periods (though these are rare
indeed).
The restaurant, open since the beginning of the 1999, has
already proved to be a major success, with bookings almost
essential for evening dining. The a la carte dinner menu offers
what the restaurant describes as the "comfort food element" of
traditional Italian cooking, featuring pizza, pastas and sauces,
seafood, soups and other delights such as beef or tuna
carpaccio.
Food at Biscotti is superb, and surprisingly reasonably priced
for a hotel operation. Typical starters come in at around 200-300
baht; main dishes run from 250 to 600 baht. The pizzas are
excellent, pastas homemade, and the cuts of meat and seafood dishes
inspirational. Signature dishes at Biscotti include the carpaccio,
salmon marinated in dill with a fennel and citrus dressing, and the
truly sublime almond-encrusted sea bass. Desserts are freshly
prepared and are of such quality that the restaurant attracts
crowds on the way home from Bangkok's nightspots and bars until
quite late in the evening.
Wine drinking is encouraged at Biscotti, with a good range of
mainly European labels available by the glass. Beware that drinking
wine in Bangkok restaurants can add significant sums to the final
bill, however. When tested by The Elephant, the bill for three
courses including aperitif, a bottle of decent wine and digestifs
came to a reasonable 3,250 baht ($75) for two including tax and
service.
Biscotti
@ The Four Seasons Hotel
155 Rajadamri Road
Bangkok
Thailand
Tel: (66-2) 255 5443
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