Bangkok Post : European extravaganza

EATING Out

Its Euro-accent name sounds posh. Its stark, brown-ish interior looks dexterous. And its prime-quality food (seen on guest's tables as well as on buffet counters) simply confirms that the restaurant is no second-classer. But no matter how "expensive" this 60-seater might appear, for me and perhaps for many who have dined here, Boqueria is best cherished for its great European flavours at bargain prices.

Opened a few months ago, Boqueria is not just another one of those chic urban eateries. PHOTOS: ANUSORN SAKSEREE

Named after a famous fresh market in Barcelona, Spain, Boqueria is basically a place where you can find modern European cuisine prepared in home style with fresh seasonal ingredients - local and imported. The restaurant is run by Ian 'the Golden Hand Chef"Chalermkittichai, an internationally renowned Thai chef who is also a head chef and co-owner of the famous "Kittichai" restaurant in New York.

For first-timers, I recommend you visit the restaurant at lunchtime on a weekday, when the Mediterranean buffet is the best bet. The buffet alone (featuring more than 30 items of Mediterranean fares including pizza, cold cut meats, grilled vegetables, fresh salad bar and 10 desserts) with coffee or tea is priced at 258 baht. While a buffet with your choice of main course dish plus coffee or tea costs 398 baht. What a deal!

The ultra tender braised beef short rib.

I didn't try much from the buffet line (except the dessert) but every single item that I took a nip from proved to be excellent. From the hot food counter, grilled eggplant was aromatic and sweet, fried seabass was crisp and juicy, home-made foccacia bread was soft and chewy and I couldn't ask for a better quality from the house-whip butter. While, of the cold cut corner, Parma ham was usually sliced to order to guarantee its freshness.

If buffet is not your style of dining, the restaurant's Prix Fixe lunch is a good alternative for a sumptuous budget-control meal. A two-course lunch with coffee or tea is priced 398 baht. And should you be interested in wrapping up your meal with unlimited sweets, then an extra 100 baht for a dessert buffet will be added up to the price.

Pan-seared US day-boat scallops with foie gras.

Of the "price-fix" lunch set, there is a decent variety of salads, soups and main courses to choose from. For main course, in particular, (buffet diners requesting a main course also order from this same menu) I skipped the likes of pan-seared snapper, fillet mignon a la plancha and braised navaran of lamb, to name just a few, and went for parpadella pasta with with slow-cooked duck confit.

The herb-infused thick ribbon pasta, properly cooked and al dente in texture, intermingled nicely with the tenderly chewy duck meat and offered a flavoursome mouthfeel.

A la carte dishes here are also reasonably priced, while some of them have already been proved to be really worth having. So Boqueria is a great destination for dinner, too. The a la carte dinner menu, which changes with the seasons, features an appreciable collection of seafood and meat dishes. From that, I had a chance to sample pan-roasted US diver day-boat scallop (580 baht) and braised beef short rib (980 baht) and was truly impressed.

Parpadelle pasta with slow cooked duck confit.

The first dish, ideal for starter as well as for main course, presented four huge, hand-collected scallops from the US waters. The plump, chewy and naturally sweet shellfish embellished with foie gras came on a bed of sharply tasty tomato salsa and were addictively delicious.

While the beef short rib, cooked for 12 hours in its own juice until the meat becomes very tender and falls off the bone easily, was so generously portioned that it can intimidate a petite diner. The flavourful meat intermingled wonderfully with the ultra smooth and buttery mashed potato, while the palatably bitter gravy was good to the last drop.

One mistake that we made on our visit was that we totally forgot to "order" Boqueria's dessert. And I blame it on the restaurant's sinfully luscious buffet dessert line that kept me off my seat again and again.

Personally as someone who's never had a sweet tooth, Boqueria offered the best buffet desserts in town. Not only because the selection was extensive - from panna cotta and subtle tiramisu to creme brulee and chocolate mousse, to name a few - but because every single one of them exhibited great patisserie dexterity and tasted superb.

My pleasant visit to the restaurant has proved that, despite its chic-sounding "modern European cuisine" sobriquet, Boqueria is not another one of those countless urban eateries for wannabe food snobs. And, when it comes to concocting flavours, you can hardly find anyone who does the better job than chef Ian.