Even by the standards of Sunday gourmet brunches, what Sofitel Bangkok Sukhumvit's Voilà! restaurant offers is less a buffet than a feast. Arriving in quick succession are bite-size treats, each meticulously made, presented and served. They take delightful turns tempting, tickling, teasing, tantalizing and titillating your palate in a gastronomic rhapsody of sours, bitters and sweets.
A superb herb-crusted lamb cutlet with couscous is followed by a succulent oven-baked snow fish dish with tomato and basil coulis. The latter gives way to pan-fried foie gras with crisp gingerbread and fig chutney. And did we mention the roasted beef tenderloin with thyme red wine sauce round about the time you've just scooped up the last scrumptious drops of a sublime lobster bisque from beneath a dome of warm and delightfully flaky puff pastry with which it has been topped? Culinary hedonism at its best, that.
It's still barely past noon on a Sunday, when many of the city's bleary-eyed late risers are just reaching for their bowls of cereals, so gorging on such sumptuous delights may appear a bit decadent, yes. Then again, letting you dine in style is the whole point of the newly launched Moët & Chandon Sunday Brunch at the high-end French-style restaurant, which pampers patrons in the best traditions of Gallic festive dining.
Let's be honest: buffets, even the inviting gourmet variety, can be a bit of a hassle — chore even. For one thing, you may find yourself having to jostle constantly for food at tables and sideboards. For another, you largely have to serve yourself.
Not so at Voilà! The restaurant offers diners its "Pass Around" option showcasing a best-of-the-day selection of connoisseur dishes from its four kitchens (seafood/Asian/modern French/western cuisine). The dishes are delivered to your table by courteous waiters and waitresses with perfect timing in a chic casual-dining setting with Thai cultural and decorative flourishes. To help you slid further into blissful contentment, a live DJ provides avant-garde Buddha Bar ethno-electric lunge melodies on his turntables from right beside iced Alaskan rock lobster and king crab platters.
The latter seafood staples are on display, ready for the taking, as part of the restaurant's "Cuisines on Stage" concept, which showcases the skills of the eatery's well-trained chefs who ply their trade at several open kitchens, including a wood-fired pizza oven, which are arrayed in a panoramic arrangement of artful food displays. The inclusive Sunday lunch menu features many of the perennial favourites: familiar home-style dishes, authentic international cuisine stalwarts, and rare gastronomic delights all at once.
You can choose to mind your calories and opt for lighter dishes from a salad bar, or else you can go all out by loosening your belt and tucking into some heartier fare courtesy of a bounty of French cheeses, fresh pastries, hams, sausages and frame-grilled chicken on offer.
Either way, a shot (or two) of Napoleon brandy and a glass (or two) of Chandon champagne, quality French wine, or house cocktail will make it all go down smoothly. If you find yourself still feeling peckish a bit, head over to the desserts and patisserie displays with their waist-padding cornucopia of nuts tart, strawberry mousse, berry clafoutis, layered cakes, chocolate cakes, velvet cakes and ice creams.
A veritable Caesar's banquette all this is.
"This concept is unique in Bangkok," stresses Marshall Orton, director of food and beverage at the French-owned luxury hotel chain's recently opened property on Sukhumvit Road. "You don't even have to get up from your chair. Just sit back, relax and enjoy being served. At Voilà! you can have a really lazy Sunday. It's a buffet-style brunch with a difference."
An industry veteran and lifelong epicure, the peripatetic Australian is a former executive chef who honed his culinary skills at some of the world's most prestigious eateries from London to Vienna to Shanghai. "It's our French DNA that makes us stand out," Orton says. "If you order steak tartare, you get real steak tartare. If you order ratatouille, you get real ratatouille. If you order boeuf bourguignon (red-wine beef stew), you get real boeuf bourguignon," he elucidates. "We live French and we breathe French."
That "French DNA" is due in large part to the very essence of Sofitel itself. First launched with a single property in Strasbourg in 1964, the hotel chain has since gone on to become one of the world's most recognisable luxury hotel brands. Today Sofitel boasts a presence, with its 120 hotels, in 40 countries on five continents from the Americans to Europe to the Orient.
Everywhere it operates, the chain purveys a genuine experience of French art de vivre. Sofitel Sukhumvit is no different. Right in time for Christmas, Sofitel's flagship hotel in Bangkok will be launching a new front-facing French terrace on its ground floor, complete with Parisian-style awnings and a street-side café atmosphere that would fit right in on Champs-Élysées. The terrace, which will service resident guests and passersby alike, will complement a new in-house French art gallery set in the hotel's lobby, which will likewise serve the purpose of bringing even more of a touch of Paris to lovers of Gallic culture, art and cuisine in the Thai capital in true Sofitel style.
"We want to become a permanent feature of the city's culinary life," Orton stresses apropos the mission of Voilà! and of the hotel's other gastronomic purveyors of Gallic joie de vivre. "We are working to fine-tune our appeal to local lovers of French culture based on their likes and preferences."
It's a no-brainer, the Aussie culinary maven insists, that Bangkok gourmets should spend their Christmas Day brunch at Voilà!. Ask him why that is, and Orton has the answer ready, duly offering it with a mischievous smile: "Where else would they go?"
- Bt2,200 net with free soft drinks and juice.
- Bt3,750 net with Chandon, wines and magnifique cocktails.
- Bt4,750 net with Moët & Chandon Champagne, wines and magnifique cocktails
VOILA Sofitel Bangkok
189 Sukhumvit Road Soi 13-15.
Tel. 02 126 9999.
Moet & Chandon Sunday Brunch at Voila!_Sofitel Bangkok Sukhumvit.
