From more than 100 eateries reviewed by Life over the past 12 months, here's our leading 10 from 2014
Currently led by head chef Blair Mathieson, Quince serves up heartfelt gourmet fare prepared with the best seasonal produce while encompassing different flavours and techniques from around the globe.
The attractive restaurant, which labels itself as a "market kitchen", also cares about sustainable produce and has good relationships with local food artisans and growers.
Among the scrumptious dishes is Nakhon Sawan cheese platter (450 baht), a selection of Camembert, Munster and Reblochon — all made in the Thai province — with home-made sweet quince confit and rosemary crackers.
Quince's all-time best-selling roasted bone marrow (550 baht for two halves), from pasture-fed beef, served with a zestily tangy salad of parsley, capers and lemon, is not to be missed.
Yet, for more substantial entrées, order crispy pork belly with fennel-apple slaw and red pepper jam (450 baht), home-made pappardelle with slow-cooked duck and portobello ragu (400 baht) and a very tender and flavourful hanger steak with pan-fried crushed potatoes and sweet red pepper jam (650 baht).
A to-die-for dessert is cinnamon roasted pear with soft chocolate, salted caramel and candied peanuts (220 baht).
The restaurant has an impressive selection of fine wine and spirits, as well as a two-page collection of cunningly-crafted cocktails and mocktails. Its service, by a team of attentive and efficient staff, is outstandingly charming.
As a family-friendly establishment, Quince always welcomes kids, and even dogs.
The sublime comfort cuisine of this Tuscan-inspired restaurant is down to Lombardy-born, half-Thai/half-Italian chef Dario Busnelli, who cultivated his culinary perfection at some of Europe's most prestigious dining establishments.
From a selection of approximately 50 homestyle Italian dishes and a few of Tuscany's time-honoured specialities, truly impressive starters include burrata with balsamic-marinated cherry tomatoes and basil (890 baht); Brittany bouchot mussels in lobster bisque sauce (690 baht); and a platterof cold cuts and salami with house-marinated vegetables (990 baht for a large portion).
Pasta fans will find utmost joy with home-made tagliatelle with Italian sausage and porcini mushrooms in a light beurre blanc sauce (490 baht); ravioli con porcini with creamy truffle sauce (490 baht); and risotto ai frutti di mare with bouchot mussels, sweet clams, slow cooked giant octopus and tiger prawns (590 baht).
Steak aficionados can't afford to miss Florentine-style tomahawk steak prepared with nicely marbled, bone-in Australian wagyu rib-eye beef (390 baht per 100g).
The dining ambience sensibly combines a contemporary casual feel with the warm touch of an old-world European farmhouse with red brick walls, sun-baked furniture and trompe l'oeil paintings.
Matching its lovely setting and wonderful cuisine is the efficient yet cordial service.
Packed out by a crowd of business executives and well-clad gourmands, the 80-seat establishment, designed to mimic a Manhattan bank from the 1930s, is the first steak-focused restaurant of the innovative Water Library brand.
From an extensive compilation of classic steakhouse grub, poached Andaman prawn cocktail with home-made burnt-pepper mayonnaise (380 baht) and baby cos salad with 64C poached egg and creamy Parmesan-cheddar Caesar dressing (330 baht) are great starters.
The restaurant has an impressive variety of beef cuts, from tenderloin to Porterhouse, US Black Angus to Japanese kamichiku wagyu and grain-fed to grass-fed. All are flame-grilled over US hickory wood and Japanese binchotan oak wood white charcoal to add a captivating charred aroma while retaining the beef's natural juiciness. The Black Angus rib-eye steak (1,750 baht for a 350g portion) is a recommended option for its exceptionally flavourful taste and succulent texture.
The vast variety of complementing side orders (150 baht each) include corn muffin with bacon jam, German-style rosti potato, sautéed field mushrooms, mashed potato, onion rings and baked cauliflower.
The Capital's best-selling wagyu beef burger on a house-baked bun (390 baht) is another treat beef fans wouldn't want to miss.
Desserts are presented with a cutting edge approach. Sample deconstructed red velvet cake (290 baht) and banoffee (290) and you won't regret it.
Service impressively blends five-star efficiency with American-style cordiality.
Located at the end of an antiquated backstreet dominated by time-honoured wholesalers and grocers, this riverside restaurant-cum-bar is blessed with a majestically spectacular backdrop of the old town's iconic attractions.
Enhancing the visual bliss is the excellent cuisine by well-travelled veteran chef Tony Wrigley, originally from Manchester, England.
His decent-sized menu features a 50-50 proportion of Thai and Western fare, including local favourites, homestyle English classics and Mediterranean seafood dishes passionately and creatively prepared with utmost respect to authentic techniques.
Appetisers worth ordering are ahi tuna tartare with guacamole topping and sweet basil-chilli oil garnish (340 baht) and tempura soft-shell crab and green mango salad with Thai herbs and lime dressing (290 baht).
You should never ever miss twice-cooked crispy pork belly (590 baht). The pork, slow-roasted for several hours and then pan-grilled before being served, arrives in nice slabs with roasted pumpkin purée, local-style wok-fried morning glory, apple-young ginger marmalade and traditional pork gravy.
Should you crave something Thai, the restaurant's best-selling massaman lamb shank curry (490 baht), also made by Wrigley himself following a secret recipe of a Thai Muslim lady chef, whom he used to work with, offers taste bud pleasure until the last drop.
As a bar, the restaurant has a good selection of New and Old World wines as well as classic and house-crafted cocktails.
A newly opened establishment owned and run by the chef-patron of three Michelin-starred La Côte Saint Jacques, a Lorain-family-run restaurant in Burgundy, France, J'AIME by Jean-Michel Lorain occupies a large, glass-wrapped space on the second floor of the breathtaking colonial-style U Sathorn hotel.
The elegant dining room has a playful touch to it. It is designed with topsy-turvy decor to represent upside-down French cuisine, basically implying that the haute quality French fare can be enjoyed in a very casual Asian sharing style.
The menu features the Lorains' decades-old signature dishes as well as new creations, all proving a masterful exhibition of fine culinary details, recommended options including lobster and sweetcorn bisque with pickled baby corn (370baht); pearl barley and arugula salad with cured egg yolk and Parmesan spume (450 baht); and herb-crusted lamb carpaccio with light goat cheese mousse (760 baht).
For main course, try pan-seared scallops with chanterelle mushrooms and cappuccino foam (1,260 baht), glazed veal sweetbread with Venere rice and Grand Marnier jus (1,310 baht) and the bourguignonne beef cheeks (1,550 baht).
Desserts are presented on a platter of three and five sweet treats, picked from the nine-item dessert menu, priced at 420 baht and 700 baht.
Another foray into the food industry by Boon Rawd Brewery, this upmarket, yet rather unrevealed Japanese grilled meat restaurant has turned a long-time red meat-shunner into a beef-loon in a one-dinner visit.
The highlight here is Kuroge wagyu (Japanese black-haired cow), internationally known as Matsusaka beef. All the beef is of A5 grade, the highest-ranked in the strict Japanese scoring system, to yield plentiful marbled fat and melt-in-the-mouth texture. It is cooked over a tabletop wood-fire grill, DIY style.
Don't miss Kuroge premium, a serving of five palm-sized, densely marbled beef slices (1,000 baht); Saikoro wagyu cubed steak (1,200 baht) and premium beef tongue (600 baht).
Should you want to sample various beef choices at one go, an assortment of five premium cuts (3,200 baht), which features 26 slices of short ribs, rib-eye, loin, zabuton (cuts from the chuck roll) and misuji (meat from around the shoulder), is ideal.
There are also a few à la carte items on offer. Try the beef sushi (1,000 baht for a three-piece order) and the sirloin yaki shabu, which is cooked before you by the chef (1,200 baht).
Young coconut pudding dessert (50 baht) tasted far beyond our expectations.
The restaurant occupies the first-floor space of a Bavarian-style house on the premises of what was originally the Singha Beer House. Service, by a team of four veteran Thai and Japanese staff, is efficient though not especially speedy or communicative.
When a Vietnamese-American chef and his Thai wife turned the foyer of his residential apartment building into a public eatery a few years ago, little did they expect that the 24-seater, almost without any decoration except tables and chairs, would become one of the best-loved Vietnamese restaurants in Bangkok.
Recently the family-run eatery has been relocated to a nicer, more conveniently accessed venue. The dining room boasts contemporary modern decorations with sofa booths and bar area.
From its 30-item menu, the monotonously-sounding Vietnamese chicken salad (165 baht), a scrumptiously healthy plate of assorted aromatic herbs and vegetables topped with shredded chicken and roasted peanuts, black sesame seeds and deep-fried shallots, is an absolute must order starter.
Main entrées which proved super delicious include beef noodle soup (115 baht); Vietnamese-style vermicelli noodles topped with grilled lemongrass-seethed meat and crispy egg rolls on a bed of assorted fresh herbs and vegetables (100 baht); and Vietnamese-style sandwich (145 baht), featuring a 15cm-long baguette stuffed with Vietnamese sausage, Chinese-style cured pork leg slices, pork pate, ham, mayonnaise, cucumber, pickled carrot, jalapeño peppers and herbs.
A great complement to the meal is traditional Vietnamese drip coffee with sweet condensed milk (75 baht).
As a tribute to time-honoured Thai culinary fare, Siam Wisdom is magnificently set in an age-old traditional Thai stilt teak wood house and directed by the highly acclaimed professional-cum-TV chef Chumphol Jaengprai.
The cuisine is prepared according to authentic recipes but presented in contemporary, world-class fashion.
Worth-ordering for appetiser is saeng wa goong pla duk foo, a scrumptious platter of the ancient-style sour and spicy salad of chopped chargrilled king river prawn accompanied by a serving of fluffily crispy deep-fried wild catfish crumbs and assorted fresh vegetables (550 baht).
The authentic Phuket-style yellow curry with blue crabmeat and wild betel leaf (480 baht) and gaeng khee lek nuea yang, or cassod tree leaf curry with grilled prime-grade beef (480 baht), proved captivating main entrées to be enjoyed with rice.
Should you wish to sample a classic Thai dish with a modern touch, go for phad phrik khing nong ped (580 baht), a revolutionary, "duck-confit" rendition of the basic home-cooked sweet red curry paste stir-fried with meat and string beans.
Siam Wisdom's 20-item à la carte menu changes according to the seasons. It is recommended that first-time guests go for a 10-course tasting menu (1,800 baht per person), which will take diners on a deliberately designed expedition into Chumphol's highly cherished cuisine.
Desserts are never regarded as a second-rate endeavour here. The evidence lies in a superb platter of traditional sun-dried, perfumed rice cake accompanied by wild honey rice pop (290 baht), warm cantaloupe souffle with coconut cream (290 baht) and home-made Thai-flavour ice cream (250 baht per two scoops).
The stunningly beautiful restaurant is set amid a spacious shady tropical garden, the habitat of a selection of fairy-tale pets, in a carefully renovated, 90-year-old European-style mansion only a few steps down a private soi from bustling Sukhumvit Road.
Its contemporary cuisine, combining classic French cooking techniques with new flavours, is under the direction of Seattle-born executive chef Autumn McTaggart.
From the impressively well-crafted menu, tempting appetisers include grilled asparagus salad with Chèvre cheese (320 baht) and pan-seared foie gras with passion fruit gastrique on house-made waffle (590 baht).
Superb main courses not to be missed are seared scallops with preserved-lemon risotto, herb salad and chive oil (490 baht); crispy-skin salmon on brandade cake with lemon crème fraîche (470 baht); red wine braised beef short ribs with potato purée and truffle oil-infused gravy, (570 baht); and seared black cod and lacquered pork belly with soy sesame reduction and creamy cauliflower purée (550 baht), a genuinely creative yet simply sumptuous rendering of surf & turf.
As an establishment that doubles as a bakery, dessert choices are plentiful. The New York cheesecake with caramelised rum pineapple, coconut tuile, pineapple curd and basil foam (160 baht), and the spinach cheesecake with bacon crust and pumpkin purée (150 baht), are magnificent.
Grand Shanghai Chinese is the 14 month-old venture of Chinese cuisine masterchef Tee who for the past 40 years has directed the kitchen of the legendary New Great Shanghai restaurant at the mouth of Sukhumvit Soi 24.
The simply decked-out place, managed by the chef's sociable daughters, occupies a top-floor space of a nondescript, three-storey commercial building and has drawn mainly regulars from the old establishment.
From the unpretentious, yet extensive menu of Shanghainese classics, worth-having are xiao long bao, or steamed pork soup dumplings with ginger-seethed soy sauce (250 baht); and chong yu bing, or spring onion pancake (50 baht per piece) to be enjoyed by itself or in Shanghainese manner with stir-fried meat — beef or pork — in red chilli sauce (240 baht).
You can't miss its best-selling Peking duck (1,300 baht). The scrumptiously crunchy skin-centric fare also comes with two extra entrées to be prepared with the leftover meat. My personal recommended option is kuay tiew rad na ped (fried rice noodles with duck in brown gravy).
Another tasty dish is braised pork belly with double-cooked preserved mustard cabbage (270 baht), traditionally enjoyed with cottony white man thow bread (50 baht per piece).
As a typical banquet-style Chinese eatery, Grand Shanghai also offers a selection of multi-course menu sets (5,800 baht to 10,000 baht) ideal for parties of eight-12 diners.
