Just how exciting can a brunch or dining experience get? Have a think, then think again… Before you're done reflecting, take yourself down to the Chao Phraya River, by road, BTS Skytrain or hotel boat service, and explore the dining universe of the Millennium Hilton Bangkok. If you can make it for a Sunday brunch, then you'll be all the better for it. Otherwise, the festive season has plenty more excitement on the menu, throughout the holidays and into the New Year.
Sunday Brunch there, though, is a definite one-of-a-kind, all-encompassing experience, which is purely about indulgence and extravagance, not to be rushed, but to be savoured. While this brunch is advertised as taking place at their Flow Restaurant, it extends far beyond the confines of an ordinary hotel all-day dining restaurant buffet. This is, in fact, a finely crafted and creative food and beverage journey that sees an amalgamation of all the fantastic lounging and dining outlets within the hotel.
Starting at 11am and winding up at 4pm, guests are invited to the ThreeSixty bar, usually a jazz lounge by night, on the 32nd floor of the hotel, accessed via the executive lounge reception on the 31st floor. A spiral staircase allows you to emerge at a stunning, panoramic vista over the river and city. The view is inspiring and further enhanced by the pre-brunch drinks and nibbles on offer, to set the mood for the epic binge eating over the course of the afternoon. There is a selection of cocktails, mocktails and juices, as well as bite-size appetizers until midday, when staff then invite you to make your way, at your leisure, down to the ground floor to Flow.
Flow is an expansive riverside restaurant, with both indoor and outdoor dining, which is absolutely sublime for this time of year – cool breezes and sunshine make for the perfect bonus. Five display kitchens span the globe throughout Asia and the Mediterranean, regularly bringing you a whole host of taste and flavour sensations. On any other given day, breakfast buffets are just 770Baht net, lunches 1,000Baht net and dinners are at 1,800Baht net, with children from 6 to 12 years old always dining at half price.
For Sunday brunch, the array is astounding (2,200Baht net + optional 1,000Baht net freeflow wine and prosecco package per person). From noon until 3pm, guests can feast on the main buffet in Flow, while the dessert room remains open the entire time until 4pm, along with coffees, teas and hot chocolate bombs, culminating in a swelling waistline that may well need a few extra notches on the belt buckle; cleverly punch them at home, prior to brunch. In a true testament to first world problems, the dilemma here is where to start first…
Since everyone knows that there is always room for dessert, this marginally narrows down the options for the moment, but only very slightly. The food stations are numerous, representing all of the hotels restaurants. Thai specialties are from Maya restaurant; succulent crustaceans of surf and juicy cuts of turf are from Prime Steakhouse; fruit juices and smoothies come from The Beach; Blood Mary’s are courtesy of ThreeSixty; sophisticated Chinese fare is from Yuan restaurant; fresh and fried Japanese, tandoor oven and curried Indian, plus international cuisine are all at home in Flow, as well as the multitudinous varieties in the Cheese Room and well-stocked Wine Cellar; while house-made desserts and confectionary are deliciously and temptingly oozing from The Lantern.
A jaw-dropping and seemingly endless foray into food, each station is equipped with chefs, who explain their dishes and perform their craft with professionalism and flair, before your eyes. The buffet is alive with action and none of the dishes sit for long before they are snapped up and refilled, in a slight of hand. Special mention needs to be made of the beef tartar, cold cuts and Caesar salad action station, as well as the splendid seafood station, as fresh oysters are shucked and king crabs are cracked, while you spoon caviar and select prawns or mussels for your overflowing plate, in an epicurean frenzy.
Few words, than oo’s and ah’s, are exchanged back at your table, as you chow down and hope beyond hope that you will, indeed, still have room for dessert. The saving grace comes in the assurance, that this is one long Sunday brunch and there will be time to breathe and digest, since it is so very tricky to resist trying a little of everything. Chocolates, chocolate shards and jellies, fresh waffles and ice cream teppanyaki, freshly baked chocolate soufflés, cakes, pies, winter cookies and a secret recipe apple ‘tarte tatin’ are just a delightful, mouthwatering overview of some of the brilliant, awaiting sweet treats.
Don’t miss the next ultra-festive Sunday brunch on 28th December (2,500Baht net) and be sure to check out the Millennium Hilton Bangkok festive programme 2014, for all of the New Year celebration menus and buffets of equal culinary delights and added opulence, along with the corresponding prices. Make your booking in advance, as places are bound to fill up fast. Each of the outlets has special New Year’s Eve packages for food and/or beverages. At Flow, the New Year’s Eve buffet is 6,500Baht net, with an optional drinks package for freeflow wines and spirits at 2,100Baht net. The riverside feast here, with a view of the fireworks is extended from 7pm to 1am. The ThreeSixty New Year’s Eve 32nd-floor panorama experience packages start from 7,000Baht net. If you are not yet ready to burst and dying to get back to the gym, the New Year’s Day lunch buffet at Flow is 1,800Baht net and dinner will be 2,500Baht net – New Year’s resolutions can wait!
For further holiday information and bookings, contact the hotel’s festive team on 02 442 2000
or Email bkkhi.information@hilton.com
