After 23 years as a haven for traditional Thai cuisine, Benjarong, the legendary fine dining Thai restaurant in the Dusit Thani Hotel, has recently gone through a great modification.
In the restaurant world, menu rejuvenations have become a norm. Yet not many restaurateurs, especially the well-established, dare for more than a routine facelift.
Inspiringly, Benjarong, under the culinary direction of Morten Bojstrup Nielsen, head chef of Thai cuisine of Dusit International Group, was brought up to date from the inside out.
In the five-star venue’s familiar exquisite setting, which still possesses its heritage despite being slightly renovated, the award-winning Danish chef, who used to work at Nahm restaurant in London and Sra Bua by Kiin Kiin in Bangkok, introduces to guests novel interpretation of Siamese fare, brilliantly combining modern techniques with time-honoured flavours.
The 72-hour cooked beef ribs in a curry of green herbs and spices.
Undeniably, Nielsen’s cuisine retains some imaginative qualities that may remind diners of Sra Bua’s molecular gastronomy. Nevertheless, the fare here, which is distinctly Thai at heart, doesn’t stray nearly as far from traditional recipes.Offering a toothsome sneak peek into the cuisine — and into the regional cooking of Thailand — the menu’s “Small Plate” category features two options of bite-sized treat assortments, one from the North and the other from the South.
The Aromatic Trio (130 baht for a one-person portion) was a platter of three northern delicacies, namely puak thord (taro crisps), nam prik num (green chilli dip) and sai oua (spicy herbal sausage), adapted and listed on the menu, respectively, as crispy taro with tom yum flavour, young lotus with aubergine relish and chicken sausage on the bone.
The addictive paper-thin taro chips were seasoned with house-mixed spice. Fresh sticks of young lotus stem deliciously complemented by the fragrant and delicious chilli-aubergine dip. While the sausage, molded into a ball, deep-fried and served on a chicken bone, was a real pungent delight.
Another appetiser I highly recommend is the crispy catfish salad and green mango with crab meat and tom yum custard (370 baht for one person). It’s an unusual yet very delicious matrimony of two homestyle dishes — pla duk foo (fluffy deep-fried catfish) and kai toon (steamed egg custard). The pla duk foo was presented in a deconstructed form, and when eaten with the sour and spicy creamy custard, offered an impressive mouthfeel.
Seared tiger prawns with cauliflower, satay spice and peanuts.
You wouldn’t want to miss tom yum goong (340 baht), cooked to an authentic recipe yet offered in individual portions according to Western customs. The hot and sour, galangal and lemongrass-seethed clear soup came graced with a sizable, firm and naturally flavourful prawn.
Of the main course selections, the seared tiger prawns with cauliflower, satay spice and peanuts (480 baht) very well exhibited the gastronomic characters of the popular skewered street meat. The large tiger prawns possesed a firm, supple and flavourful meat with a pleasant char-grilled touch. They were placed on a bed of thick peanut curry and creamy cauliflower puree and accompanied by sweet-and-sour jelly impersonating the taste profile of cucumber sauce.
A fusion between Asian and French styles, the sous-vide duck breast with aubergine, Chinese chives and crispy wonton (680 baht) was also worth having. Tender and flavoursome slices of glazed duck breast were nicely enriched with the roasted aubergine puree and crispy Chinese-style dumplings.
If you’re in the Thai-style sharing mood, there are quite a few option to enjoy with your dining companions. Yum nuea, or grilled beef salad with dehydrated tomatoes, sweet melon and yam pudding (470 baht), promises a supreme pleasure. Beefy and succulent cubes of the charred Wagyu were superbly enhanced with chilli-lime sauce, made into soft gel to yield more intense flavour and reduce runniness, ribbons of fresh cucumber, juicily sweet melon and a variety of herbs.
Offered with either jasmine rice or soft, chewy gaba rice, the 72-hour cooked beef ribs in a curry of green herbs and spices (470 baht for a small portion) is another must-have dish. The thick and aromatic curry yielded an awesome gritty mouthfeel that was more spicy than fiery. You can have this tasty green curry with sous-vide black cod (520 baht) or vegetables (450 baht).
When it came to a sweet wrap-up, the selection of desserts was as interesting and distinctive as the rest of the menu. All desserts, according to Nielsen, are created to portray traditional Thai sweets — or simply in answer to the preference of Thai people.
The basil ice cream with fresh pineapple and salty meringue (210 baht) was an innovative unification of tastes and textures. While the deconstructed orange cake and passion fruit sorbet, cocoa crumble and cream cheese (my favourite) was a tasty jumble of milky cream cheese, bittersweet crumbles and juicy morsels of orange sponge cake.
Most of the dishes we tried are offered also on seasonal tasting menus. The four-course Aromatic Journey set (1,100 baht per person) is popular among diners who don’t have time for long meal. The six-course Benjarong Signature Tasting Journey set (1,700 baht per person), on the other hand, is ideal for an unrushed dinner. The menus are also available with paired wines, at 800 baht and 1,300 baht extra.
All set menus are wrapped up with a choice of coffee or tea and accompanied by petit fours, of which the selection is likely to include the marvellous Thai-essence macarons.
