Having jangled the till at the Eastin Grande Hotel Sathorn’s poolside restaurant named after him, phase 2 of his Bangkok flirtation is a Michelin star-courting stand-alone passion project tucked inside Thonglor 9.
Having jangled the till at the Eastin Grande Hotel Sathorn’s poolside restaurant named after him, phase 2 of his Bangkok flirtation is a Michelin star-courting stand-alone passion project tucked inside Thonglor 9.
"Baltic Blunos", named in homage to British-born Blunos’s Latvian ethnicity and enchantment, is no one man show though. Pushing Blunos to keep peeking is the contrastingly urbane Aleksandrs Nasikailov, whose ‘Vincents’ in his native Latvia’s capital Riga has foodies flocking. Besides his also exceptional culinary artistry, his tableware design, "kombucha" slightly alcoholic fruit and herbal beverage fermenting, and chocolate crafting also feature.
The Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania are icy river, forest and ocean territories. Hence the arboreal décor featuring lustrous slabs of tree trunk as tables and walls lined with Blunos’s demised Uncle Harijs’ sought-after watercolours.
Besides a glam kitchen, wine cellar, 40-seater dining room, private dining rooms and separate bar the swish villa cossets chocolate, culture and deli rooms and a vivarium including live seafood tanks.
However, concedes Blunos, "There is no pure Baltic cuisine as the region was always occupied until relatively recent independence." Baltic Blunos, rather, is "all about attitude and evolution along a wanderlust culinary journey."
Choose from six- or eight-course menus (B2,900/B3,400 Net respectively + B1,000/B2,200 Net kombucha/wine pairing) of beguiling culinary and visual artistry.
Our pour commencer was a wire tree with crisp leaves of spirulina, porcini and mulberry to pluck and divine mock truffles of milk foam, truffle and parmesan to gobble.
Another dramatic complimentary was nitrogen ice crystal balls chef torched at the table revealing lotus-like meditations of smoked eel-mashed potato, galangal, and chapoo.
Equally artful was the 36-hour fridge-proofed, crusty yet yielding, coconut-culture yeast bread served with toasted hempseed and sea-salted butter.
The first dish from the menu was a coulis of sea urchin roe surprisingly appropriately juxtaposed with white chocolate, bergamot and water chestnuts. This was buried in somsa citrus bubbles evoking Baltic beaches in winter, startlingly served in black bowls mimicking the starring spiny seabed creatures.
Next was a Tim Burton movie-like copse of white moon vine, pickled banana blossom and daikon, planted in almond cheese purée, ensconced in tom kha sauce and drizzled with pandan oil.
More obviously Baltic was a floral bedecked barge of pickled and grilled mackerel, horseradish cream and beetroot complemented with creamy-crunchy smoked mackerel croquette and potato tuile,
Ditto a floret of crab croquette, garlic aioli and sour-soft roselle presented as an existential crab dream amid rock salt, pebbles and sea mist.
River prawn, herbal-steamed at the table in a stone casserole, was the tenderest and tastiest of crustacea robustly bolstered with an exquisite bisque beverage.
Seared, and thereby caramelised, Hokkaido scallop with sea-salty "no kill" Mottra caviar, al dente sea grape, and creamy Hollandaise sauce, served in the shell, was flame-torched for finesse.
Land animal flesh reared its claw as a playfully macabre black chicken leg, its blackened talon eerily poised to pounce, with foie gras blends. All set in a slick of salted egg curry, spiked with Jerusalem artichoke puree and the ethereal fizz of fresh sorrel.
Next was a pre-dessert of somsa and yogurt "limoncello" shaped by chef on a liquid nitrogen-frozen steel plate.
Dessert was a snowball of cranberry, roselle and red dragon fruit granita, white chocolate and Indian gooseberry cream.
The kombucha pairings, ranging pepperwood to mango tree, and butterfly pea to roselle, were like drinking sparkling fruit and herbal wines without the intoxication.
And so to petites fours, for which we adjourned to the plush bar, where we selected two pieces each from 14 exquisite house-made chocolates.
- Baltic Blunos
- 129/9 Sukhumvit 55.
- Tel 02-117-1255, 095 879 9075
- www.balticblunos.com
- Dinner: Tuesday–Sunday, 18:00—22:00
- Bar: Tuesday—Sunday, 17:00—24:00
