After its launch 10 months ago, Salvia instantly became one of my most favourite Italian restaurants in Bangkok.
Colleagues and friends, following my words, as well as other urban foodies, had been flocking the osteria with glee. Food was deliciously heartfelt and comforting. Ambience was folksy yet with a sophisticated touch.
Unfortunately, a new round of lockdowns is preventing dine-in.
Salvia, like other dining outlets at the Grand Hyatt Erawan hotel, has shifted focus to takeout and home delivery.
Above Housemade fusilli pasta with lamb ragout and ricotta cheese.
The hotel, in fact, has one of the city's most user-friendly food ordering websites that I've experienced.
Through hyatterawanshop.com, diners can go over a 100-item display of exclusive products offered by Salvia, You&Mee gourmet noodle house and Erawan Bakery coffee shop as well as Grand Market Place. The latter is the hotel's new online outlet currently selling a few options of butcher meat and house-made pickles.
Salvia's menu lists 26 options of antipasti, pizza, pasta, meat and seafood courses and desserts, crafted by Italian head chef Roberto Parentela.
My order, delivered by a third party delivery service provider, comprised of three of my most darling dishes: the burrata and tomato salad (503 baht); housemade fusilli pasta with lamb ragout (396 baht); and grape vine-smoked Australian Angus rib-eye steak (1,552 baht).
There were also gamberoni all' aglio, or sauteed tiger prawns, a dish that I had not yet tried (952 baht), and a generous offering of complementary focaccia bread.
Left Grape vine-smoked Australian Angus rib-eye steak.
Left Erawan Bakery's best-selling burnt cheesecake.
I was very impressed by the tiger prawns, a rather soupy yet very delicious dish with a bisque-like sauce arriving separately. The large prawns, three of them, were perfectly seared with butter, garlic and parsley to provide a pleasant pliable crunch and flavoursome taste. The garlic butter sauce that came on the side was so aromatic and tasty that it could be a crime not to wipe it clean with a piece of bread.
I cannot leave Salvia's focaccia out of this write-up. The bread was so addictive and toothsome with a spongy, cushiony and moist interior fragrance with Italian herbs.
The three darling dishes of mine, likewise, did not fail to enrich the meal.
As a takeaway, the 350g rib-eye steak came in neat thick slices and with a perfect pinkish-red centre. A scrumptious garnish of tomato-rocket salad with freshly grated grana Padano cheese from Northern Italy was provided on the side.
Salvia's burrata tomato salad, a unification of locally made fresh cheese, multi-coloured organic tomatoes, shallots and olives, exhibited as usual a heavenly quality and mouthfeel.
My home delivery lamb ragout pasta, just like how the dish is presented for dine-in guests, looked artless. The taste, however, proved second to none thanks to the springy soft texture of the fresh pasta and the rich-tasting sauce made with finely-chopped lamb meat and ricotta cheese.
If you're looking for Asian comfort food, check out You&Mee's 40-item selection.
French butter croissants.
Included with my lunch order were khao soi gai, or northern Thai-style curry noodle with chicken (193 baht) and char kway teow, or stir-fried Hokkien noodles with seafood, Chinese sweet pork sausage, egg and bean sprouts (257 baht). Both dishes proved flavourful, value for money, and -- very importantly -- not overwhelmed with sugar.
Other best-selling dishes are phad Thai noodles with prawns, noodles soup with stewed duck, crispy egg noodle with pork gravy, rice noodles with Wagyu beef, crab fried rice and stir-fried chicken basil with rice. Plant-based options are also available.
Appetiser choices include deep-fried wontons, grilled pork collar with spicy sauce, crispy fried salmon skin, deep-fried prawn spring roll and deep-fried chicken wings.
You&Mee has been much-loved among local gourmands for its all-day offering of khao tom (boiled rice soup) with a wide variety of side dishes.
Stay-at-home diners craving the boiled rice feast can now order from the takeaway menu.
A la carte selection features the likes of five spices braised duck with blood curd; stir-fried preserved Chinese olive with minced pork; sour and spicy salad of air-dry Chinese pork sausage; khai phalo egg and braised pork belly in sweet brown broth; Chinese-style assorted vegetables stew; sour and spicy salad of pickled lettuce; wok-tossed morning glory with bird's eye chillies; and sauteed Chinese kale with crispy pork. Prices start from 64 baht per dish.
An order of rice, choice of Jasmine or red boiled or steamed, costs 22 baht.
A set of boiled rice meal for two persons is priced at 588 baht. It includes a choice of appetiser or salad, a meat dish, a vegetable dish and a sizeable portion of rice.
When it comes to pastries and desserts, I recommend Erawan Bakery's burnt cheesecake (749 baht). The French-style heavy-body cheesecake with silky interior and perfect browned surface showcases prime-grade cream cheese from Thailand's northern province of Chiang Rai.
Croissants here are prepared with french AOP butter and considered some of Bangkok's best. A plain butter croissant is priced at 86 baht per piece while a ham and cheese croissant costs 145 baht.
The bakery has a nice selection of deli sandwiches, artisan bread, salad and light meals for takeaway service.
I found the Thai-style pomelo salad with prawns, oak lettuce, peanuts and tamarind dressing (225 baht) really tasty and worth having.
The Reuben sandwich with red wine aged beef pastrami, Swiss cheese and Russian dressing and a gluten-free banana muffin also sound tempting. I plan to include them in my future order.
Until the end of July, there's a special Buy 1 Get 1 Free promotion for Salvia's wood-fired pizza and You&Mee noodle dishes. For other delivery menu, customers are offered with a 25% discount.
Grand Hyatt Erawan takeaway and delivery menu is available daily 10.30am-9pm. To place an order, visit hyatterawanshop.com. For more information, call the hotel at 02-254 1234 or email bangkok.grand@hyatt.com.
