A nation’s traditions are invariably reflected in its cuisine and at Utage, a Japanese restaurant at The Athenee Hotel on Wireless Road, an appropriately Zen sort of serenity reigns.
It’s a deceitfully unpretentious sense of cultivated simplicity – a kind of effortless ease that has been attained only after careful forethought and rigorous practice. The décor is low-key and unassuming, the better to allow the culinary delicacies on offer at the eatery to dominate.
A pretty little bonsai on each table is a welcome touch. Otherwise there are few decorations, which is just as well because the artfully presented dishes can come truly into their own in such unpretentious settings.
“The culinary landscape of Japan unfolds through succulent sashimi, homemade soba, sizzling teppanyaki, succulent tempura, gorgeously grilled yakizakana and surprising yoshoku. Extensive sake selections precisely complement each dish,” the hotel touts its third-floor restaurant.
It turns out that these promises aren’t mere PR spin.
Bangkok boasts a myriad of Japanese restaurants from popular chains to fine-dining extravaganzas, but few of them offer the same high standards of consistently superlative fare as does Utage. It’s not been for nothing that the restaurant, whose name means “meeting place” in Japanese, has long served as just that: a favoured meeting place for high-end travellers, well-connected businesspeople and Bangkok socialites.
“Our restaurant has an extensive clientele,” explains Samart Suphan, a Thai gourmet chef who specializes in Japanese cuisine and is in charge of the kitchen at Utage. “It is a great place both for quick lunches and for longer business meetings.”
Samart got his first job at a modest Japanese in Bangkok when he was just 16. That was three decades ago and the Thai chef has been honing his culinary skills in the Japanese culinary arts ever since. “I loved Japanese food from the first time I tried it,” the chef explains.
“Every day gives me new desire to continue exploring its amazing range,” he goes on. “Creating authentic Japanese dishes is an exacting task but also a rewarding one.”
You can get better and better at crafting sushi and sashimi, but that does not mean it will get much easier. “The difference between ‘good’ and ‘great’ comes from close attention to details,” Samart elucidates. “That is why we pay close attention to the entire process of cooking from the preparation of the ingredients to the presentation of each dish.”
That attention also extends to your personal preferences. Samart and his team of cooks are happy to oblige if you would like to see a dish tweaked or modified to your own liking. Do you fancy grilled unagi (“freshwater”) eel with matsusaka beef and foie gras enlivened with a hint of avocado? You’ll only need to ask. The kitchen staff will produce the dish custom-made for you within minutes.
Then again, you might as well trust the in-house chefs and opt for Utage’s set lunch options, each of which boasts plenty of healthful goodies on offer. The vegetarian Bento Box (which will be yours for the taking for a mere 550 baht) features sublime avocado rolls, boiled spinach with sesame sauce, grilled mushrooms, deep-fried bean curd vegetable tempura and a bowl of superlative miso soup.
The Miyabi set comes with three kinds of sashimi and a variety of prawn, fish and vegetable. The Sushi Lunch set is a gourmet’s cornucopia of bite-size nigiri and maki sushi delights that will please even the most demanding connoisseurs of Japanese cuisine. On the side you can nibble delicious Japanese rice cooked with pickles and vinegar.
There is one more thing to recommend Utage: its location. The Athenee Hotel, a Luxury Collection Hotel, on Wireless Road stands where Kandhavas Palace once stood. The former residence of Princess Valaya Alongkorn, a daughter of the great King Chulalongkorn and aunt of the late King Bhumibol Adulyadej, the palace has left its mark on the luxury hotel.
The princess’s artistic tastes helped inspire the interior designs of The Athenee, manifesting themselves in a grand fin de siècle staircase, glittery chandeliers and a winsome blend of authentic Thai and contemporary European styles. On the ground floor, white-and-black marble floor tiles pay homage to Princess Valaya’s love of chess while finely upholstered furniture and richly coloured timbers lend the area an additional aura of exquisite aesthetics.
The newly refurbished hotel won in the Best Hotel Interior category in the Five Star Asia Pacific Property Award 2015-2016. The Athenee Hotel is also the first hotel in the world to have achieved ISO 20121 certification for planning and delivering sustainable events.
But enough of rhapsodizing about the furnishings. It’s time for some more delectable sushi at Utage.
