If your passion can't wait

The restaurants at the St Regis Bangkok are behaving rather seductively at the moment, but Valentine’s Day is upon us, after all. Indulge your lust with either oysters and seabass cooked Italian-style at Jojo on the ground floor or international cuisine in the glow of the city skyline at Viu on an upper floor.

Jojo offers a choice of seating arrangements – in its large dining in room, at the 20-seat bar and, more informally, on the outdoor terrace. Chef Fabrizio Tumminello from Sicily will follow you anywhere with his six-course feast, priced at Bt5,500 per couple.

Oven-baked fin de Claire oysters from France mixed with eggs and Italian Ca’del Bosco champagne make a terrific opener. The sauteed king-prawn salad with honey and ginger dressing is spicy and sweet at the same time. Served on the side is fresh tomato jam scented with cloves.

By way of pasta, Tumminello makes revolutionary ravioli stuffed with lemon and potato espuma foam. The taste is enhanced with barramundi ragout and seasoned with white wine and olive oil.

Your option for the main course are seabass and lamb loin. The fish is pan-seared, topped with “micro greens” and served with macaroni and Alaskan king crab meat that’s seasoned with green peas, parsley and lobster bisque.

The Australian lamb is cooked sous-vide – which means in 60-degree water in a vacuum-sealed bag. It ends up relaxing on a bed of endive and black-truffle sauce.

Cleanse your palate with a strawberry sorbet that’s a bit spicy with peppercorn syrup, and then you can have your dessert. This will be a heart-shaped mimosa cake – classic Italian sponge cake chopped in pieces and served with bacio ice cream, which has the taste of chocolate and hazelnut.

“In Italy we celebrate International Women’s Day by giving bright yellow mimosa flowers to our mothers, wives, girlfriends, daughters and female friends,” Tumminello says. “An in keeping with this tradition, mimosa cakes are also baked the same day. To me, the mimosa flower is much more meaningful than a red rose.”

The Sicilian is good with his foam and sous-vide, but there’s even more progressive cooking going on at Viu on the 12th floor, where the windows look out on the Royal Bangkok Sports Club. Executive chef Leonardo Concezzi has his own six-course banquet for Bt6,900 per couple.

Here the sous-vide is applied to Boston lobster infused with Madagascar vanilla stick and herbs and served with Alaska king crab salad and snowfish sashimi.

Next comes an Atlantic scallop wrapped in a thin slice of Australian wagyu beef “saltimbocca style”, the way the Italians traditionally cocoon veal inside ham. Your scallop is served with French onion compote and topped with light Japanese spring-onion foam.

For soup, a bite-size salmon bon bon sinks in savoury langoustine bisque.

The main choice upstairs is also between fish and lamb. Wild turbot is slow-cooked to retain its juiciness and beautifully presented with a topping of sun-dried tomatoes, wrapped in thin-sliced celeriac and finished with saffron foam.

The sorbet is made from Moet & Chandon champagne, adding the sweet aroma of strawberries. And this memorable meal concludes with Valrhona chocolate mousse served with tiny bits of crunchy almond biscuit and fresh strawberries.

SWEET IDEA
<< The St Regis Bangkok is on Rajdamri Road.
<< Reserve a table at either restaurant at (02) 207 7777, [email protected] or www.StRegis.com/bangkok.