Wednesday, April 06, 2011

Eve @ Hansar Hotel

We heard that a new hotel opened on Rajdamri Road. The hotel is very close to the Four Seasons hotel. We also heard that the hotel had a new fine dining restaurant. So; that meant, we had to try it. The hotel is called the Hansar Hotel. The 'what' hotel you ask??? Well; I also asked the same thing. What hotel chain is this? Who owns this hotel? Where else on earth is there a Hansar hotel? These are questions not easily answered.

The fine dining restaurant is called 'Eve' and we had a choice to dine inside or outside on the terrace. Since the hotel is new...the restaurant was totally empty.


We chose to dine outside. The very long terrace consist of the Eve restaurant but also the jazz lounge (which had many more people that the restaurant). The jazz music was a nice background music while we dined. The only issue we had about sitting outside was that our view was that of the parking garage of the building opposite the road. On top of that; all of a sudden...those darn blood sucking mosquitoes appeared and started to have dinner themselves with my blood.


My friend's appetizer was Hokkaido Sea Scallops (580 baht). Pan seared sea scallops, with tempura tiger prawns and accompanied with tomato & avocado salsa. The scallops were very fresh, cooked nicely (still raw in the middle), the sauce and tomato & avocado salsas added textures, colours and tastes.


My appetizer was Beef Tenderloin Carpaccio (530 baht). Tender beef with wild rockets, pommery mustard, parmesan shavings and lemon-truffle vinaigrette. A basic dish but the quality of the materials of the dish are very important. The beef was of good quality and tasted very nice. The other materials added the needed flavours to round off the dish.


We decided to share a mid-course dish which was Trofie Pasta (420 baht). Hand made 'maggot' sized & shaped pasta (sorry for the disgusting comparison) 'a la carbonara', with confit crispy pork belly. There is nothing so good as home made pasta; the pasta had a nice texture and was cooked just right. The sauce was thick, creamy & rich. The pork belly was cooked perfectly and was soft & tender.


The break before the main courses.


My friend's main dish was Best End of Australian Lamb (1,000 baht). The lamb was cumin scented with porcini risotto, crispy wild rice on the side. The lamb was of very good quality, cooked nicely and was very tender.


My main dish was Soulard Duck Breast (900 baht). The duck breast was accompanied with wilted spinach, galette potato and cranberry sauce. The duck was very tender, cooked nicely and tasted very nice.


The open kitchen and indoor dining area.

Overall; the hotel was built with good space, height & volume. Eve restaurant had a 'retro' decor theme to it with with the main colour scheme of white & black and main materials of glass & chrome. The food was presented well, cooked well with good quality ingredients and tasted good. Since we were the only customers; the service was 'very' attentive.

My only complaints would be the parking garage view (if you sit outside on the terrace) the very expensive wine list and the overall expense of the food. I know, I know...the reason for the high food prices is because they had to import all the ingredients and materials...blah...blah....blah. Good excuses. But I don't buy it. I truly believe Thailand has very good beef, duck, chicken, etc. I believe its only an 'ego' trip or even a 'show-off' trip that restaurant says that they 'import' all the 'best' ingredients. Don't get me wrong; I like the imported products that the restaurants bring in...but I think it is not needed.

Oooops; sorry, I am blabbering too much on this subject...sorry, back to my story. I think the food prices are a bit on the high side at Eve's. I am not sure if they will get customers into the restaurant especially when they are competing against established high priced/ fine dining restaurants on the same street....Tables at the Grand Hyatt, Madison at the Four Seasons and opening very very soon will be another high priced/ fine dining restaurant at the St. Regis.

I think if Eve wants to survive & compete on the Rajdamri Road; I think they need to change/ lower their prices if they want more customers to even consider to dine at Eve's. But then again, what do I know?

Address: 3 Soi Mahadlekluang 2, Rajdamri Road, Bangkok 10330
Tel.: +66 2209 1234

www.hansarbangkok.com

2 comments:

khris said...

great post, You think if you dinned at the restaurant by yourself it would have been somewhat awkward?

Planning on going to bkk for a month by myself at eating at some of your recommended places.

Unknown said...

some restaurants claimed that some ingredients were imported, actually some are sourced locally ..