Winchester’s best restaurant, The Bangkok Brasserie, may not cure you of all ills, but when I went I’d been feeling rotten for days and afterwards my disposition was just magic. I also slept like the dead and felt ace the next morning. It is a brilliant place.
I won’t cover every aspect of the meal as I’ve written about The Bangkok Brasserie twice now (here and here), but three of the dishes were so good I want to tell you about them. The rest were all brilliant so I suppose I should tell you about them as well, but I just don’t fancy it after waking up early.
The seafood salad was a fiery beauty of balance and harmony. The seafood was amazing in this, squid prepared with incredible skill and, hell’s bells, I even liked the mussels. Lots of chillies, for sure, but the sharp and sour, salt and savoury flavours were complex and brilliantly charged with balance, this was a great dish.
Crispy sea bass may sound repulsive but it was another stunner. With perfectly cooked fish in a hot and sour sauce of great freshness and energy it was a joy to eat. The flavour of the fish was powerful and really enhanced by the sauce which included, along with the Thai staples, some baton of apple and grape halves. I just kept scraping the plate for more and, if politeness would have allowed, I’d have drank the remaining sauce direct from it.
I don’t know the name of the other mind-blowing dish, but it was so good you must describe it when you ask for it at your next visit. Pork in coconut milk with an awfully large amount of fresh peppercorns. I’ve eaten a lot of fantastic food and this was certainly some of it. Lively and vigorous, with so much flavour and a great balance between rich and fiery flavours. Amazing.
The key with The Bangkok Brasserie is not to be afraid. Sure, they can make weird-looking dishes that can be quite hot, but don’t let that worry you; the flavours are always delicious, harmonious and incredibly complex. There is really nothing to be scared of as it all tastes so good! So next time you visit just ask for whatever the chef recommends, or ask Miff for his suggestions, and you’ll have a throbbingly good time.
It was so good we ordered take-away the next night and that was cracking too!