EATING OUT
Reviewed by VANNIYA SRIANGURA
DISCREET CHARM
Latest French eatery offers value-for-money Gallic cuisine
Vatel Restaurant, Boromratchonnanee Road, Taling Chan, Tel 02-880-9685/6, Open daily 11:30am-2:30pm and 5-10pm (closed on Sunday)
Vatel is apparently the latest French restaurant in town. Most likely the only one in the Taling Chan area. Certainly the one with the least ostentatious and most distinctive charm; and probably the one offering the best value for money.
Situated alongside a highway in an agricultural-cum-residential suburb, Vatel isn't just a vacuous new eatery. It's a member of France's well-respected Vatel Institute network and, in fact, managed by Silpakorn University International College with the purpose of providing an outlet for its students in the Tourism and Hospitality department to have a real hands-on experience.
On the sunny day that we arrived, the seven-month-old Vatel looked like a lovely greenhouse in the middle of a French vineyard. Chirpy Gallic music filled the restaurant's breezy and bright atmosphere. The floral-pattern upholstered furniture added a natural and homey touch while the crisp white tablecloths and sparkling stemware confirmed that it was a fine dining venue.
The dining room as well as the kitchen are operated by students in Vatel's tidy uniforms. The service was charming: a lovely blend of gentility, eagerness and timidity and totally free of that "arrogant touch" you might have experienced at many five-star establishments. Ask them for their suggestions and you will get the most sincere response with a hint of hesitation.
Patronising Vatel, however, doesn't mean you are a guinea pig in a classroom project. At the end of the day, Vatel sees itself as a proper restaurant that doesn't compromise when it comes to service and food quality. So every single station at Vatel is closely supervised by professionals. On duty everyday in the kitchen are four professional chefs led by chef de cuisine Gonzalo Serna from France. The drinks station is overseen by a qualified bartender while a team of teachers and well-trained management look after the restaurant in general.
Gastronomically, the menu features a decent variety of French cuisine, ranging from the usual French onion soup and classic coq au vin to the distinctive flambed fillet of lamb in pastis, and grilled tuna loin with lemon-hazelnut sauce.
The most popular item of all, however, is the set menu. Priced from 260 to 300 baht, this comprises a soup or salad, a main course (your choice of steak, seafood or poultry) and a cake.
Anyway, we ignored the set menu and decided to order from the a la carte list. Vatel's best-selling avocado and mango salad (150 baht) proved to be a perfect opener. This stylishly presented dish yielded a fascinating combination of flavours and texture - the ripe mango was refreshing and sweet, the avocado rich and soft, the almond crunchy; the microgreen vegetable grassy and the dill dressing salty, creamy and herby.
The next dish was another of the restaurant's favourite appetisers, baked white button mushroom filled with cheese (160 baht). Four plump pieces of mushroom came stuffed with cheese and topped with creamy dressing, and unstoppably good they were.
For main course, I decided to try the signature flambe fillet of lamb in pastis (370 baht). With such an inexpensive price, I couldn't really say that it was a huge gamble. The lamb, though without an unpleasant odour, was chewy and bland rather than tender and juicy while the sauce, made with dark chocolate and French liquor, was mediocre.
As at any fine European restaurant, you can expect a free flow of complimentary bread at Vatel. But don't expect to find a basketful of fancy bread - just buns with butter.
From June 26-30, during the "Festival de la Gastronomie Francaise", the restaurant will feature a five-course menu designed and prepared by executive chef Jean Luc Heilmann from the highly-respected Les Palmiers restaurant of the Hotel Vatel in Nimes, France.
Priced at 1,000 baht per person, the set includes Marbre de Saint-Jacques et saumon au Basilic, or scallop and salmon mousse marble with orange-flavoured asparagus and beans; soupe de poissons, or traditional Mediterranean fish soup with garlic crouton and traditional Provencal sauce; filet de loup roti a la peau sur un tian de legumes Provencaux, or pan-grilled seabass fillet with braised lima beans, garlic puree, shrimp and garlic confit; Mitonne de boeuf cuit au vin des Costieres de Nimes, or slow braised beef in Costieres de Nimes wine; and millefeuille croustillant citron, or lemon millefeuille with crisp Thai peanut caramel as a dessert.
We had a chance to try it and can say that we were well satisfied and that the price matched the quality.
To get to Vatel, take the outbound elevated Boromratchonnanee Road and get off at the Taling Chan exit, then keep left. The restaurant is situated at the last curve right before the U-turn. Parking is plentiful.
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