Kinniku Gyudon

Kinniku Gyudon

Room 307, 3rd Floor, La Villa,

356 Phaholyothin Road, Bangkok

Tel: 02-613-0516

Open daily: 11.30 a.m.-10.00 p.m.

First of all, I have to tell you that i'm the big fan of Yoshinoya, the famous japanese gyudon(beef bowl) brand which has branches in many countries, e.g. Singapore. When I go to Singapore, I have to visit their shop for at least 2 times, for the 3 days trip :)

I found this place by accident as my iphone's headset got some problems, so i needed to go to istudio to get the new one after work. After reaching La Villa, I walked around to find the place for dinner and found this!!!

Kinnikuman!!! (Sorry for the bad photo quality but i really like their name card holder.) For Manga lovers, you must know Kinnikuman better than me for sure. I just know that he's a wrestler who loves gyudon. You will find Kinnikuman models around this shop!

I ordered Ice Green Tea (Baht 45).

Here they come! Gyudon Set (Baht 165 for Gyudon and you can order as a set and they will also provide you miso soup and salad with the extra charge of Baht 40). For your information, they also do the pork version and have other menu, such as Curry Rice , Tempura, Salmon Teriyaki and Hamberg Steak, not just Gyudon.

Top view of the beef bowl. From what they told us, they use Karubi (beef short rib) beef and slice the beef at 1.5 mm thickness.

Zoom! Such a very big bowl! I can't finish all rice (but definately finish all beef as i'm a carnivore, lol.)

Got the professional photo from my friend's camera, much better than mine :)

I don't know how to describe all the taste. so tender, so soft, not too much seasoning so you can taste the real taste of the beef. Have to tell you that my brother and my mom opined that it gonna be better if it is more tasty but in my opinion, i love it as it is. (still believe that if you get really good ingredient, you don't have to season it much, just cook it properly and go for the real taste!)

Hamberg steak. From my opinion, I think they still keep high quality of the meat using in this dish. Good actually, but Gyudon is the best!

Dessert time!!! Green tea ice-cream with red bean paste (Baht 80). Look great but too sweet green tea ice-cream to my like (i love the bitter green tea ice-cream with loads of greentea flavor), so my mom helped me finish it :)

This week, i went there twice now (Gyudon in both visits). Think it already proved how much i love it. Really recommend you to go there and give it a try!

Ohana Cafe

Ohana Cafe

50/4 Sukhumvit Soi 24,

Bangkok 10110

Tel 02 661 1930

Fax 01 661 1931

http://www.ohana.co.th/

Open daily 9 a.m.-9p.m.

(Parking at Sakura Restaurant available 9 a.m.-6 p.m.)

I heard several persons talked about this place (including my dad), so I asked my dad to bring me here.

Opening hours.

Menu outside the shop. Cute, isn't it?

The place. I like that they keep the big trees which growing at the venue by building this glass house with the hole for them. and the glass makes you be able to sit in the sunlight (while we need to be in the office on weekdays and can't relax in this atmosphere; sunshine and blue sky) while being in air conditioner room.

My cafe latte and croissant (Baht 120). Look at the latte! i don't have latte served with beautiful latte art like this for at least 6 months...with silky, creamy froth...another favorite cafe found!

My dad's Matcha Latte (Baht 90)

After stirring and adding syrup.

As we went there for lunch, my parents ordered the Set Menu (Baht 200) which consists of Soup, Pasta, Salad, and Dessert.

Their soup came! I can't remember what they ordered as I was busy photos taking, running around the shop to check out things, and read one interesting coffee book and cookbooks provide, lol. Think they ordered Carrot Soup and Spinach Soup.

Pasta! My dad's was Fettucini Alfredo.

My mom's was Spaghetti Bolognese.

The dessert on the set today is Brownie. I i stole one bite from my mom, yum!

My lunch coming! I ordered Vanilla Waffle with Strawberry, Fresh Cream, and Vanilla Ice Cream (Baht 150). As you may know that i'm sweet tooth, i can have sweets as a meal, lol.

Show you the filling. I think the stew inside is rhubarb and strawberry.

My dad's Ice Espresso Latte (Baht 90). Made with Espresso ice and cold milk with milk froth, so the more the ice melts, the more coffee flavor.

My dad drank it too fast, so i can show you the ice.

Highlight of the day! After i talked with the owner of the shop and know that he had Jamaica Blue Mountain, I can't resist to ask him to if i can order some and he said yes :)

Show you the coffee.

Crema!!!!!

This is the second time of the year i tried Jamaica Blue Mountain. (one of my friends told me that it tastes different each year.) Surprisingly good with French press (as recommend by the owner that it's better than espresso).

Overall, Ohana is much better than i expected. so it becomes my new favorite place :)

Japanese Restaurant Erawan

Japanese Restaurant Erawan (next to Crystal Jade)

Urban Kitchen

Basement Floor, Erawan Bangkok

494 Ploenchit Road,

Bangkok 10330

Tel 02 250 7890, 02 652 1295

I walked pass this shop for many times and always think that Urban Kitchen has no place to eat (apart from Amaltery, the liquor icecream). but i just realized that it's because i did not explore everything properly.

Inside the shop, it's on Saturday Lunch and there are only 3-4 tables (weekdays dinner is always so private) but this cannot use for judging the quality of food here.

Our first order arrived, Zaru Soba-chilled buckwheat noodles with dipping sauce. Quite good. (but we found the next orders are better and better) If you like chilled noodles, Somen is also good.

My friend's Sushi. One is Hamachi (Yellowtail fish), but i cannot remember the other one. (Note: We are informed that the fish just delivered last night, we went there on Saturday, my friend's eyes were sparkling when she heard this, haha.) My friend told me that it's the highlight of her week and she can come drive all way long from her place just because of this, lol.

From the professional camera, to show you the quality of the fish!

The rib sausage, look normal but so tasty, quite a must to order.

This is the real MUST!!! Fried rice with pork or beef (the choice of beef are:normal beef, wagyu, or matsuzaka) on hot pan. This time we go for just normal beef, but it's sooooo good and we promised to ourselves that we must come back to try matsuzaka one. I tried the pork one and it's also good, the different is the juicy fat, which the beef one doesn't have. If you order the pork one, when you bite into the fat, it explodes. While the beef is more flavor. Have to choose though.

Dessert time!!! Kakigori-shaved ice flavored with syrup, they got 2 choice; green tea or strawberry. We go for green tea. If you expect for the sweet green tea syrup, you will be disappointed. But if you expect for the REAL green tea flavor (think they use matcha, this is what you are looking for, a bit bitter, with the read bean. Sooooo good. Perfect end of the meal.

Normally, Kakigori is served with Mochi, but as we don't like Mochi, we asked them to change it to other thing, and we got green tea jelly.

Another to die for, Green Tea parfait, contains green tea ice cream (bitter, love it!), vanilla ice cream (also good), green tea and white (not sure what the white jelly made of) jelly, mochi, edamame in jelly (hiding at the bottom of the glass), syrup, and brown sugar! (do i miss anything? quite lots of ingredients here)

As you may notice that the quality of most photos are much improved, it's not because of me, lol, special thanks to Oh :)

Shark Fin Soup@ChinaTown

Tae (ร้านตือหูฉลาม)
In front of Bank of Ayudthya, Yaowarat Branch
437, Yaowarat, Sampanthawong Subdistrict,
Sampanthawong District, Bangkok

Our today's dinner plan is that we would like to have street food. and one of the best street food in Bangkok is at China Town, or Yaowarat.

The menu is on the board, and this is the real street vender. but as you may see, it's quite a pricy street vender though.

Bean sprout and coriander to eat with shark fin soup.

Start with stir-fried noodles, Hong Kong style first

and here it is! the shark fin soup!

We ordered 2 pots. this is when we nearly finish the meal.

HoyJor (the best definition i can think of is deep-fried crab sausage)

Best thing of the meal. "Guaitiao Rad Na" (A wide rice noodles in a creamy sauce with porks). [not sure if the owner normally provides this or not, so ask first. but if he doesn't there is the shop nearby which is his sister's shop.) they use the crispy chinese kale and the fried noodles. Yum!

Give you another pix!

Sorry for the quality of the photos and sorry that I can't give any opinion as i ate here since i was so young and get use to the taste already. but one thing i can tell you is, when my family thinks of shark fin soup, we will definately call him to check if he opens his shop on that day or not! and another thing is my dad keeps going to this shop to bring back at least 5 serves of Rad Na!

Kuppa (Sukhumvit Branch)

Kuppa
39 Sukhumvit Road Soi 16,
Klongtoey, Bangkok
Tel: 02-663-0495, 02-663-8806, 02-663-0450-4
Opening hours: Tue-Sun 10.30 a.m.-10.30 p.m.

My first memory of Kuppa is not at this branch. it is at another branch on Thonglor which is already closed. at that time, i went to Kuppa for semi-dried tomato and chicken (if my memory is right) sandwiches and seafood angle hair pasta. (by the way, they already changed the menu.)

Then, i read from somewhere that Kuppa tends to be coffee place. The name 'Kuppa' came from the sentence that you asked your friends/guests if they would like to have a cup of coffee-a 'kuppa' coffee (cute, isn't it?). And you may notice at the original branch (this one, Sukhumvit 16), that they got their own coffee roaster and import coffee bean from all around the world. They have at least 5 single origins and 5 house blends (can't remember the exact number).

As usual, as I am the milk-in-coffee lover, for i love the creamy-milky taste and will do espresso or french press if i would like to taste the real flavor, i go for flat white (Baht 120) (yes, i finally found flat white here as the owner of this shop lived in Australia and be inspired by cafe there.). Flat white is similar to cafe latte but with more milk and less froth. It is famous in Aus and NZ.

I forgot to ask of which blend/single origin beans they normally use. the coffee is average good (will buy beans to taste at home soon) but the milk froth here is to die for. creamy, silky, and milky...with the perfect amoung of milk+froth pouring.

This is flat white on another visit, just to show you the consistency of how good their milk froth is! (for your info, the book besides my flat white is Tender at the Bone: Growing up at the Table from Ruth Reichel, the editor-in-chief of Gourmet Magazine)

Kuppa also provided All-day-breakfast (love it-love it!). I ordered Egg Benedict (Baht 295). Normally, Egg Benedict consists of English muffin, topped with ham or bacon, poached egg, and hollandaise sauce. Kuppa version consists of English muffin, ham, spinach, poached egg and hollandaise sauce.

A must-shot for poached egg! Tada!

For me, i like it to be more liquidly on the egg yolks and more moist on the hollandaise sauce (think it's because of baking too long tho.) but anyway, this is my favorite coffee place now :)

Mamon Cake

I got this recipe from http://www.bloggang.com/viewdiary.php?id=monnira&month=11-2008&date=13&group=75&gblog=5

I'm not sure how this philippino sponge cake must be. For me, it somehow likes a better version of Kanom-Kai, with more moist. Get along well with cheese (but my mom prefers jam on top).

The recipe i worked on today uses vegetable oil. if you prefer, the blog mentioned above also got few more recipes that you can try. The butter one is also good but a bit too moist for my mom (she prefers this one).

1/2 cup of cake flour
1/2 cup of caster sugar (i use normal sugar)
3 Eggs (separate egg yolks and egg white)
1/4 cup of vegetable oil
1/2 tsp of baking powder
1/2 tsp of cream of tartar
1 tsp of vanilla extract

1. Preheat the oven at 180 degree
2. Sift together cake flour and baking powder
3. Whisk together egg yolks, vegetable oil, and vanilla extract until well combine
4. Whisk together egg white and cream of tartar at the high speed. Add sugar and whisk until it reaches firm peak
5. Add egg yolks mixture and whisk (still at high speed) until well combine
6. Fold in flour. Make sure that it is well combined
7. Bake at 180 degree for 10-12 minutes

I had this cutie cakes with home-brew cafe latte (for melbournian info, i'm now on Jasper Coffee, Blend 10).

Mocha & Muffins, Four Seasons Hotel

Mocha & Muffins
Four Seasons Hotel Bangkok (at Parichart Court Area)
155 Rajadamri Road
Bangkok 10330
Tel. 02 250-1000

When I was young, this hotel called 'Regent', now is 'Four Seasons' and i was quite familiar with this hotel back then as my dad and my brother used to have haircut here, came here almost every month, i guess. My most favorite part of this hotel is the garden located in the middle of the hotel. The hotel building has the garden inside, surround by the guess rooms, like an hidden forest, with little bridge and small canel and everything!

I totally forgot about this place. Long time that i last came to this hotel. Then, i found out about LoLo's blog accidently and found his post about this place in his blog and it reminds me about this secret garden. Apart from the nice place, LoLo told me that they use Vittoria. (Found out at the shop that they did not use gold, just normal one).

This is just the bakery shop of the hotel, hidden besides secret garden. so i didn't expect that much, but I can make sure that everything will be at least average good in the hotel standard.


look at the place! you can choose to sit outside: in the garden or in front of the shop like french cafes, or if you like air-conditioning room or the weather outside is too hot, you can sit inside the shop.

As you can guess, i ordered latte as usual. Perfect milk froth with perfect amount!

My so-called 'Petit Fours'. They do both normal size and mini (petit) size. I can't decide which to order. So instead of going for big one, i went for 3 small ones. I did ham&cheese croissant, coffee macaron, and cheesecake.

They also served coconut cookie with coffee!

The mini croissant is amazing!!!!! fluffy, crispy, and cheesy! heard that sausage roll is also amazing (both mentioned in LoLo's blog and i also took away some for my family and got the same comment from my bro) but i am sweet tooth, so i go for sweet instead of 2 savouries. Cheesecake is also good, but i expect more as the croissant is THAT amazing. Macaron is ok, honestly, i ordered it just to make a good company with bitter coffee.

my latte is sooooooo good! fulfill my miss-melbourne-coffee feeling. Vittoria is usually used in lots of cafe in Mel (at least the cafe at my law school uses Vittoria, and i have a latte/mocha/flat white a day on weekdays there. Note to SL and LS, do you remember which coffee bean the cafe at my place use?) so it brings back good memories back there. But better than that, can someone convince Jasper or Dancing Goat to open their shop in Bangkok? :)