[Travel] In the Heart of Bangkok - UNOMAS - Spanish Restaurant & Bar @ Centara Grand Central World

Had the opportunity to dine at UNOMAS, located at the 54th floor of Centara Grand Central World. Thank you Hence for the invitation.

As we were led to our table, I noticed how spacious the interior is. Plus, the restaurant has a good view of the city and boasts plenty of tables for that romantic sunset view. 

sunset view

We went up to explore Red Sky Bar and Restaurant on the 56th floor, and yes, great panoramic views! 

tables at Red Sky Bar

let's scale to greater heights~

on top of the world~

Alright, we enjoyed the skyline view so let's go back to our table at UNOMAS. "Uno Mas" in Spanish means "one more". Play us one more song DJ! Yes, they do have a resident DJ spinning lively music with a playful vibe.

Thirsty? Let's order a drink!

Amber Roof Top @฿290++

Green Punch @฿290++

White Sangria @฿490++

Plenty of options for beverages and my table selected mocktails and cocktails as our preferred drink for the night. With a drink in hand, we are now ready for food.

The bread basket, oh wait... that's a wooden block carved out. Pretty cool, I must say. The breads at UNOMAS is a pretty little selection of assorted bakes. 

bread basket for a table of 4

Salads

Spinach Salad @฿410++

Never thought I'd say this but the salad tasted delicious. Healthy greens quotient for the day, checked!

Tapas

Gambas "Pil Pil" @฿720++

I have no idea what "Pil Pil" means but those prawns were of a good size. Firm and succulent. 

closer view of the gambas

Iberico Presa Pork @฿840++

The black ink crust on the pork was visually interesting. Crust was crisp and pork was incredibly tender. Tasted premium. The Presa cut comes from the area where the shoulder and loin meet, near the head of the loin. A prized cut, if you like.

closer view of the pork

Next, we had a plate of baked octopus as well. 

Baked Octopus @฿890++

The bottom were lined up with sliced potato and these were yummy too! The octopus, didn't disappoint. Superbly tender. 

Paella

Arroz Negro @฿1690++

It has been so long since I've last tasted a paella. The Arroz Negro at UNO MAS with the addition of snow fish and those little dots of aioli, were a nice contrast in terms of visuals. Buttery snow fish, with strong umami flavours in the black ink rice, deliciosa! 

Mains

Suckling Pig "Chochinillo" @฿1990++

We can't resist the half-roasted Segovian style suckling pig. Staff asked if anyone of us would like to 'cut' the pig with the plate, and all of us politely declined. He smiled and proceeded with the task.

easy does it

One could see how tender the suckling pig was, as it took probably about 5 minutes, for the staff to complete the task.

Then the plate would be handed back to the guest to smash it, of course into a prepared container. 

perfectly roasted, perfectly tender

sauces (top to bottom); gravy, green mojo, nam jim jaew

The suckling pig was good on its own. It was fun to dab a bit of the sauces just to see how each would taste like with the meat.

Desserts

UNOMAS Cheesecake "Tarta de Queso" @฿350++

For desserts, my wish came true as we ordered the Basque Cheesecake. Can't say no to cheesecake!

savoring each bite

Keke, the churros were presented cutely. Almost wanted to play 'tic-tac-toe' with it. Classic fried dough with sweet sugar sprinkles to be dipped into the thick Valhorna chocolate sauce. 

Churros @฿350++

The next dessert was unusual, the Brazo Gitano. It's sponge cake and ice-cream. But, I must say that I was impressed with its presentation.

Brazo Gitano @฿350

The most unexpected, was the Spanish Style French Toast. It came with gold foil! Other than that, it looked ordinary but tasted so good. The combination of warm and cold (bread and ice-cream), and the sauce was just right. A comforting dessert.

Torrijas Spanish Style French Toast @฿350++

Overall, we enjoyed the bold strong flavours of the dishes, the nice ambiance and fun vibes at UNOMAS. Kudos to Chef Borja Terry and UNOMAS team. 

ps: I think Chef was quite impressed we managed to finish 4 desserts after all the food.

UNOMAS - Spanish Restaurant & Bar อูโนมาส เซ็นทาราแกรนด์ฯ เซ็นทรัลเวิลด์

Address: 999, โรงแรมเซ็นทาราแกรนด์ฯ เซ็นทรัลเวิลด์ 99 Rama I Rd, Pathum Wan, Bangkok 10330, Thailand

Website: https://unomasbangkok.com

Business Hours:

Daily: 12–11 PM

[Travel] In the Heart of Bangkok - Dinner at NAMA Japanese and Seafood Buffet @ Centara Grand Bangkok Convention Centre Central World

Made reservation for 7pm but traffic was bad so we reached around 730pm instead. Just head on up to level 24 for the buffet.

signage

Let the staff at the counter know which package for all the pax in your group. There were two price range to choose from, and we decided to go for the ฿999 package. 

Made payment and staff led the way to our table. The place was quite big and plenty of diners that night.

There's a QR code to scan for the buffet menu but none of us could connect to it. Asked the staff for help and turned out, we needed to connect to their wifi. So we practically handed over our phone to the helpful staff to help key in the wifi password. 

Even so, not sure why but only one out of three mobile phones were able to connect to the buffet ordering platform. So I was the de-facto 'orderer'.

Our package came with one-time order of Japanese oysters (3 pieces) with toppings, grilled wagyu cubes with foie gras and some sushi (3 pieces).

Japanese oysters (one-time)

steak cubes with foie gras (one-time)

Then, the rest of the stuffs came from the buffet. Besides the online menu, one could walk around to see the items already available at the counter for diners to take. For example, the deep fried section for fried dumplings, deep fried beef etc. Non-alcoholic drinks are included and one could just go  towards the drink counter to fetch your own glass and ice-cubes, and self-serve from the machines. There's milo, soda such as fanta grape, yuzu drink etc. 

Cold seafood section is also available with the usual oysters, prawns, mussels but I was too busy ordering from the online menu to walk around. 

deep fried stuffs

marinated seafood (scallops, salmon, prawns)

wagyu beef sushi

duck liver sushi?

beef sushi

beef steak

hamachi and salmon belly sashimi

Loved the sashimi here. Thick cut and fresh. 

hotate, anago and unagi sushi

I love hotate

Service was quick and the food arrived pretty quickly once you've successfully sent it to the kitchen. If your order didn't arrive, most likely it is because the order has yet to be confirmed to send to kitchen.

aburi sushi

grilled river prawns

The staff who helped with the initial wifi setup, came back to our table and showed me her phone. Turns out, she used the translation app on her phone to inform us the location of the dessert counter. So sweet of her!

tamago that was too sweet

unagi

honeydew

The dessert that one could take directly are mostly the cheesecakes. I only tried one type as the stomach ran out of space.

cheesecake

raindrop cake (order through the online app)

Looking back at the photos, I realised that I only ate a fraction of what I photographed. Mainly because the journey back to the hotel would take about 1 hour (due to the jam) and didn't want to risk an upset tummy.

Overall, good value and there's plenty of variety to satisfy Japanese food cravings. Thank you to the staff whose help had made our dining experience enjoyable, especially for first-timers to Nama.

NAMA Japanese and Seafood Buffet

Address: 24th floor Centara Grand and Bangkok Convention Centre, 999/99 Rama I Rd, Khwaeng Pathum Wan, Pathum Wan, Bangkok 10330, Thailand

Website: https://www.facebook.com/NAMAJapaneseandSeafoodBuffet/

Business Hours:

Daily: 11 am–10 pm

[Travel] In the Heart of Bangkok - Lunch at Biscotti @ Anantara Siam Bangkok Hotel

It was my last day at Anantara Siam Bangkok and as am only going over to the next hotel to meet up with Hence and Tracy at 5pm, I do have time for lunch at Biscotti, an Italian restaurant within the hotel.

Decided to go for their ala-carte menu as I have eyed a dish that I wanted to try; Gnocchi Ai Funghi Selvatici. I like a good gnocchi. The best thus far, was at Club Street, a taste that I had aeons ago (translated as more than 20 years ago). Next was at Garibaldi but the gnocchi there was more of an accompaniment rather than a main.

There were two staff at the entrance of the restaurant and one of them led me to a table. The place was not too busy and I noticed that the table next to mine, was almost done with their lunch.

sparkling water

Also got myself a glass of red wine, as I couldn't resist when the wine list has Amarone by the glass.

2020 Amarone della Valpolicella, Villa Loren @฿680++ (per glass)

smooth, low tannin, berries

From what I've read, Amarone is not usually paired with pasta but the staff says, "Go for it. Up to individual preference!" And, so I did. 

housemade crispy bread, served with eggplant and pepper dip, olive oil with balsamic, sea salt

Was served the crispy bread (complimentary) right after wine was served. Initially surprised to see such a generous amount even for a solo diner, but I did enjoy this dish by quite abit and voila, none left by the end of lunch. Except some loose crumbs. It was that good.

Gnocchi Ai Funghi Selvatici @฿450++ (small)

Two sizes of pasta is available; small or large, and I opted for small. Just for a taste. 

Those cute little balls of pillowy dough were good. Overall, strong flavours, earthy tones from the wild mushrooms and perfumed by a little bit of thyme made a strong impression. I also loved it as the dish was served hot.

Spoonfuls after spoonfuls of deliciousness went in, and suddenly, there was only a few left. Then I had the idea to break some pieces of those crispy bread into the gnocchi dish, and yass to the contrast in texture with two equally flavourful counterparts. Is this what we called, carbs on carbs? Haha!

crispy and soft combined

looking at the open kitchen where the delicious foods came from

Next, it was time for dessert. Staff says the most ordered dessert is the amalfi lemon and so, that was what I had.

Amalfi Lemon @฿420++

Visually stunning and looked pretty much life-like, like an actual lemon.

Ivory white chocolate mousse, confit Amalfi lemons

Enjoyable dessert, served with a small scoop of icy limoncello sorbet. The green leaves on the lemon is for decorative purpose. Just saying.

Hmm, I think I still have room for another dessert and hence, asked Mameaw (one of the staff) for her recommendation. She said I must try the tiramisu. Alright, let's go for it!

By now (around 2pm), the restaurant was fairly relaxed but I was wondering why the tiramisu is taking its time to arrive... Then, a small table was setup next to mine. Eh, table-side service for tiramisu? Keke.

what's this?

Staff said he will serve a bigger piece for me. Oh, thank you~

Biscotti Tiramisu @฿450++

yummy

Tiramisu was lovely and by now, am feeling full. But then, Chef Giuseppe Bonura (Biscotti’s Chef de Cuisine) came by to the table again and we talked a bit on the food and he mentioned about his childhood summer food which happened to be on the dessert menu; Brioscia & Sorbetto Al Limone. He asked me if I wanted to try. 

Orange Brioche with lemon sorbet @฿300

soft and fluffy

Chef shared that one breaks apart the soft brioche, and scoop some of the sorbet inside to eat together. Orange brioche was served slightly warm, with sugar dust and combined with the icy tangy sorbet, I can understand why it's the perfect summer breakfast. Thank you Chef Giuseppe for the treat!

Overall, it was an enjoyable solo dining experience at Biscotti Bangkok. The service was good, food was delicious and appreciate Chef Giuseppe who took time to talk to guests when the kitchen is not too busy.

Spent around SGD94 and yes, even I couldn't believe that I had 3 desserts in one sitting. Wow.

Biscotti บิสก็อตติ

Address: 155 Lumphini, Pathum Wan, Bangkok 10330, Thailand

Website: https://www.biscottibangkok.com/

Business Hours:

Daily: 12–2:30 pm, 6–10:30 pm