After years of visiting Bangkok and exploring the place pretty much by myself mall food is my go-to meal. I don’t mind that at all. I am not a picky diner.
With malls rising everywhere, The Big Mango is never short on the mall food offering. These must be what Thais love to do - shop and eat.
In the mall, the fancy ones open up alongside the burger joint, the artisanal beside the comfort food, the choices are varied and will allow either your taste buds or wallet to dictate which to choose.
When traveling I only feed when hunger clocks in and most of the time I dine alone. It’s not that often that I get company in the city.
In one of my visits, a hometown girl now living in the Thailand capital raised her hand as volunteer to show me around. So I let her take the lead. The way to the good restos, included.
While in the EmQuartier, she pointed out Roast.
“There are a couple of dishes I’ve tried that you may like,” she said knowing that I took out red meat from my diet.
Roast is on the first floor of the Helix Quarter. Its location offers a view of the Glass Quarter, the cascading greenery of the Waterfall Quarter and overlooks the courtyard in between the buildings. The restaurant is easily accessible from the neighboring buildings via walkways.
Like they say, check out which restaurant the locals are lining up at. That is a sign that the food is good in that joint. This was the case at Roast when we arrived. We were told to wait for half an hour for a table.
A long coffee bar dominates the frontage. It’s the sip-and-go area for their signature coffee or a cocktail or smoothie while waiting to be seated. If you want to, they can serve your meal here as well.
Scanning the menu of Roast is like flipping through a magazine, which is how they designed it. You can even take it home with you, too.
Of its food, Roast promises “high quality comfort food made with the freshest ingredients possible” with most of it made in-house.
The well-photographed selections of starters, pasta, seafood, meat and dessert are jumping off the pages and enticing the diner to “pick me” (if I had my way I’d like to try everything), but I had to go for what my guide recommended.
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| (Left) This chicken was marinated for 48 hours in buttermilk & hot sauce mixture then slow baked; (Right) If you love truffles, you'll love this one- Truffle Alfredo. |
She ordered the Truffle Alfredo—homemade Tagliatelle, mushroom, and the bacon on the side (280baht).
I love truffle flavor so any dish with it is an instant love affair. The dish had the nice flavor of it, too much of it and it can be overpowering, and the cream sauce was just the right amount to coat the al dente pasta.
With the pasta, we had the Slow Roasted Fried Chicken—48-hour buttermilk and hot sauce marinated half chicken served with red cabbage slaw and house made hot sauce (480baht).
Chicken is one of two of my protein sources and with that limited choice it has to be good. This one makes the flavor cut.
Normally, the over-all taste of the chicken dish only coats the outer layer, on the skin (which I don’t eat because of the high-cholesterol level). While the thigh and leg parts of the chicken are blessed with in-born goodness, the breast part is not. But with Roast’s dish, the flavoring seeped into the inner portions of the white meat. I loved it.
For dessert, we had the Half Baked (the name ends at that)—cookie dough, chocolate & caramel sauce, chocolate cookie crumb topped with house made vanilla ice cream (200baht). Need I say more? But if I must, I will say the sweetness of the dessert is just right for me (who doesn’t like desserts too sweet).
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| Half Baked (and the dessert's name ends at that) will make you lightheaded with its goodness. |
Was I happy and satisfied? If I say I went back for another bout of the above dishes plus a starter of Quesadilla (grilled chicken, spinach, guacamole, salsa. 260baht) and having everything to myself answer your question?
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| Realization: Quesadillas are too heavy to eat by oneself. |
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| Hometown advantage Davao girl now Bangkok mom, Ayie, played host & tour guide |
How to get there. Tthe BTS Skytrain is fastest way to get to EmQuartier. The Phrom Phong station provides a direct link to the mall via a skywalk. Roast is on the first floor of the Helix Quarter of EmQuartier.
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Email me at jinggoysalvador@yahoo.com. For more lifestyle & travel stories, visit jeepneyjinggoy.com & ofapplesandlemons.com
Also published in the SunStar Davao newspaper
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