952 Rama IV Road , Bangkok 10500, Thailand
Tel. +66 2632 9000 Fax: +66 2632 9001
Opening Hours:
Email: info.bkk@panpacific.com or visit bangkok.panpacific.com
Credit Cards: All Major
Prices: Expensive – Very Expensive
Panorama Restaurant on the 23rd floor of the Pan Pacific Hotel is an amazingly good restaurant due to its ground-breaking cuisine and comfortable, yet awe-inspiring design, which manages to stay in touch with the current generation of diner’s vibrant lifestyles. One of the most innovative and refreshing design ideas was to convert the space running along the windows into a type of enclosed balcony, build a large bar in the center and two informal dining areas on either side. It can be converted into an open-air deck by turning off the air-con, folding back the windows; or not, depending on the time and heat of the day. This entire stretch of airborne real estate is completely separated from the restaurant per se, and the unique convertible indoor/outdoor terrace also has a designated smoking area on one end, and a birds-eye view of the Sports Club and surrounding buildings down below.
Executive Chef, Joseph Martin is backed up by well versed kitchen staff performing their culinary miracles in two self-contained “Show Kitchens”. The restaurant design is by renowned Tokyo-based design firm SPIN.
The new amiable General Manager, Thomas Mayrhofer usually spends his time in the Pan Pacific’s corporate offices in Singapore, and he finds it a welcomes change to be able to interact with hotel guests. He says that it gives him another viewpoint as the hotel business, is after all, a service business.
Allow me to present a few of the many dazzling dining highlights that I experienced at Panorama and are pictured below:
Foie Gras with a Caramelized Fig, Pan-Fried (hot), Terrine en gelée (cold), and in a very imaginative version: freeze the foie gras with a stick in it, in the form of an ice cream bar and dip it in chocolate (frozen).
Canadian Lobster Cappuccino with North Sea Shrimps, Hokkaido Scallops and Hennessy VSOP Cream
Atlantic Cod “en cocotte”
Open Squid Ink Ravioli with Andaman Tiger Prawns, Fava Beans, with Fennel
Magnificent Colorado lamb with an interesting ‘al dente’ ratatouille, not stewed to mush, but magically achieving the same intricate taste.
Apple Tart with Espresso and Mascarpone Ice Cream
Panorama imports the finest gourmet products available such as: Scottish salmon, Spanish Jamón ibérico, Dutch veal, Tajima wagyu beef.
At Panorama guests are given the option of having their meat cut and weighed to order table side, which is de rigueur at classic New York and Chicago steak houses, it is then given to the grill chef in the show kitchen where he exercises great skill carefully grilling it over hardwood charcoal.
Be sure to peruse the wine list, there are 130 wine labels to choose from, and after ordering, you may follow your bottle’s travel from its removal from one of the ‘specially designed’ twin plate-glass, double storied wine towers as it is carefully brought to its final destination—your table.
The private dining room seats 10 diners around a large circular table, it is called The Krug Room where Chef Steve will tailor-make a tasting menu for any group, or he can weave his magic and create a dish on the whim of any guest (with advance consultation, of course).
Guests have only to walk a few feet from the restaurant to the Finishing Post, the exclusive cigar lounge where they may order a rare 40 year old single malt whisky, blended at one of Scotland’s oldest family owned distilleries, from the large selection of single malts on hand, or a post dinner cognac and cigar.
There is always an impressive list of musicians, ranging from live resident DJs to jazz; the sounds drift through to the Lobby Lounge.
An interesting point to note is: you do not immediately recognize that the center area of the restaurant is under the atrium of the hotel, as you have ascended 23 floors to arrive in the lobby, it does not occur to you to take a good look upwards, as you might do if you were on the ground floor. When you finally have a more scrutinizing look around and up, you will discover that the center section of the restaurant where the show kitchens are situated is a showcase, so to speak, as all the hallways on all floors above are open and look down onto the action, and yet at the same time, the design team have allowed privacy for the guests by allowing only the area around the show kitchen to be observed. Panorama Restaurant is in reality a great stage and the chefs that are giving their culinary performances, presumably for their guests, are being silently watched by the entire hotel.
