Posts Tagged ‘Italian’

Buonissimo Restaurant – Chiang Mai, Thailand

Thursday, May 22nd, 2008

111/5 Moo 3, Chiang Mai Prao Road
Tel. (053) 853098-9
Fax: (053) 247346, 849744
Tel. 053-853098-9, 053-849744
Website: http://www.buonissimo.co.th
Opening Hours: 11:30 am – 2:30 pm, 6:30 pm – 10:30 pm
Credit Cards: All Major
Inexpensive – Moderate

The muddy Ping RiverBuonissimo is an Italian restaurant, delicatessen, wine shop and bakery by the Ping River on Faham Road. The main restaurant is outside covered by a huge canopy; there is another section further down on the bank of the river. The most comfortable place to be seated is the small; 50-seat air-conditioned enclosed restaurant that is elevated a few meters above ground level to enable a view of the Ping River.

The owner Sergio, imports products and wines from Italy and sells them to the hotels and other restaurants in Chiang Mai as well as using them for Buonissimo.
The main attraction to dine here is to look at the river while you drink wine from their enormous, mainly Italian, selection of wines. This is probably the best wine list in Chiang Mai and the best pricing I have seen in Thailand due to his being a distributor for wine companies in Bangkok.

All breads and pastas are homemade, and the café deli offers an array of products to take home.
The menu is very extensive as are most of the Italian restaurants in this area.

Il Piccolino – West Hollywood

Monday, May 19th, 2008

Il Piccolino Trattoria
350 N Robertson Blvd
West Hollywood, CA 90048
Tel. (310) 659-2220
Credit Cards: All Major
Moderate-Expensive

Eddie Kerkhofs who owned Le Dôme (Now BLT Steak) for many years and Silvio Di Mori who was involved in restaurants Cafe des Artistes & Mimosa among others, joined together and turned a little-known Mexican café on Robertson into a chic meeting place for the Hollywood crowd called Il Piccolino, serving—you guessed it—Italian cuisine.

It is the simple, casual feeling of the place in combination with the long-time restaurant history in L.A. of the two genial owners that attracts an up-scale crowd to Il Piccolino, who would rather spend time here than in the more elaborate and stuffy restaurants in the area that seem to be rapidly disappearing.
At night you can easily find the restaurant, which is hidden by dense foliage that blocks the view of the patio from busy Robertson Blvd, by looking for the hundreds of white, sparkling lights intertwined in the shrubbery.

The food is mainly Italian mixed with a few California-style salads and a few French touches to some of the dishes. Overall, everything comes off well and having dined there once you certainly will return.
They have a good wine list with proper representation of Italian, French and California selections.