Posts Tagged ‘Bar’

Glow

Sunday, September 26th, 2010

Glow (image credit: Glow, Bangkok)Glow

96/4-5 Sukhumvit Soi 23, Bangkok 10110
Open 6 PM – 1 AM Daily
96/4-5 Sukhumvit Soi 23
Bangkok 10110
Tel. 0-2261-3007

Glow is new “stand alone” lounge bar/club where the focus is on comfortable surroundings, drinks, moderate prices, good and friendly service, expert bartenders, innovative lighting, relaxing music with a good sound system. Open from 6pm-1am daily.

The owners are creating a bar where their customers can feel comfortable and where they like to meet their friends.

Michel’s at the Colony Surf – Honolulu

Thursday, May 8th, 2008

Colony Surf Hotel
2895 Kalakaua Ave.
Honolulu, HI 96815
Continental cuisine
Credit cards: All Major
Expensive

View of the SeaGranted, many hotels and restaurants in Honolulu have excellent vistas of the coast, although Michel’s at the Colony Surf has unquestionably the best panorama of the ocean and shoreline of Waikiki as any of any of them due to its positioning. It is especially striking in the early evening and I urge you to telephone them and book a table in advance, or just walk in and sit at the bar. Please do not think that I am inferring that this is the only reason to go to Michel’s, although it is as compelling a motivation as I can conjure up right now; to sit with a drink in hand, watch the sun go down and enjoy this pleasant experience especially if there are a few or hopefully many puffy clouds in the sky, to make the sunset more spectacular, relax and just enjoy looking at the sun as it finally disappears under the horizon. This is the main attraction; on the other hand, you will be quite content with the menu, if you order carefully, as over the years the restaurant has been offering serviceable French cuisine under the direction of an assortment of chefs who have always produced cooking that is more or less satisfactory.
The wine list has improved of late, so have a good time!

Le Bouchon – Bangkok

Saturday, April 26th, 2008

37/17 Patpong soi 2, Surawongse Road,
Bangkok 10500
Tel. 02-234-9109
Credit Cards: AE, MC, V
Open for Lunch and Dinner Noon-midnight, Mon-Sat; 7pm-midnight, Sun
Prices: Moderate

The Dining roomLe Bouchon restaurant is located in the heart of Patpong, the famous entertainment area in Bangkok.
It is located in a one floor shop-house with a large bar, small dining room, and an even smaller kitchen and toilet.

Seerge behind the BarThe amicable owner, Serge Martiani, is usually at the bar and you may have a chat with him. It has been very popular over the last ten years especially with the French crowd, and the main draw is not the menu but the real bistro feel of the place, it seems that everyone feels comfortable here and I would advise advance booking, due to the popularity and limited seating. You can always eat at the bar, if you can find a spot to squeeze in.

During a recent lunch and after looking at the very extensive blackboard menus, which are propped-up in front of you by the friendly tri-lingual waitresses, I chose to start with what turned out to be a very fresh tomato salad drizzled with vanilla scented, olive oil and sprinkled with pink peppercorns from Madagascar, and my dining companion ordered lentil soup for the first course. I followed with lamb shank with white beans while my friend had duck confit. It was all washed down with a good bottle of red Cahor wine.
This was followed by a couple of eau-de-vie Poire William to finish.

Indigo – Bangkok

Saturday, April 26th, 2008

P4040045

Open: Daily from 11:30 lunch dinner 5:30pm
6 Convent Road
Bangkok, 10500
Tel: 02-235-3268
Owner: Alain Le Roy
Credit Cards: All major cards
Prices: Moderate

A couple of minutes walk from the BTS Saladaeng station and hidden at the end of a small soi off Soi Convent directly across from Molly Malone’s Irish Bar you will find this delightful French restaurant in a converted Thai house. It has a large bar with French doors that open out onto a courtyard where umbrella covered tables make a nice place to be seated in good weather. Snoopy the resident bartender is a friendly sort who is willing to entertain you with some magical tricks or prepare an excellent cocktail, he performs both equally well. The bar is a meeting place for French ex patriots and others who are informed enough to find this obscure location in the first place.

P4040047Khun Nok (Snoopy)P4050004Bigorneax

P4050005Bulots

In season they import fresh oysters, bigorneax, bulots and shrimp from France. Overall, I really like the place and I always feel comfortable having a drink at the bar or a dinner in the dining room with friends. The rooms are laid out well, with tables not too far apart to kill energy levels and not too close that you feel that you are almost sitting in your neighbor’s lap.

The cooking tends to vary from good to acceptable depending on, I have not figured out exactly what, during the reign of several chefs over quite a few years.

Oysters from France

P.G.A. Pub Cardinal Akasaka – Tokyo

Wednesday, April 16th, 2008

Akaska Biztower 1F (Akasaka Sacas),
5-3-1 Akasaka, Minato-ku, Tokyo
Opening hours: Mon-Sat 11:00am-2:30pm, 5:30pm-4:00am;
Sun 11:00am-2:30pm, 5:30pm-11:00pm
Tel. 03-5545-7767
http://www.miyoshi-grp.com
Prices: Moderate

Kitchen - P.G.A. PubI just wandered into this place in the newly opened development in Akasaka. It seemed as if it would be a good spot to wait for my next appointment. It lived up to all of that, and I stayed for more than one glass of a very pleasant house white wine called Biancello del Metauro ¥800 and few small dishes. The tapas menu ranges from ¥500 to 1600, small dishes such as: Caprese on a toothpick ¥700, Galycian style octopus ¥800, Mixed peas salad ¥500, Russian potato salad ¥500.

Bar 494, Wine Bar, A Little Oasis – Bangkok

Sunday, April 6th, 2008

Grand Hyatt Erawan Bangkok
494 Rajdamri Road,
Bangkok, Thailand 10330
Tel: +66 2 254 1234 Fax: +66 2 254 6308

Bar@494 is located on the lower level of the hotel and is such a pleasant retreat with the hull of an outrigger canoe as the centerpiece that divides the seating into two parts in the main bar room, additional seating surrounds this in the semi-courtyard outside. This is one of the few bars in Bangkok that offers a large selection of wines by the glass in addition to all the expected drinks and cocktails. (I will cover the rest of the establishments that also do this soon on my return from Japan).

Here is the way it goes, the wines-by-the-glass are listed
by price starting at:
Price 169 Baht – A selection of Chilean wines,

Price 199 Baht – Includes a better grade of Chilean wines and one Italian Cabernet or Chardonnay and a Shiraz-Cabernet from Australia Price 239 Baht – One unwooded Chardonnay from South Australia, a Chardonnay-Pinot Grigio, two Sangiovese and one Chianti plus one South African and Argentinean wine

Price 494 Baht – better quality Australian, Chilean and Argentinean wines

Price 390 Baht – Sparkling Italian Prosecco

Price 949 – Moet & Chandon Brut Imperial Champagne
The wine selection changes from time to time.

Before the non-smoking law was amended just recently, to include bars and nightclubs and any air-conditioned room, the inside area around the canoe was the non-smoking area and the area in the courtyard was for smokers, and located conveniently just a few steps away was a shop stocking all the famous brands of Cuban cigars, which were available to the customers of the bar.

This new law has changed all this at least as far as the hotels are concerned, although the hotels are obliged to obey the law to the letter other establishments pay no attention to it at all. It just depends on where you go however, this may change when the police start levying fines in June to both customers and establishments. To what degree the law is finally enforced will eventually depend on how much teeth are involved in enforcement of these new smoking laws and for how long.

Not more than 25 meters away on the same floor is the Italian Restaurant Spazzo. Later in the evening when the music starts and you cannot here yourself think, Bar 494 offers a place where people can actually talk to each other of course, it is not a pick-up bar as Spazzo becomes late at night, and as a matter of fact, almost all through the evening.