The Mandarin Oriental machine is in its element when it comes to service. From the tailored-and-starched outfits of every waiter (it’s hard to count exactly how many) to maitre d’ Rahman Bousnina’s encyclopedic introduction to each course, Le Normandie’s service is on a level that feels archaically perfect—and with a good portion of the front-of-house team having worked there for over two decades, this really is service born from another era. The experience of a Le Normandie waiter rolling the straight-from dessert trolley to your table in order to draw a perfect fleur de-lis in your creme Anglaise is worth visiting for alone.

 

 

 

The three sommeliers at Gaggan—one French, one Japanese and one Scottish—have  grabbed hold of the wine menu and driven it down a natural, biodynamic route that’s as unconventional as Gaggan’s dishes. They have a cellar of some 5,000 bottles to play with, and shake up the wine pairing menu on a nightly basis. One course you might get is an Australian Semillon that’s been undergoing six months’ malolactic conversion in the bottle, while another might spotlight the rustic, cider-like flavors of an orange Chardonnay. If all this sounds like hard work, they’ll also offer a more “classic” pairing for those who want it. Gaggan operates a strict no-corkage policy, so don’t expect to turn up looking the big shot with a bottle of Petrus.

 

 

 

Classical French pastry technique meets the flavors of Thailand in chef Paper’s delicate jasmine-infused macarons, moist-yet-crumbly kaffir lime madeleines, and perfectly light mango-and-pandanus choux buns. After her formal training at France’s Gastronomicom pastry school—followed by stints in the kitchens of Sadaharu Aoki and Hugues Pouget in Paris—Paper moved back to Bangkok where she joined prolific chef-restaurateur Ian Kittichai for the opening of Issaya Siamese Club. Since then, she’s been making sure our lazy Sunday afternoons in Central Embassy are catered to with gloriously indulgent eclairs (the Thai-style caramelized banana flavor is to die for) and a comforting taste of the tropics. Chef Paper’s cooking proves that, in the right hands, cultural culinary- mashups can work superbly.

 

 

Once the underdog of Thai fine dining, caught between the pioneers (Bo.lan) and the Michelin affiliate (Nahm), Paste proved in 2017-18 that it’s every bit as relevant as its contemporaries. Michelin star: check. Asia’s 50 Best nod: check. And now, it’s highest ever position in BK’s Top Tables, where it sits above every other Thai restaurant that made this year’s guide. Chalk it up to chefs Bongkoch “Bee” Satongun and Jason Bailey’s creative interpretations of antiquated recipes, about which they are fanatical, as well as a beautifully muted dining space that shuns Thai restaurant cliches. “When we first opened in Sukhumvit Soi 49, we were empty for almost three months,” says Bee. “We would turn on some music and still nobody would come, but we just kept going”. The fruits of that perseverance have most definitely ripened.