Zanotti, Bangkok

Zanotti is unarguably one of Bangkok's best Italian restaurants. Bookings are essential here, even on weekdays.

Despite being complimentary, the starter of bruschetta was very good. The bread base was crisp enough to impart a crunch but not tooth-breakingly hard. The tomato chunks tasted very fresh as well.

The bread basket was served warm and with whipped room-temperature thawed butter. The assort of breads included the softest rolls and crispy pizza dough based slices. Definitely another winner.

This starter was more like a moussaka than the traditional Italian caponata because it was served warm. The cheese layers and the soft grilled aubergine slices went extremely well with the anchovies on top. Especially tasty were the crisp burnt cheese edges and corners.

Next up was the entree of lobster with homemade egg pasta. The pasta was nicely done al dante but I felt that the lobster flesh wasn't the freshest because it was slightly mushy. Nonetheless, the subtle flavor of the lobster and mild pasta made this a pretty good prelude to the mains.

The grilled seabass wasn't really what I expected because it was drowned in the sauce. Fortunately the sauce was quite tasty, not too salty and complemented the grilled seabass fillet quite well.

The next main of grilled beef tenderloin with a mushroom sauce was better than the seabass. Although it was done well, it was tender and thin enough to have a decent masticatory texture. The sides of buttered spinach which came with both mains deserves a special mention because it was really quite excellent. With a strong buttery flavor, you won't even know that you're eating spinach when you sink your teeth into it. Great stuff!

Before our desserts were served, we were given a complimentary serve of chiacchiere. I was never a big fan of these crispy sugary pastries but they tasted fresh here at least. Some of the pre-packaged ones that you get from the European grocers have that disgusting taste of rancid oil, luckily this tasted light and fresh.

The creme caramel slice was nothing to shout about. It wasn't even made individually, although the texture and flavor was better than the one at Shahrazad.

The profiteroles however, restored my faith in Zanotti's desserts. Sometimes the simplest desserts are the hardest ones to master. The soft puff contained a slightly sweet but rich and creamy core but the warm chocolate sauce on top really made this king.

D