The team at Savour BlackBookAsia Magazine went for a truly one of a kind experiential dinner at current Asia’s Best Female Chef 2024 winner, Pichaya ‘Pam’ Soontornyanakij’s Restaurant POTONG. This establishment also has 1 Michelin Star and holds the 17th position on Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants 2024. Located in a five-storey building that housed Chef Pam family’s Chinese herbal medicine business since 1910, now revamped into multiple floors of top notch gastronomy.
You gourmet journey begins at the ground floor where you can see items that each have a story about the former store-front medicine dispensary, Chef Pam’s family and the progressive Thai-Chinese cuisine that diners will embark on. Surrounded by well restored woodwork and apothecary bottles, guests will immediately start to feel the 5 senses of sight, sound, smell, taste and touch as well as 5 senses of salt, acid, spice, texture and Millard reaction to come which is the center of your experience.
From bottom to top, you will then be ushered via a lift to the rooftop and taste local made charcuterie that goes perfectly with a glass of Chardonnay vintage 2018 that has been specially bottled for Restaurant POTONG by Issara Estates winery, which is one of Thailand’s critically acclaimed wine producers. Aged in French oak barrels for twelve months, yielding a medium bodied vino that has notes of honeysuckle and apple with a nice finish of vanilla.
Inspired by the Xiao Long Pau steamed buns, (Dear) is a black chicken tart with trio gel made from garlic, coriander root and pepper served together with a savoury black chicken broth. This broth bursting with Chinese herbaceous flavours is poured table-side in a transparent pot showing it’s almost rich deep orange colour into a larger version of the classic Chinese tea cups. Take a bite from the tart that has a delightful crispy shell and a sip of the amazing extract from the black fowl. A marriage of contemporary craftsmanship and familiar traditional flavours.
(Memories) is for everyone, especially lovers of the crustacean. You have crab curry, mud crab roe emulsion, crab butter bread and black pepper jam. The plating is superlative, and dish utterly magnificent. The bread is excellently toasted and goes wonderfully with the house-made jam and curry that has just the right amount of spice so that diners who cannot take spicy food can also indulge without any worry. Remember to take some photos of this instagrammable course. Sometimes the cameras do “eat” first!
Some say that a general invented the world famous Pad Thai to promote patriotism, in the next course (Grateful) is a presentation of some ingredients inside a vintage mess tin, that is used in making that dish. During that time Chinese food became popular and he combined both Thai and Chinese ingredients to call it Pad Thai. Locally sourced prawn from Rayong is used, covered over in a Thai noodle flag to “hid” all the flavours of Pad Thai. Enjoy it in one of two bites and have a shot of delectable prawn head essence (Alive).
An outstandingly memorable course is Beautiful, made with Mikan-dai or also known as Mandarin Red Seabream with velouté style fermented shrimp (kapi) sauce topped with crispy leeks and garnish with bright edible flowers. A little seafood sauce made from chilli, garlic, onion and squid ink is also added to form additional dimension of tastes. The fish is of a generous portion and superbly cooked retaining it’s tenderness and moisture. Goes well with the tantalising sauce so good you will want to lick everything off the plate.
It brings the team at Savour BlackBookAsia Magazine, lead by Founder, Gabriel Tan great joy to share that Restaurant POTONG and Chef Pichaya ‘Pam’ Soontornyanakij has been voted both Hidden Gem and Top Female Chef Thailand for the first quarter of 2024. A leading indicator for our Annual Travel Awards – Hall Of Fame: The Unadulterated List 2024 come year end. Bravo!
ADDRESS:
422 ถนน วาณิช 1 เขตสัมพันธวงศ์, Samphanthawong, สัมพันธวงศ์, Bangkok 10100, Thailand
PHONE: +66 82 979 3950
WEBSITE: https://www.restaurantpotong.com