So I discovered this subreddit a little late, but I ate here right before the 2024 Edition of the World’s Best list was released, when Bangkok’s Le Du still held the title of Best Restaurant in Asia.
So it was with much excitement when I made my reservation. I could only get into the second dinner seating at 9:00pm, so that might account for some of the experience.
1: I found the front-of-house who greeted me rather standoffish. I am fairly young and she greeted me with a scowl and side glance, but when my father entered behind me, suddenly she was all bubbly and excited. Left me with a really bad first impression.
2: The first amuse bouche was a morning glory cake with sriracha emulsion. It was nice, if slight and forgettable. A but too earthy for my taste.
3: the next amuse bouche was Mushroom, Fermented Soybean, and Burnt Egg Sauce. This was pretty bad. It had the texture of slop and would’ve benefitted from a tart or pastry or some vehicle to carry it. The taste of mushroom was drowned by the fermented soy.
4: Kale cram soup, salted mackerel pudding, and pickled local tuna. The first standout dish. The creaminess of the kale soup was cut nicely by the saltiness of the mackerel and the sharpness of the pickled tuna. Micro-lettuce provided a nice textural break.
5: Fried crab meat, tofu, bean sprout, pickled radish, and dehydrated soy sauce. This dish was 80% pickled radish which overwhelmed the crab. Just not an ideal balance. The star of the dish was the uber crispy dehydrated soy.
6: Red snapper, mantis shrimp, bitter melon sorbet. The best dish of the night, fresh raw snapper and mantis were elevated by a bitter melon sorbet which blinded the palate with a cool, herbal punch.
7: Squid, strawberry and celery salad, salted egg mousse, squid ink and cognac sauce. The dish I was most excited for was the biggest let down of the night. None of the flavors complemented each other and the sauce had a grainy quality to it, very unpleasant.
8: The first main was Grouper, Adlai, crispy tofu, fiddlefern, tofu congee, and white chive cream sauce. This dish was great. Meant to simulate traditional porridge and it’s various toppings, a marvel of texture and innovation. Rather amazing how they achieved the fluffiness of rice with a thin tofu soup.
9: Pork, salted fish, and shrimp dumplings, Chinese sausage pure, oyster, and soup of plum and clams. A very comforting dish that I thought could’ve taken more risk. It reminded me too much of comfort food from my native country. But otherwise, quite nice.
10: Thai Wagyu, berries, and spicy sauce. Fantastic quality beef.
11: Signature River prawn, shrimp paste brown rice, crispy scrambled egg, and Tom yum sauce made of prawn heads. Le Du’s signature dish was another let down. Beautifully presented and with pleasant enough—if familiar—flavors, but the shrimp was either old or frozen or over cooked as the meat was very adherent to the shell. It made eating this dish less enjoyable.
12: Sorbet was lovely.
13: Coconut ice cream, Panna cotta, grilled corn, black sesame cake, and pear. The most beautiful dish was another disappointment. The ice cream and cake were fine, but the panna cotta was stiff, the corn random, and the pear negligible.
14, 15: The petit fours were unexciting and I felt I could have gotten them anywhere in Thailand. Coconut-Pandan and rice-sesame cakes were traditional. Fresh fruit was fresh fruit. What more can I say? Mother Nature is a great cook but I don’t think I need to pay top dollar for dragon fruit, papaya, guava, and watermelon.
Overall, Le Du was fine. The mains were for the most part good. The starters hit or miss. And the desserts uniformly disappointing. A few weeks after dining at Le Du, it fell 11 spots on the World’s Best list of Best restaurants in Asia, which I would think is a more accurate assessment.
Bathroom review: Before having a single bite, I always ask to use the washroom first. I think the quality of a fine dining establishment’s washroom is a pretty good expectation-setting indicator of a restaurant’s care and attention to detail. Unfortunately, at Le Du, there was piss on the floor.
by SilkyFandango