• LIFE

  Trails from the riverbank

  Life, Noel Maclean, Published on 06/12/2012

  » Under the midday sun, the view from Trader Vic's multi-ethnic cuisine restaurant is of a broad reach of river flowing fast to the sea such as inspired Joseph Conrad's tales of hapless expats getting lost in translation. The Chao Phraya - River of Kings, if you will - feels steeped in history and continues to evoke an age of romance. Forgetting the condos rising along its edge and focusing instead on high-gloss rice barges turned gin palaces moored closer by, just the sight of it makes you feel like rowing out to a schooner moored midstream and setting sale for the fictional Vic's spiritual home in Polynesia. One might also imagine the legendary bon vivant stepping ashore and emerging between a riot of waxen foliage with his mates, like an earlier age Anthony Bourdain in search of exotic culinary sensations with which to treat his compadres on his eventual return home. The welcome, a Thai-style orchid garland hung around your neck in a thin rendition of the Hawaiian custom, adds more to the atmosphere.

• LIFE

  URBAN CHIC design for dining

  Life, Noel Maclean, Published on 18/12/2012

  » You can tell Red Oven's heart is in the right place because, of all the fanciful names it could have come up with, given its dramatic design and view, it chose instead to give the salute to its plumbing, if you will.

• LIFE

  A little piece of Paris in Bangkok

  Life, Noel Maclean, Published on 21/12/2012

  » Ah yes, I remember it well. I fell under the spell of Parisian apartments when I joined a friend on a cross-channel visit to a distant cousin of his and found myself inside one around the corner from Pigalle, surrounded by young arty types. This was how life should be, I strongly felt. But I'd never had the opportunity to repeat the experience until I recently visited L'Appart, Sofitel Bangkok Sukhumvit's top-floor restaurant bar conceived in the same spirit.

• LIFE

  Tables turned

  Life, Noel Maclean, Published on 09/12/2013

  » Don't wait for a special occasion to indulge in the Western fine dining experience par excellence for which Tables at The Grand Hyatt Erawan Bangkok is justly renowned. That's the message from the team. And to show they mean more open business, they've tweaked the layout to make it easier to just wander in and remarkably expanded the core culinary attraction: prime steaks perfectly turned.

• TRAVEL

  A Square deal celebration

  Life, Noel Maclean, Published on 10/12/2013

  » One of the most popular and affordable upscale buffets in town has long been The SQUARE, up on the 2nd floor of Novotel Bangkok on Siam Square.

• TRAVEL

  Spa tales from the river bank

  Life, Noel Maclean, Published on 17/12/2013

  » Though ultra-contemporary, like the hotel that houses it, eforea Spa at the Millennium Hilton Hotel channels nature so effectively it actually enhances it, which is probably why treatments there leave you feeling so on top of the world.

• LIFE

  Growing older gracefully

  Life, Noel Maclean, Published on 25/12/2013

  » Since it opened on Songkran 1983, the rather quaint Thai restaurant nestling a quiet corner of the Four Seasons Hotel Bangkok's open-air Parichart Court garden & upscale dining, shopping & art exhibition arcade, has been a leopard that has proudly stood by its spots.

• LIFE

  What's new at Next2?

  Life, Noel Maclean, Published on 31/12/2013

  » If ever there was a buffet that lucked out in the gene pool, this is it. Picturesque riverside location? Check. High-end design that at once delights the senses and serves vast volumes of freshly-prepared food without anyone's toes getting trodden on? Uh ha. And what of said comestibles? Are they truly top drawer? Well duh.

• LIFE

  Luce in the sky with truffles

  Holiday Time, Noel Maclean, Published on 02/12/2015

  » Luce - with the last letter pronounced like the 'e' in café - Italian Restaurant and Lounge at Eastin Grand Sathorn is the first Luce to be opened in Asia, and the fourth in the world, after Italy, Moscow and Frisco, the latter garnering a Michelin star four years running.

• LIFE

  Shanghigh

  Holiday Time, Noel Maclean, Published on 14/12/2018

  » It’s wiggle room only at street level on Surawongse but ascend to Yào Restaurant & Rooftop Bar’s high-flying lair at levels 32 of Bangkok Marriott The Surawongse, and you feel free and see far as a bird.

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