Paste Bangkok - Michelin Star Restaurant by Asia's Best Female Chef

Paste Bangkok was one of the best restaurants in Bangkok that we tried during a recent trip to the Thai capital. On its website, Paste describes itself as a restaurant “… serving stunning dishes representative of heirloom Thai cuisine“. Paste Bangkok is helmed by Thai Chef Bee Satongun and her husband, Australian-born Chef Jason Bailey who opened their first outlet of Paste Bangkok Thai restaurant in 2013. They have won a number of culinary awards, including One Star in the Michelin Guide Bangkok 2018 and Best Female Chef 2018 by Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants.

Paste Bangkok restaurant is conveniently located in Bangkok’s Ratchaprasong district. It is on the third level of a swanky mall, Gaysorn Village which is also sometimes referred to as Gaysorn Plaza.

The restaurant was tastefully furnished and we had a table near a window. Unfortunately the view is not particularly attractive – just urban Bangkok traffic. Which is not helped by the giant raindrop decals.

Paste Bangkok menu

Paste Bangkok offers a choice for diners to go with a set menu or to make their own selection from the a la carte menu. We decided on the latter and made our own selection. Here are pictures of some pages from the Paste Bangkok menu.

A welcome drink and amuse bouche were served at the start of our meal.

For starters we selected the “roasted duck, nutmeg, curry paste & sawtooth coriander served on rice crackers” (500 baht). It was a wonderful tasting appetizer. The many ingredients blended well to produce a rounded complex flavour. The rice cracker added a nice crackle to the bite.

Our second dish was “Old style hot & sour soup of crisp pork leg, char-grilled shallots, jackfruit seeds, roasted tomatoes in a smoky chicken broth” (700 baht). The broth was similar to a light version of tom yum soup but with added flavours from the pork and the shallots. The best part of this dish was the crisp pork cubes. Charred to produce a slight burnt taste and with a good blend of fat and lean meat.

For our main course we decided to go for the luxurious sounding “Whole ocean lobster stir-fried with fresh egg noodles, white soy, curry paste & rich pork stock” (1800 baht). The lobster was perfectly cooked and presented. The claws of the lobster were expertly cracked and only in one place but it was enough for the meat to be cleanly extracted. We were not similarly enthusiastic about the noodle part of the dish. They were soft and the broth was very mild with hardly a seafood or curry flavour. It was a nice lobster dish but did not have the magic of the preceding dishes.