More and more exquisite restaurants and cafes have been popping up in Bangkok in the recent years, mostly serving fusion food of some sort: Thai-Italian, Thai-Japanese, Thai-French, you name it. Y and I visited Spring & Summer, on Sukhumvit Soi 49, just two sub-sois away from Samitivej Hospital, in the Japanese-y area of Sukhumvit Road.
Spring & Summer is an old house converted into a classy restaurant. Mains are served in the “Spring restaurant”, and dessert in the “Summer chocolate house”, although you could just sit in one place and have all of the above. At night, if you aren’t afraid of mosquitoes and bugs, I’d recommend relaxing out in the spacious “Winter bar” garden on a beanbag with a cocktail in hand.
We ordered a Tuna Tataki Salad as a starter. Presentation was simple, yet amazing. We loved the extra large wooden fork and spoon that came with the dish, for us to toss the salad in. The dressing was a delicious soy wasabi vinaigrette, which worked perfectly with both the greens and the tuna sashimi. Sadly, the star of the dish – the tuna – was not as fresh as we would have liked it to be.
Crab and Artichoke Angel Hair Pasta
I always like angel hair pasta because of its thin texture, and I tend to order it whenever it is on the menu. This time, it was something different – not the more typical truffle oil drizzling in Gianni’s, not the mind blowing cold pasta in il Lido. It was stir-fried Thai style – spiced by chili and herbs, and zinged by artichokes. The sun dried tomatoes and olives added a delicious Mediterranean twist to the dish. Flavors were extremely well-balanced here, but the dish could have been better, because the stir-frying made the pasta overcooked, barring on mushy.
This huge plate of chili glazed baby back ribs has a more interesting name in Thai: ซี่โครงหมูต้องห้าม, which literally means “cautioned ribs”. When the waiter presented us with this dish, our eyes widened at the size of it: two half-stacks of ribs with a thick chili glaze served alongside a huge onion basket. The ribs were delicious to a mind-blowing extent. The juicy meat fell of the bone with just a flick of the knife. The only downside to the ribs were the chili glaze, which we found to be too sweet. As for the onion basket, it cleansed our palette well, although it could have been crispier.
Despite us being extremely full from the main meal, we HAD to move on to dessert, because Spring & Summer makes such wonderful chocolate treats!
This plate is christened Better Than Sex. I can imagine why the name, because the baked chocolate mousse was soooooo delectable, so chocolately, so addictive. We couldn’t get enough of it, and almost fought over who got the last bite. The vanilla ice cream was homemade, with a twist of banana in it, which I did not particularly enjoy, because of the slightly artificial taste that banana flavorings always have (I don’t like banana flavors in general). But oh, did I mention the yummy salted caramel drizzle that runs along the circumference of the plate? Too good.
This was another aptly christened plate: Chocolate Bravo. The lava cake was so perfectly executed: the crust was thin, yet moist, and so much sinful dark chocolate oozed out from the inside. It was served alongside a dollop of chocolate mousse, which rightly did not steal the limelight from the lava cake. Bravo, indeed.
On top of these, the friend had a Strawberry mojito (which was too syrupy) and I had a pineapple and tropical fruits smoothie (which was not too shabby).
For the first time in my blog, I will be splitting my verdict between the mains and the desserts, just because it would be fairer that way.
My verdict: 2/5 spoonfuls for the mains (for the prices charged, I’d be expecting higher standards), and 5/5 spoonfuls for the oh-too-heavenly desserts. I’ll definitely be coming back for the desserts, after a meal somewhere else first. Or maybe, just a meal of chocolate dessert here 😉