Le Cafe Siam Restaurant Bangkok

A gorgeously restored, two-storey old building which exudes home comforts amid a French colonial ambience.

Magnificent French and Thai tastes which go far beyond the usual snails and foie gras emphasised at other French restaurants. Mille feuilles of grilled vegetables, fresh goat cheese and pesto vinaigrette is a great way to begin, and puts lots of eggplant in a very fresh salad. Baked sea bass en papillote, with lemon butter and chopped black olives, delights with a nice, cheesy sauce decked with asparagus and other treats. Mee krob chao wang displays a deft chef's ability to turn a traditional Thai dish into a delicious, honeyed, crunchy pile of shredded flavour. Ravioli sai pu tom yum is an excellent soup cleverly packed with complex ingredients. Snowfish nam dang, however, overwhelms the fish with a spicy chilli sauce. Dessert becomes sinfully sensational in the form of a chocolate fondant with mango coulis.

Le Cafe Siam Restaurant Bangkok

4 Soi Sri Aksorn, Chua Ploeng Rd, Bangkok 10120

Le Bouchon Restaurant Bangkok

Le Bouchon restaurant is located in the heart of Patpong, the famous entertainment area in Bangkok.

It is located in a one floor shop-house with a large bar, small dining room, and an even smaller kitchen and toilet.

The amicable owner, Serge Martiani, is usually at the bar and you may have a chat with him. It has been very popular over the last ten years especially with the French crowd, and the main draw is not the menu but the real bistro feel of the place, it seems that everyone feels comfortable here and I would advise advance booking, due to the popularity and limited seating. You can always eat at the bar, if you can find a spot to squeeze in.

During a recent lunch and after looking at the very extensive blackboard menus, which are propped-up in front of you by the friendly tri-lingual waitresses, I chose to start with what turned out to be a very fresh tomato salad drizzled with vanilla scented, olive oil and sprinkled with pink peppercorns from Madagascar, and my dining companion ordered lentil soup for the first course. I followed with lamb shank with white beans while my friend had duck confit. It was all washed down with a good bottle of red Cahor wine.

This was followed by a couple of eau-de-vie Poire William to finish.

Le Bouchon Restaurant Bangkok

37/17 Patpong soi 2, Surawongse Road, Bangkok 10500 Tel. 02-234-9109

Le Beaulieu Restaurant Bangkok

Classic French cuisine makes many demands of the chef - adherence to strict rules, an understanding of special methods and techniques, skills acquired after long apprenticeships in the kitchens of great restaurants.

At Le Beaulieu, Chef Herve Frerard knows what a great dish requires. His sauces, the foundation of haute cuisine, are created under the strict, time-consuming rules he has learned in major restaurants in Europe.

Yet French gastronomy today is constantly transforming. Out of tradition, aesthetic sense, and culinary history is evolving a re-interpretation of French haute cuisine into "French Contemporary", where elegance underlies a subtle simplicity, and fine ingredients are presented with a clarity of taste.

All these are elements you'll find at Le Beaulieu, where the 200-year-old French culinary heritage is re-interpreted in a contemporary setting.

Le Beaulieu Restaurant Bangkok

Sofitel Residence, 50 Sukhumvit Soi 19, Bangkok

Le Banyan Restaurant Bangkok

Le Banyan Restaurant Bangkok is a Thai house splashed in yellow and red with a bar on one side and traditional table settings.

For 18 years chef Michel Binaux and partner Bruno Bischoff have continued a legacy that keeps Le Banyan a respected French restaurant. Among the foie gras variations, try deglazing with blackcurrant vinegar and apple galette; pan-fried yet served semi-cooked helps the liver lobe to resonate with a sweet hint. Hot appetisers such as lobster bisque is aromatised the old-fashioned way with cognac. While Le Banyan is synonymous with Rouennaise-style pressed duck, a traditional French delicacy that uses the juice squeezed from the duck as a sauce, chef Binaux's culinary expertise is also attested by chateaubriand, medium grilled before flambeed with Armagnac and served with red wine sauce and bone marrow croutons. End the meal with calvados and souffle or choux pastry profiteroles with fruit sherbet.

Le Banyan Restaurant Bangkok

59 Sukhumvit Soi 8, Bangkok 10110

D'sens Restaurant Bangkok

Right at the top of the hotel, D'Sens's full-length glass windows provide breathtaking views of the city.

Michelin-star twin chefs Jacques and Laurent Pourcel have created a menu that is modern French inspired by the Mediterranean influences of their restaurant at Montpellier in the south of France. Specialty ingredients are imported to provide an exceptional dining experience. Each item on the menu is paired with a recommended wine. Start with Brittany blue lobster terrine, served with mango and baby vegetables, smoked duck breast, snow peas and vanilla-flavoured olive oil. Duck liver ravioli is a speciality that lives up to its reputation. For a main course, duo of pan-fried beef fillet and braised short ribs in red wine with black truffle mousse is strongly recommended. Not to be missed are some divine desserts.

D'sens Restaurant Bangkok

Dusit Thani Hotel, 946 Rama IV Rd, Bangkok 10500

Comtesse Du Barry Restaurant Bangkok

On offer here are minimalist dishes for high prices. Begin with caesar salad for a modest-sized, adequate item adorned with bacon bits and fragments of parmesan cheese. Frog legs is tasty but leaves you wishing for more. Agnolottis ravioli arrives in a standard tomato-based sauce. Duck breast with sauteed potatoes and mushrooms is a large serving of breast with a side of potato and mushroom that is not very special. Grilled Australian rack of lamb in rosemary sauce is two small chops along with potatoes, offering a nice flavour. Lots of foie gras choices, along with snails, oysters and other options are also on the menu. Poached pears is a nice dessert choice.

A narrow, modern cafe with candle-lit tables and pale yellow tablecloths that soften the mood.

Comtesse Du Barry Restaurant Bangkok

Address: 1st fl, Erawan Bangkok, 494 Rajdamri Rd, Bangkok 10330

Tel: 0-2250-7871

Style: French

C'est Bon Restaurant Bangkok

Smooth flavours which may taste bland to some who favour sharper, bolder recipes, this is the place for nice, unchallenging meals. Caesar salad is adequate and very mild, with its romaine lettuce, anchovies, egg, parmesan cheese and croutons free of the pointy piquancy offered in other restaurants. Smoked salmon is fine and is sliced thin so it easily drapes rocket salad and capers, surrounded by squirts of a lemon-dillmustard dressing. Foie gras is prepared as two pan-fried goose liver pieces on a slice of warm pear in raspberry sauce, along with a corn fritter. Rack of lamb is thick but its roasted Australian chops lack flavour and are not exceptional, despite its bed of ratatouille and rosemary sauce. Grilled tuna steak is more successful and presents two slices on grated beetroot, with welcome dabs of garlic cream sauce. For dessert try creme brulee, a really good custard topped with kiwi and tangerine.

Cosy, romantic and sophisticated. Framed black-and-white photographs adorn the walls of this graceful, well-appointed restaurant which dangles silky gauze between some tables to seclude diners in semi-cocoons amid little pillows, indirect lighting and other flourishes.

Address: PRESIDENT TOWER ARCADE, 975 PLOENCHIT ROAD, BANGKOK 10330

Tel: 0-2656-1531-2

Style: French