I've lived in the same apartment building in Bangkok for nine years and, although I love it, one thing I've never liked is there isn't a decent restaurant closer than a ten minute walk away. I was thrilled therefore to look out of my window one day and see an Italian-style villa building being built on the same street I live on.
When I discovered it was a new Thai fusion restaurant I was even happier as it's a very short walk from my front door. The restaurant's name is Tuscany, and it opened on December 25th, 2009. On its second week of operation, I treated two Thai friends to dinner so we could check out this beautiful place. Since my initial visit, I've been back many times and now, two years later, Tuscany is one of the most popular restaurants in the Pahonyothin area.
Tuscany - The Building - Looking at Tuscany from the street, you would presume it was an Italian restaurant. With architecture like a typical Italian villa and painted bright oranges and yellows, it's the quintessential Italian building. Add to that the enormous wooden benches and tables outside, the outdoor bar area, and narrow pools of water lined around the building and, if you didn't know, you'd swear you were in Italy.
Tuscany - The Food - In true Thai style though, what you see is not always what you get. Once we arrived at the restaurant and asked for menus, we questioned our waiter as to what kind of food was on offer. Expecting pasta, pizza, antipasta and any number of Italian dishes, we were surprised to hear it was all Thai food. More of a style of Thai fusion food, but Thai food all the same.
Odd then, that you would build an Italian villa and name the restaurant Tuscany. But, having lived in Bangkok for so long, odd to me now seems normal.
One problem we encountered was the menu. Only written in Thai, that meant I couldn't read it and out of my two Thai friends, one has lived in the US most of her life, so she can't read Thai either. That left us with our other friend who ended up having to order most of the food. Simply because she knew what they served.
We asked about the house specialty and was told it was slices of chicken with a mayonnaise type sauce on top served with salad. Sounds a little odd, but what the heck, so we ordered it. We followed that up with a green chicken curry, som tam (Thai spicy papaya salad), a full crispy ham shank, a spicy mushroom dish and larb (spicy minced pork) plus three servings of white rice, a bottle of water and two iced lemon blended drinks.
We were served the spicy mushroom dish first, which just about blew my head off it was so hot. Delicious though as long as I drank a lot of water with it. Everything else arrived soon after and, out of the six dishes, the only one we didn't like was the larb. Loaded with salt and with a funky after taste, we sent it back to have more lime added to it, only to realize it wasn't going to help much.
Other than the larb though, every other dish was perfect, and on more recent visits they've improved the larb too. The som tam however was the best I've eaten, the crispy ham shank was succulent (and enormous!) and only 250 baht ($8.10) and everything else was delicious too.
Tuscany - The Service - Keep in mind, the restaurant has only been open for a week so all the staff is new. We discovered quickly no one seemed to know what was on the menu, who had ordered what food, and what ingredients went into anything. However, they were all happy, smiling, helpful and really tried so, to me, that's all I need. They'll get better with practice, I'm sure.
Tuscany - The Atmosphere - The atmosphere at Tuscany is just lovely. The restaurant is in a small soi (lane) in a quiet area with not a lot of traffic. The outside seating does get hot in summer, but with white padded benches and tables on one side of the garden and higher wooden benches on the other side, it does look pretty. If the heat bothers you though, there's ample seating inside too.
Add to that the narrow lighted pools, the fairy lights on the trees, the large screen playing movies and music videos (but with no sound when we were there), the calming music in the background, the new wooden deck for even more seating, and the beautifully lit Italian villa as a backdrop, and it's a gorgeous place for dinner.
Tuscany - The Price - Many Thai fusion restaurants in Bangkok can be expensive and as, remember, we couldn't read the menu, I had no idea how much the evening was going to cost us. Imagine my surprise therefore to be presented with the bill. We ate six large dishes, three bowls of rice, drank a large bottle of water and two huge lemon ice blended drinks and the total bill was only 950 baht ($30.50). Cheap for so much food and so much delicious food too.
Be warned however, since our initial visit prices have increased quite markedly and portions are much smaller. Expect now to pay at least 1,500 baht ($48.50) for similar dishes but, yes, they are still delicious.
Tuscany is located on Pahonyothin, Soi 23, Ladprao, Chatuchak Bangkok.
