Restaurant of the Month - ETC

As I walked into the restaurant the first thing I felt was the fresh bright and exciting dinning environment. Typical of the new generation of “casual elegant” dinning, it is comfortable and relaxed, yet still ready to deliver the service but with less of the starch.

An eclectic selection of dishes from East and West has been drawn together by Executive Chef Michael Hoevel. He has brought together his own travel and culinary experiences to create a menu of world cuisine.

“I am excited about being in a different country where I can use the influences I adopted in Europe to expand my creativity and help develop unique styles, ” says Chef Hoevel. “It’s always challenging to blend western cuisine with new and refreshing touches of Asiatic concepts. I call it Asiatic cuisine as fusion would be the wrong word. I want to bring our guests a new culinary experience and World cuisine, I don’t want to confuse them.”

There is a theatrical element to restaurant each section being called a stage. The first I visited was the cold stage with such tastes as smoked salmon infused with lemongrass. A nice touch is there are only small quantities of each dish on display, ensuring freshness and avoiding “buffet fatigue”.

The showpiece has to be their bread stage with its Wood Burning Bell shaped “Beech” Oven. Its here they bake superb thin crusts. Their baked crust roll, with the selection of filling changed daily, is complimentary but the taste is simply wonderful. The thickness of the crust is just a little thicker than filo pastry. I then went onto try their Smoked Salmon Crust, the thin base topped with basil, oregano, smoked salmon, cr?me fraiche and Arugulla, a most elegant sophisticated pizza.

Moving onto the warm stage with chef make specialty dishes. For the lovers of Japanese cuisine there is a wide range of sushi, sashimi and maki.

The fourth stage is the Asian display kitchen, where guest can watch the chefs at work behind glass partitions. In the powerful Chinese Barbecue oven they prepare Peking Duck and the delicious Whole Suckling Pig.

While on the Grill they prepare such interesting taste combinations Duck Breast served with a Blackberry BBQ Sauce, Pork Chops with a Pear Chutney & Fried Carrot Crisps or Lemongrass Crusted Lamb Rack with a Hoisin Glaze.

Then for dessert I couldn’t resist was their fruit pizza. Had I tasted this dish blind I would never have identified it as a pizza, the base was more like a light French pastry.

With Etc there is a clever balance of self service buffet and a la carte to suit mood or time of they day as its open from 6am to 11pm.

ETC, Royal Orchid Sheraton, 2 Captain Bush Lane, Bangkok k 10500 Tel (66) 0-2266-0123, Fax (66) 0-2237-2152