Princess of Darkness: Pandanus

As I gave you my word from last night that I will write about 'Pandanus Bar Bristo' today and here I am...ready?

Well, I found this restaurant from Food website which I dare say that it's the darn good place for food resources. Anyhow, I decided to pay Pandanus a visit last night, however I made sure that me and my friend will get seats straight away when we reach to the venue so I gave them a quick phone call for a reservation. I wanted to get sofa seats just to get a glimpse of comfort as you can imagine. However, I was informed that those seats are all taken and the place is almost fully booked, in other word, just sit wherever they give you so be tough and live with it (except that they didn't say that okay..hehehe..don't get the wrong idea).

The location of Pandanus Bar Bristo is in Soi:Satorn 1 (Soi Nunta), it's on the right hand side, very easy to find. Nevertheless, due to the location is situated inside small street there are a limitation on parkings. Therefore, my best advice for people who want to enjoy their time at Pandanus but do not wish to develop more wrinkles onto your faces caused by looking for parking, taking a cab is the best idea for you all.

Nevertheless, I made an appointment at 7p.m. but I got there before time as the traffic wasn't so bad and yes I was quite surprised as well. My first impression for this place before I walk into the restaurant is the contrast between two. What I mean by contrast is that the place looks very cosy because of soft looking/colors of furnitures while the traffic outside the restaurant is always congested. So you sort of get two feelings at once. I wouldn't recommend to sit in the outdoor area if you come during dinner time for the reason that I stated before, traffic congested. You and your friends might lose appetite due to smokes, tooting sounds etc. However, if you come during lunch time, it might be different story and they also provide you a big fan in case of hot weather.

I walked into the restaurant and without realizing, there were two friendly staffs welcome me and asking whether I have booking or not. After I told them my name, they guided me to my table, beverage menu was presented to me within less than 30 seconds. After a quick look around, the place is rather big and most of the tables had reserved sign on. Well, I know some restaurants just simply put the sign on just for the sake of it, not because those tables are reserved. Despite my negativity on reserved sign, I can reassure you that won't be an issue at Pandanus. There are such a variety of drinks both alcohol and non-alcoholic drinks provided here, including smoothies and wines. I ordered Hawaiian Dream, it's a combination of pineapple and orange (which I subsequently found out that they also have a mixture of coconut milk...weird taste I must say). I also ordered Crispy Crab as an appetizer, since I had to wait for my friend to arrive. My drink was served in 10 minutes while add in another 5 minutes Crispy Crab followed by.

From the look of this dish, it looks presentable with a whole deep fried crab, a decent amount of handcut potato chips and side salad which I discovered that there was a pinch of vinegar sauce right at the bottom of salad. I really enjoyed this dish as you can basically eat the whole crap without peeling anything off. For the drink, it gave me a funny taste at the very first sip but it didn't entirely put me off but always think twice before I went for another sip as you can imagine. Maybe it's the unpleasant coconut taste that caused me to feel that way.

Friend arrived and decided to order more dishes, so we had Grilled Salmon with Green Curry and Spinach covered with melty cheese. I have to mention as we go on that at Pandanus, they serve fusion/Thai cuisine food so some dishes might not look like as you expected but I guess you hhave to put the prejudice aside and actually try it. Like I always say, you don't know until you try. When we ordered grilled salmon with green curry, I expected it to come in a bowl and found out that it came on a big flat plate. Grilled salmon on top and green curry at the bottom, not creamy green curry but not so dry. I loved this dish as well, I guess with fusion food, it makes you sort of make people think about how far food can go in terms of decoration and taste. I'm not a big fan of spinach but I guess melty cheese helped me to enjoy it. All the dishes are in reasonable size and we were full from these three dishes..quite rare actually.

However, we still left some room for dessert I guess you just have to try bits of this and that right. I had strawberry shortcake while my friend had Chocolate brownie. I loved how Pandanus presents each dish in distinguish style, it shows their creativity if you know what I mean. Desserts were alright not as convincing as main dishes. The price for the whole meal is around THB 1,400 including service charged and VAT. It's quite high comparing to normal restaurants but you need to keep in mind that you also pay for this funky place with nice services from these lovely staffs.

Overall, I really enjoyed my meal and my time there considering we spent almost 4 hours there. The place is easily located, staffs are presentable and exceedingly helpful. I actually asked them that usually how many days in advance that custmers need to make for reservation. She said probably 5-6 days in advance which is fair enough. I was at the bottom floor, while the second floor is a bar area with loud music so you can actually throw a dance party with your friends up there if you wish but for me, I prefer a nice, breezy music so I can actually hear my friends while chatting, not yelling but also enjoy my night away with good meals.

Please note: pictures are in ghastly poor conditions due to my stupid phone. I forgot to bring a proper camera... yes it's my fault!!!