Bangkok - Sala Rim Naan

The Oriental Bangkok is one of the world’s legendary hotels and Sala Rim Naan is its ‘signature Thai restaurant’, so it should be good.

Enter the hotel lobby and walk towards the river, along the narrow path flanked by restaurant tables and sardined sun loungers. Not a position for the claustrophobic.

The Oriental has several boats to ferry guests to various parts of the Chao Phraya river, which remains unchanged since the days of the James Bond movie, ‘The Man with the Golden Gun’. Monster truck engines power long thin vessels at speed. One wonders how many engines have crashed to the river bed as amateur Thai physicists have fluffed their weight to boat length calculations.

Cross the river to the Oriental Spa and Sala Mim Naam restaurant, which the hotel web site, very optimistically, describes a ‘mini royal palace’. However, the view back across the river towards the Lebua State Tower is impressive.

We were shown to a table and handed a cocktail list from which we order two at 270 baht each.  Before these arrived we were urged to begin the buffet.

“But what about the cocktails?  Couldn’t we relax with these as an aperitif?”

Apparently not. The waiter was insistent.

The cocktails arrived as we reviewed the selection of starters chosen from the buffet.  The sweet and sickly ‘Oriental Maitai’ was an awful accompaniment to the prawn, chicken and various Thai salad dishes.  Needless to say the enforced cocktails remained on the table largely untouched.

The cost of the buffet (900 baht / £15 / $30) reflected the disappointing quality of the food. The restaurant was overrun with tour parties.  All in all, not the experience one would expect from Bangkok’s grandest hotel.


Sala Rim Naan
Oriental Hotel
Bangkok

+66 2 437 6211

http://www.mandarinoriental.com/