Shop till you Eat
The shopping mall culture is more than simply retail therapy which has evolved into a lifestyle activity. More and more people go for the whole day just to be there. It's the cluster point for shopping, restaurants, entertainment and leisure sports such as fitness centres and bowling.
Traditionally fine dining restaurants were either stand alone or located in four and five star hotels. The recent trend is for them to have a presence in the place where people spend most time – the shopping mall. The period of time spent there has become longer crossing over meal times. When the shopper is tired and hungry, their favourite eatery is there at hand to serve them. Many established hotels and restaurants have some form of dining concept in each of the leading malls.
To explore this new dining trend, Laurence Civil, our food writer will walk you through floor by floor of the top four - Emporium, Central Chidlom, Central World Plaza and Siam Paragon, all conveniently linked on the same sky train line.
Emporium
On the ground floor, the elegantly stylish Salon de L'Oriental, a terrace style chic café perfect for tea or coffee, cakes and sandwiches or some significant grazing. On the next floor Kalprapeuek on first for smart Thai and Asian meals or snacks. On 2nd floor Greyhound Café with Thai and fusion Asian style menus, a stylish modern atmosphere serving delicious food with a touch of creativity. On the third there is Utaandon for classic Japanese cuisine. Continuing with the same food style on 4th floor there is AOI and Fuji restaurants opposite each other.
The majority of Emporium's dining venues are up on the 5th floor, Piri Piri for flame grilled chicken; Pomodoro for classic Italian favourites; Sumo for more Japanese; the newly opened The Emperor by Great China plus the Food Court for a wide selection of Thai dishes.
Park Food Hall is their multi kitchen or Food Loft style restaurant, run on the basis that each guest is given a card with a chargeable value of B1,000. They place their order at the kitchen counters of Café Fish, Fallabella, Whittards of Chelsea, Olive, Tony Roma Express, La Glace Café and Aloo by Face.
Hopping onto the Sky Train, our next stop is Central Chidlom.
Central Chidlom
There is the compulsory Starbucks on the first floor. Moving up to the second, we find The Little Kitchen neatly tucked into the curve lane serving fiery Thai and vegetarian, great for a tasty quick meal. The magic of Greyhound Cafes is you don't have to find them, they find you and there is another conveniently waiting on the third floor. The Sixth Sense is a smart open style café serving authentic Thai food with a twist or should the mood permit a wine bar to sit, sip and relax. For healthy salads, sandwiches, pasta and soups The Mediterranean on the 5th.
The original Food Loft on the 7th floor is where foods of the world unite in the much talked about open kitchen restaurant. It features famous restaurateurs such as Gianni for Italian, Yahata Sushi Japanese, Mud-Mee Thai, Tidbit Treasure Chinese, Dao Vien Vietnamese and Ind Spice for Indian cuisine. They have been carefully selected by Central for their vast experience in their respective industry and for excellent quality food with good taste. It has a very nice interior décor with a unique mezzanine floor based on a Loft design, featuring a raw industrial concept, refined with nice decorative elements and well-presented food booths with virtually attractive layouts.
From Chidlom BTS we can take the walking bridge to Central World Shopping Complex where we are just spoilt for choice.
Central World
New dining outlets are constantly opening here. One of the latest is Lemon Cherry on the ground floor, an east meets west or fusion of healthy and innovative noodles – a style to be known as "Noodles by Blue Elephant". This is the essential new attitude, up market noodle shop. On the third floor Mos Burger a Japanese burger and coffee chain is so popular that it has people queuing to get in. Egs on the same floor serves great Korean Fusion Rice. There is more fusion at Mixt offering interesting Asian taste combinations.
But the majority of restaurants are clustered on 6th and 7th floors. On the 6th you will find Vietnamese at Gia Long. Ramen are serving a unique Japanese noodle soup, originating from China. For classic Chinese, Gold Shanghai Ziaolongpao. Or for Thai spicy salads and noodles there is Yum & Tum.
On the 7th floor we find Fondooz by Chesa where you can dunk a piece of bread into a pot of hot melted Swiss cheese and wine or pieces of fruit into a fondue pot of melted chocolate. Quality burgers can be The Garage if your tummy is crying out for a fill up. Kabuki has over 130 years Japanese restaurant experience and have been in Thailand for the 16 years serving traditional Japanese favourites.
The third and latest FoodLoft, the same restaurant concept as at Central Chidlom and Ladprao have just opened here. They have clustered together Chinese by Tibet, Italian by Gianni, Vietnamese by Dao Vien, Korean by Koreana, Japanese by Houyou and Grill by Giusto.
Then back to the walking bridge that links to Siam Paragon.
Here you find the largest collection of fine dining restaurants in a retail environment. Amazingly eight of them were awarded Best Restaurant 2007 by Thailand Tatler's best restaurant guide.
On the ground floor there is classical Italian at Amici by Pomodoro. If you are in the mood for great Cantonese try Crystal Jade Restaurant. For some creative Thai tastes by Nawart Srisukont, Café Chilli awaits. If you feel like having some traditional Japanese, Kabuki is waiting to take your order. Manna a spacious Thai restaurant that has a chic café feel, serves great Thai dishes. For ribs, steak and seafood pop over to Tony Roma's. Belguardo serve an excellent five star Italian dining experience. For Japanese urban dining, how about The Grill Tokyo by Nippon Tei. Stylish grazing awaits at Savoury gastrocafe.
Up on the first floor Another Hound by Greyhound Café offers a combination of Italian, contemporary Thai and fusion food presented amid a theatrically sophisticated setting.
Shopping can be very wearying and thankfully L'Espace de L'Oriental along with the Peninsula Boutique & Café are both calmly waiting to offer sanctuaries of peace to relax or restore.
On the 4th floor, The Orangery, the multi kitchen dining experience ordered from a single menu in a refined restaurant setting. Food from the Blue Elephant (Thai), Cedar (Lebanese), Chine Chine (Chinese), Giusto (Italian), Taj by Rang Mahal (Indian), Kamon by Siam City Hotel (Japanese), Mes Amis (French), and Ice cream by Buana Gelati and coffee by Lavazza.
All four shopping centres have many common restaurants in various forms. They are there to feed the hungry shopper when needed. However, with so many restaurants now having a presence in a retail environment do we shop to eat or eat to shop, I am really not quite sure.
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