Gaggan, Bangkok: restaurant review

This innovative Bangkok restaurant was named Best in Asia last year. That kind of recognition can ruin a place. Has it?

Entree to the main curse

What does being Asia’s “best” restaurant mean? What happens once a body of voters has attempted to measure the unmeasurable?

For one, extreme anxiety on the part of any diner trapped in the moronic snarl of Bangkok’s peak hour, trying to make a 6pm reservation. Still, whatever my stress levels (unfounded; they simply stagger bookings to suit the kitchen), they almost certainly can’t compare with what the title has meant to Gaggan.

Can you imagine what it’s like having all these (mostly foreign) customers turning up in your soi to find out what the Best Restaurant in Asia (according to the 2014 S. Pellegrino Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants list) is all about?

In a cardamom pod … Gaggan Anand is an Indian-born chef who worked at El Bulli back in the day and now plies his trade at this eponymous restaurant. His is a “progressive” Indian cuisine. Think stabilised froths and spherification, a spin on the old Ferran Adria tricks. His restaurant is a fairly reverential one; lots of waiters, no music, conservative furnishings, a slight suggestion of British colonialism. Nothing, really, to suggest a creative or unconventional beating heart.

The reality: There are two set menus, both multi-course extravaganzas, both a familiar format these days, of whimsical items delivered in threes, building up to more substantial, but never large dishes, which tend to a more traditional Indian model. Your choice may depend on how big was your lunch and how many hours ago it finished. This is Bangkok, after all. Dollar wise, about $120 or $160 (plus 10 per cent tax, seven for service). Cocktails are good value by international standards. Wine? You’re in Asia. More serious, in my view, beyond prices, is the brevity and imbalance of the list. Add to that seven unavailable wines from a total of about 40, unavailable vintages, and a “sommelier” who answers my question about a German wine with “I don’t know, I’ve never tried this wine” and I’m thinking early in the piece: how does such a place even get considered ahead of the great restaurants of Singapore, Hong Kong, Tokyo? It’s a joke. But then, Anand didn’t ask anyone to vote for him, did he?

The highlights: There are ­moments of outrageous eating pleasure at Gaggan, not just clever-clever chef games, and some high-camp banter with staff, too, which gives the whole gastro-temple environment a bit of levity. Not enough, but some. A nori and wasabi “tablet” that slowly dissolves in your mouth. An onion-water “bun” something like a macaron with a puree of goat brain, and chutney. Brilliant. A bamboo charcoal-shelled nugget with a spiced and smoked Thai sea bass filling. A kind of super-thin shelled “samosa” with lamb. A piece of microwave-cooked lentil sponge with spices, coconut ice cream and coriander froth. And there’s a dish they call the magic mushroom with a kind of crisp fungal “crepe”, porcini and truffle puree and fresh shimeji that, as the South African gastronaut at the next table says a little loudly, “simply shouts for a good Burgundy”. And there’s this two-point piece of lamb loin chop that has been cooked sous vide with a penetrating marinating paste with goodness knows what in it before finishing over proper charcoal. Sensational.

The lowlights: The wine ­approach simply does not befit a restaurant commanding this kind of audience and the inevitable bookings diary. To bring a customer (the South African gastronaut) a different vintage of an expensive French wine from the one listed … And a weird palate cleanser of green melon jelly with a liquid centre made with a white apricot sauce. The rest of the restaurant’s food falls into the “rather good” bracket. Most of this post El Bulli stuff (albeit not with an Indian accent) has been and gone in Australia. And for a straight-up fish curry with exemplary naan? Well, it’s an expensive way to eat straight ­Indian food.

Drinks: There are wines worth drinking, but a narrow selection. It’s not a wine drinker’s restaurant. Expect to pay 50 per cent to 70 per cent more than in similarly priced Australian restaurants.

Will I need a dictionary? No.

The last word: It’s the curse of the 50 Best list. Much of the spontaneity, the experimentation has to be sacrificed for the people who have booked six months in ­advance and have exalted expectations. The joy dissipates and is replaced with a formula. It takes a brave restaurateur to toss it out to fly in the face of the “experts”. Gaggan’s best days may be over.

Address: 68/1 Soi Langsuan Ploenchit Road Lumpini, Bangkok 10330 [phone], eatatgaggan.com

Open:Dinner, daily

Style: Post-molecular traditional Indian

Rating: 3 out of 5