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Yesterday evening I organized a business dinner with some customers, and went to Monkey Pod restaurant on the corner of soi11 and soi 13. Magnificent old Thai style wooden house (one of the only ones left in the area). Incredible service and wonderful setting inside the restaurant, pure luxury but very classy. We went for the discovery menu an 8 course thai style dinner (2200thb/person) The food is just incredible, thai style but on an exceptional level, lots of traditional Thai dishes with a gastronomic twitch that enhances the traditional Thai flavours even more. Huge cocktail list with exotic and dared cocktails (i went for a Rhum based cocktail, with kafir lime, lemongrass and ginger), we paired the food with 2 bottles of Gewürzstraminer (Hugel), which is a slightly sweet and spicy wine that works wonderfully well with thai food. Per menu every body could choose his own level of spicyness he wanted, so no surprises there for those who want it a bit softer in taste. all in all an excellent choice if you want to go for fine dining in a nice setting and still be able to hit the streets afterwards. We ended the business part with a couple of pisco sours in Above11 and closed down the business part around half past midnight. After waving my customers out, I finished a very nice evening at cindy's (300m walk) if you want to have some culinary experience with some friends or a romantic dinner with one of your sweethearts, this is an excellent place to go. I should warn that if you wanted to take a Ladyboy friend out there, you have to make sure it is somebody that can appreciate a high quality meal. The advantage however is that it is thai food and Thai flavour so they most probably will like it. There is a dresscode, but just the obvious one, no flip flops, no tank tops, and I would suggest your girl not to wear bikini's Not for everyday, but worth it for a special occasion or if you want to give yourself a treat.

Backstory Nan, who works at WN04, was off last Thursday and wanted to go out. When asked where did she fancy she replied: burgers, KFC or pizza! There is no pretence about Nan! I'm not a fan of fast food and so pizza seemed like the best option. Ordering pizza in BKK is like the proverbial 'game of two halves'. There is the mass market version, much beloved by the locals, which IMHO is a gooey mess of dough, stodge, oil and cheap cheese, all topped off with Ketchup! However, BKK also does boast some very good pizzerias and one of my favourites is Vesuvio. Vesuvio This Italian owned pizzeria serves authentic wood-fired Neapolitan-style pizza. There are no stodgy thick crusts to be found here! It is a small place, which maybe seats 15 inside and another 15 outside, so you need to be mindful of this when you visit. We were there just after 20.30 on a Thursday night, so the evening rush was over and there were free tables inside. It is quite easy to find. When walking into Soi 8 from Sukhumvit Road, it is located down the first side alley on the right hand side of Soi 8. About 30 metres in on the left hand side and there it is, bang opposite a very gaudy looking bar. The menu is to be expected and has all of the usual antipasti and salads etc. The choice of pizzas is extensive and there is one for every taste, even Hawaiian! The Italian mixed platter as a starter looked very appetising and the Roman tourist sitting next to us rated it highly. A good sign for an 'ethnic' restaurant is if they attract visitors from their own country and it is very commonplace to find diners from the 'old country' eating at Vesuvio. Nan went with the seafood pizza and I chose the ham and mushroom, because I am boring. Both pizzas came out within about 15-20 minutes and they are large! This is why I skipped the starter. The look on Nan's face was priceless as she was more used to the smaller sized circles of dough served up by Pizza Hut etc. To be fair to Nan, who normally has a sparrow-like appetite, she managed to finish off half of hers and had the waitress wrap up the other half to take back to WN04. She claimed she was going to give it to Tew, who had a bad month, but who knows? I then persuaded her to try the tiramisu, which I knew she would enjoy. That was demolished and so was a great suggestion! Summary A great place for authentic pizza. Most of the pizzas started at THB 370, although they have a lunch time special that runs until 15.00 where you can get 2 for THB 650. I try to visit there once a quarter and it has always been consistent. It was Nan's first ever visit and she enjoyed it very much. The quality of ingredients is very good and you can tell that the owner runs a tight ship in terms of standards. Service was very efficient and friendly, with 3 waitresses. The atmosphere is not what you would describe as romantic, like some trattoria-style restaurants, as it is too small for that. We were there for about an hour. All of the customers were farangs, including Italians, Brits and some Scandis. I would certainly recommend Vesuvio if you want that pizza fix and it is open for lunch and closes at 22.30. Nan's Pizza - Plenty of Seafood Toppings Nans Pizza again, but also a view of my ham and mushroom pizza The Bottom Line - I thought it was very reasonable for quality food Special Bonus Photo - Nan's Mai Tai at the bar we went to afterwards (the first of many cocktails!) Ciao SAG