Gaa — Restaurant in Khlong Tan Nuea Subdistrict

I must say I really wanted to like this place but left not liking it at all. They tell a very nice story, the restaurant looks very nice and everything was nicely presented but there was very little that excited me in taste, creativity and execution as well as service. First I informed the restaurant in advance that I was coming alone as my girlfriend was not feeling well. They never asked how my girlfriend was feeling. There is one set menu which is fine, however, no price on the menu, so surprise till the end. At lest the wine pairing had prices on it. So I said I would likely take the wine pairing but ordered a cocktail first. Then they wanted to pour me the cremant from the wine pairing before my cocktail arrived, so from the beginning poor communication between the team. Anyway I finally got the cocktail from HERE restaurant downstairs which is the casual dining version. It was nice. I didn't like the creamant from Alsace, it tasted like very strongly fermented apple juice and was way too overpowering for the Chaat starter, which didn't taste of much at all as the pomegranate granita was so cold one could not taste anything. The three small bites next the Bombay sandwich and the uni toast were quite nice, although the "toast" was probably too strong for the uni. The Paniyaram was not great as the pastry was too thick and stogy so one could not really get much of the filling. The diy tuna was nice but difficult to eat. It looked nice but consider a different vessel. The grilled corn was good, yet very simple, without any great techniques applied. The rice, lamb, caviar dish was half nice half terrible. The rice toasty was nice on its own and the lamb could live up to it and worked well together, but the caviar really did not match with it at all, frankly I would say the caviar was just there to justify the price of the menu it was really a waste to serve it like that. The next dish was the most controversial, although the beef was very tasty this was the dish I principally complained about. It had so much sinew it was very difficult to bite especially wrapped in the malai pancake that was falling apart before even touching, so really difficult to eat. There was so much sinew which was so tough one could not eat the whole meat. Also the crispy kale was only partially crispy and had so much stalk on it that one could not eat all of it. One would really expect to be able to eat every little morsel on the plate at such a fine restaurant. The feedback from the kitchen was that chef agreed with me. The crab was quite good and nicely served. The pork belly was dry and chewy. The durian main was a revelation and very good including the sauce. Mixed feelings about the condiments and very much let down by the much hyped bread, it was stogy/chewy. The pre desert was ok. The main desert served very nicely, but the roti was very poor and here the cherry granita should have been more of and actually frozen but it was all melted. The sweet nibbles at the end were indeed all very sweet, but very poor. Bad meringue, the crispy rice in white chocolate was not crispy and so on... You see I didn't write anything about the wines since the beginning, well there is nothing much to say, very unremarkable pairing, trying too hard to be special with no obvious purpose. In conclusion form over function, poor execution and the pastry/bread station is sub par. Then when the bill came the surprise. No apology for the issues I had, not even a drink on the house. Now I don't want to get discounts at restaurants I want to pay full price for good food and service, but if the restaurant messes up they should at least try to make up for it somehow. After I had another chat with the manager she removed the drink from the bill. In any event I felt so disappointed that I thought I should share this feedback for the public. Great for Instagram but very underwhelming for...

I had a wonderful time at Gaa Bangkok. I first got to know about Gaa through Pooja Dhingra's podcast, "No Sugarcoat" where she interviewed Garima Arora and had been wanting to go for quite some time.

Garima and her staff take a Nordic approach to Indian and Thai flavors, and it is executed perfectly. The menu rotates and when I was there, the staff worked on "Feasts of India" and in particular, put a focus on the Koli fishing community from Maharashtra. Starting with "the streets course" fruit chaat, the fruit chaat was quite the welcoming dish. Guava fruit leather with sev, yogurt, and pomegranates captured a sweetness, tanginess, and saltiness. The highlight of the streets feast was the savory betel leaf and Gaa's spin on paniyaram which was stuffed with minced duck.

Next we moved on to Andaaz, which can mean a few different things, here the idea is "eat it in your own style". It came with some small khakra bites, Topli paneer which is a Parsi style cheese, soft and moist, accompanied by various chutneys. The chilled gooseberry soup was very refreshing and I typically prefer my soups to be hot, so I was skeptical at first.

Next moving on to the star course, for someone who is still finding their way around seafood, I had quite an amazing experience going through the different options. In particular, the crab dish served inside the oyster shell was phenomenal.

Next, came the "Plant Paradise" which had a very nuanced approach to sason da saag and makki di roti. They used roselle leaves which are common in Thailand and also had a puree of mustard greens. This along with the makki di roti and house made butter (very rich and mixed with ginger and jaggery) was to die for.

Lastly, came the dessert which had a coriander/jagggery ice cream, inspired by a Gujarati wedding tradition.. I had just come from a wedding where the groom was Gujarati and was told about the gol-dhana ritual that takes place with the engagement. It was a unique flavor and quite enjoyable. Their thandai was a bit interesting, it came hot and had Thai flavors of keffir lime leaves and lemongrass. IT was totally unexpected and I was a bit skeptical, but it worked well with the petit fours chocolate.

I also did the wine pairing and they were very well curated. In particular, the white wine that was aged in barrels had a nice smokeyness and reminiscent of a fine scotch (tbh, I don't even drink scotch that often, but loved this wine in particular).The cherry on top was getting to meet Garima and also get a tour of the kitchen with the rest of the staff.

Reading through some of the other reviews, I was quite appalled at those who complained of the price point or said Gaggan was better. For one, it's a Michelin star restaurant with ingredient procured fresh on a daily basis. Furthermore, we have to get out of this mindset that Indian food is not "fine dining" or has to come with a cheap price tag. For far too long, we've always held French or Italian cuisine to high standards and do not shy away from shelling the extra money for it. I believe it was only recently that Japanese cuisine broke this ceiling, but there is still a long way to go with other global cuisines to be recognized in this regard. Second, with regards to comparing Gaa to Gaggan, the approaches are completely different. Yes Garima has worked under Gaggan and Gaggan is an investor in Gaa, but Garima is quite the chef in her own right and I'm proud to see her as the first and only female Indian chef to have received a Michelin star.

If you ever find yourself in Bangkok, I would highly recommend a visit to Gaa to experience their current rotation. There were obviously more courses which I did not get to speak about, because it's ultimately more about the individual experience, but I did want to mention the few dishes which stood out and left a...

Garima Arora, 32-year-old Mumbai-bred chef and luminary of Gaa, in the news since mid-November 2018 as India's first woman to win the coveted Michelin star, isn't making a big deal about it. At Gaa, it's business as usual.

The decor has been uncharitably called confusing or Nordic but to my peasant mind it's one of the most unostentatious restaurants I've eaten at in a while. The sliding door lets you into a somber, minimally prettified place, more repurposed house than star-rated restaurant, with dim areas broken by bright halogen-lit zones, the secrecy of a taverna with the promise of a members-only banquet. Small flights of stairs lead away at different angles into basements and mezzanines, creating the alternative reality of an MC Escher painting.

Garima might be seen bustling about with her army of multinational chefs, who will also personally introduce and serve you the dishes they have created. Working in pairs at brightly lit stations, they craft the meticulous culinary masterpieces that have made Gaa an overnight sensation in the brutally competitive, male-dominated world of international cuisine. The single Michelin star is given to "a very good restaurant in its category".

You can indeed detect influences both Indian and Thai within Gaa's fixed 10-course or 14-course menus with wine pairing options. The overall effect, however, is of being joyously ambushed by unexpected flavor fairies, textures and colors. For instance, betel leaves, a post-prandial chew in India and an active ingredient in Thai cooking, are served both at the top and the bottom of the menu. A single green, betel leaf thinner than a khakra, crisped in a film of duck stock seasoned with herb salts is served within a potted shrub of straw branches.

The betel leaf at the end has a dual personality, half chocolate and half ethereal fennel powder. I thought I had crushed a sweet rose petal and I had. The leaf is dotted with rose chutney and silvered cardamom.

Three other dishes stood out — the chilled soup of raw guava, roselle and fermented mulberries that started our evening. Guavas are a national snack in Thailand but you don't often see the pink-cored ones common in India. The soup sets a high bar for the rest of the evening.

The sixth menu item, simply called Corn, brings you roasted baby corns, kept piping hot within a swaddle of green husks and kernels rubbed with lemon, chilly powder and black salt, exactly as sold on the streets of Delhi and Mumbai. A clever cut around the base lets you slide the husk off, drawing the corn out like a sword from a scabbard.

The indubitable show-stealer is the unripe jackfruit served with dime-sized rotis and pickles. Sweet yellow jackfruit flowers are popular snacks in Thailand but several Indian states put the unripe jackfruit to creative use. Its robust, meaty taste makes it a popular vegetarian alternative to mutton in biryanis. If the starting dishes were airy super-bites, this one is a main course.

Making experimental food taste as good as it looks is a balancing feat few modern chefs master. Garima's intense, single-minded focus on what's plated at Gaa puts her on a culinary high-wire. The result is food that bewitches your eyes first, and then utterly seduces...