Lacol Bangkok — Restaurant in Khlong Tan Nuea Subdistrict

Not recommended. I booked the 5:30pm reservation for the “glass dome room” for my girlfriends birthday dinner which I had really hoped would be special because the pictures posted for this establishment make the restaurant look very nice and charming. We arrived at 5:28pm and I opened the door to the restaurant (was it locked because I was able to just easily push the doors open?) and was immediately sternly instructed to go back outside by Noey, the hostess, as she said they open at 5:30pm “on time.” WOW 2 minutes and pushed back outside? Really? It was the strangest greeting I’ve ever had when arriving to a $250 dinner. A minute and half later she opened the doors and didn’t even bother to greet us, smile, or ask how we were. Ok whatever- shake it off and move on. Showed to the table and a male staff member coldly handed us the menus and told us to scan the barcode for a drink list. Not a great start and I was getting a bad feeling about this place already.

The “glass” dome room we were sat inside consisted of old plexiglass that had years of aging which caused the plexiglass to become foggy and not clear anymore. Also many rust spots visible which also gave indication of lack of ongoing maintenance. The fake roses inside were obviously years old and our chandelier had different types of light bulbs which added to the feeling of being inside an old structure. Some of the light bulbs were even blown out. We then noticed a significant amount of stains on the tablecloth where your knees and legs would brush against while sitting, showing that the cloth hadn’t been washed for quite some time, as there is a wrinkly piece of plastic which sits on top of the tablecloth so it doesn’t need to be changed as often. Lacol, please invest in some maintenance of your restaurant as it must have been nice at one time but appears that you’ve given up on the place. There’s also stains all over the upholstery that you sit on. Pretty gross.

Our chicken wing appetizer was really good. We ordered the tenderloin ($90!!???) and a crab pasta ($60!!???). The tenderloin was tiny and not even close to being worth $90 and came out COLD. Blek. Crab pasta was covered in fish eggs and after pushing them to get to the pasta we found it to be warm at best. Weird because we were the first customers in the place. Our waitress was sweet and the quirky manager guy tried to crack some jokes and was nice himself but it was rather awkward. We ate some of the steak and asked for the remainder to be thrown on the pan just so we could eat a hot steak. They took it to the kitchen and it literally came out lukewarm. Sheesh. 🙄 Oh, and your $150 deposit they charge when making the reservation is only good toward food and not any beverages. Give me a break, I think I should get to choose what my money goes toward for what I’m ordering. Anyways, $250 later and we couldn’t wait to leave. Do yourself a favor and skip this one. The pictures look great but you’re in for a real life disappointment if you have anywhere near the experience we had....

Came here at the back of some online videos showing this beautiful place. It looked so good that I was excited to try it out, but was taken aback by the minimum 5000baht booking fees for the glass dome. This amount is actually huge in Thai's context for a meal for 2, but I still decided to go ahead, worrying that I may not get a seat if we were to walk-in to such a highly rated place...

Upon taking the lift up, I must say the ambience was really good and we were warmly welcomed by the staffs. We were led thru the bar and although nice, were nothing out of the world. The seats at the side (I believe at 3000baht?) weren't too bad either but the dome was really so pretty! Me and my partner absolutely love the feeling of dining so high and inside the dome, watching the partial sunset.

We were looking forward to the food, but to cut the story short, they were all pretty average to both of us. We appreciate them for giving us the free appetisers and also love the argentinian prawn bisque pasta but thats all we enjoyed. I mean the food are actually decent, but for the price they charged (way higher than my other 2 fave rooftop bars in Bangkok), it is totally NOT value for money, not even with the view and the pretty glass dome.

And to know that the 5000baht deposit cannot be used for drinks, made us disgusted (although I didn't wanna spoil the romantic evening by being whiny). Our bills with a cocktail and 2 singha beers and the bill came out to 7000+ baht (incl taxes). U can decide based on the pictures of the food if it's worth the money... Our answer was a resounding NO. This amount is higher than some fine dining restaurants we had in Singapore...

Also, I wanted to comment that the service may be good... But they were between being super attentive to sometimes not attentive at times. And as we were inside the glass dome, it can sometimes feel awkward eating when they are just right outside the dome (but usually chatting among themselves).

Oh and finally... We booked the 530pm slot till 7pm (Thur), during the entire time, there were only another couple before us at the 3000baht seats and another group of people, who "looked more like" some management staffs having some discussion, inside another dome. That group was offered ice water while we were told that's not available to us and we had to order still or sparkling!

So in all, with an almost empty crowd, incredibly expensive and average tasting food, service hit and miss.. will I be here again? Probably not, unless I want to charm someone or flaunt my wealth in Bangkok. And for those who wish to try, I guess u can try walking in instead of paying the deposit online. It can still be a pretty experience if u are there for the view and maybe drinking a cocktail or 2. And if unfortunately it's full (somehow), then the consolation is that u will be saving alot of money for better food in Bangkok.

Note: The rating would have been at least 1 star better if their prices weren't so high, as their food...

Where do I start?

This place is all style and no substance. It is all for show. It's like paying an extortionate amount of money to go to a tiny theme park or a glorified photo studio. Literally. You can tell from how the seats in the snow globe face AWAY from the view. It's great for insta and for all the people that want to post photos on insta but you aren't even facing the skyline - makes for such a poor dining experience, especially for a rooftop. Bar.Yard, Above Eleven and Octave do exist, you know?

Onto the dining experience. Service is somewhat satisfactory. There's this crass attitude you get from some servers, including assuming that you're paying for a cheaper table and not what works out to be their most expensive option (but this attitude is apparent from other interactions as well). Then, there's the realisation that you're being extorted and you still don't get a physical menu but one you have to scan to see (an 80+ megabyte PDF by the way. Is compression not a thing? If I'm paying this much to see a digital menu, I expect something decent, like what Vistro offers), that the furniture is not clean, and that everything on your table is laid on top of a plastic mat which is too easily displaced and just makes it look incredibly cheap. Staff are great at interrupting you mid-conversation, especially when you're having a moment. I guess it's good then that the staff are good at taking photos - but like I said, glorified photo studio. That's what this place is good for and that's what the staff are skilled for.

Oh, and careful about the plastic/glass from the door literally sticking into the snow globe when you open and close it from inside, used to keep the AC from leaking out. You might just trip over it and break your head. No, there's no warning sign despite it being a clear tripping hazard either.

Do not recommend, in case it wasn't obvious. Portions are also between tiny and on the smaller side. Sort of what you'd expect from a 10-15 course tasting menu at a fine dining restaurant, except that this is not a fine dining restaurant - it's just a photo studio that charges like a fine dining restaurant once pro-rated to match the number of dishes you'd get in a 10-15 course tasting menu. I would much rather dine at the likes of Ms Jigger, Rossano's, Punjab Grill, Nami, or Cocotte if looking for a good...