Saneh Jaan — Restaurant in Lumphini Subdistrict

This restaurant probably does NOT deserve a Michelin star... I will share my experience, but less the food tonight.

We reached just before 7pm, so looking forward to our dinner reservation, which we pre-ordered the Set A and Set B menus on Hungry Hub. I ordered a craft beer (good), which came within 5min, while my wife had a peppermint tea, which didn't come in more than 10min, until we reminded them. That was the start of many bad things to come.

While eagerly awaiting our food at 720pm, I ordered one of their river prawn dish, as I read that it was good.

Our 1st course slightly past 730pm (where another group of 3 ladies just walked in, which I will continue my story later). The food was not bad.

At 8pm, my ala carte order of river prawn came first... It was one of the better dish of the night... but the problem was.. we were still waiting for our 2nd course! Somhow, the 3 ladies were served their 2nd course at about 8.15pm, while mine, a salad came at 8.20pm. I had finished my beer too and the hungry man is fast becoming an angry man!

The 3 ladies' 3rd course came first again, while mine (an entree) at 8.40pm. As my wife was having her main course and awaiting her dessert, I am still waiting for my soup, palate cleanser TWO, main course... You might have realised they missed our my Palate Cleanser ONE (has to inform them to make them realise...).

Eventually, my wife finished her meal 1st, while my main course (for Set A) finally arrived 2hr 20min into the dinner... a tenderloin steak, but served WITHOUT a knife. Are they serious??! It was also at this time, someone asked if I want another beer... About 90min after my first one? (Oh and my wife had to do the refilling of her peppermint tea throughout the night too)

Anyway, the tenderloin was leaning towards rare than medium rare... Looks like the pomegranate juice on the streets (see the pic). We had a bite and felt disgusted with that... But to be fair, maybe it didn't suit our taste buds to have it rare... So I asked if it's normal for it to be served so rare as no one asked how we want it to be done. The manager did say it's chef recommendation for it to be served that way with the curry... I can understand that, but shouldn't they have at least informed us first? We only had 1 bite.

Other feedback was their command of english... The trout was pronounced as "Troll". Someone asked my wife "your dessert already?" We had no idea if it's asking whether we had it, or to have it now... The waitress looked stunned as we replied her too. Honestly it's common for this language barrier but as a 1 star Michelin restaurant, I do expect this to be better. Not forgetting we were struggling to understand their description of each dish too.

We gave our feedback to the manager at the end, hoping they do something about it. My experience at another 1 star restaurant was so much better, and if they dun buck up, they won't just lose the Michelin star, but the business too!

My overall rating... A poor 3 out of 10 (food was a 6-7 but everything else were just too bad).

To demostrate how bad it was .. if Gordon Ramsay were here tonight (in Hell's kitchen), he would have said "everyone get...

Total failure. Absolute disappointment. Biggest regret of our entire trip to Thailand.

My girlfriend and I booked this restaurant for dinner, hoping to get a true Michelin star experience. We previously went to another Michelin star restaurant in Vietnam, Tam Vi, and it was very underwhelming, to say the least. This one was supposed to redeem our opinion of Michelin star restaurants jn Southeast Asia and, sadly, it didn’t.

We ordered hot and cold shrimp paste with mackerel, crispy catfish, Massaman Curry with beef plus a set of four traditional desserts and a glass of wine each.

Out of these, we can say only the curry was very good with very tender beef and sweet, flavorful curry. It wasn’t the best thing we tried in this region but it was very very good.

The catfish was okay although it was entirely different from what we expected - the fish was chopped so small that it felt like eating spiced panko with green beans rather than fish. And granted, it was seasoned well but not the unique catfish flavor we expected.

The mackerel was total trash. It was the driest fish either of us had in a very long time. The shrimp sauce it was served with didn’t help much; it was sour and mostly forgettable. The veggies that came on the side were definitely the worst part of the whole meal. Steamed, with no seasoning, no salt and pepper, no flavor, nothing. And tough on top of that. Total disaster.

The dessert was good but nothing you couldn’t get from a street food vendor.

This dinner really makes you wonder who gives these awards and on what criteria… Nothing about this restaurant seems award-worthy. The service was acceptable, at best. All the servers are very nice and kind but also clueless. The dining room was mostly empty which, I believe, made the staff antsy and impatient. They tried to take away our curry three times even though we were still working on it. They gave us all silverware at random times; the dessert didn’t have enough spoons to serve it without inadvertently mixing the flavors. It also didn’t feel very private. When we were picking our orders, the server literally stood over us, adding unneeded urgency.

Maybe we were unlucky with our food choice. Maybe. But when you go to a restaurant that’s supposed to be top-notch and has a high (relative to the city’s standards) price point, you expect the experience to be at least very good and this one wasn’t. It was by far the most expensive meal of our trip (over $100 USD). Our other fine dining experiences in Bangkok (omakase at Sushi Koge or dinner at Saffron Sky) were so much...

The survival food during a pandemic

Food

We have been the customer since the beginning of the pandemic until now, which is more than 2.5 years. All food was for takeaway, and we picked up around three times a month for the past 30 months. The food was better than the average restaurant's, but we did not think it was that delightful compared to other Michelin-star- Thai restaurants in Bangkok. Many "wow" dining venues offer more exciting dishes on the menu and in terms of taste, leading us to decide on simple dishes rather than fancy ones on the menu. Over the 30 months, food was acceptable, and occasionally, the chefs missed out on some ingredients, which affected the taste also; a lot of times, food was overcooked, especially vegetables. However, price to quality ratio was acceptable with the location and the reputation when the team of chefs could deliver what it was supposed to be.

Experience

As it was a takeaway, I met with only a few people, and the impression was buying the commodity; there was nothing to feel that I was welcome or anyone valued my business throughout the 30 months. I could feel better welcome in simple dining venues elsewhere, or ordering from fast food outlets could be about the same as with this one-star Michelin rating here.

To sum-up

We don't think we will return to the restaurant either as a dine-in or takeaway; since the business is slowly returning. The management and chefs have given more and more conditions to our regular orders of 30 months and reduced the portion without any notice for such a long-time customer. Communication is vital. With virtually no contact with anyone in the restaurant for 30 months except only one person who has shown no compassion and looked after your long-term customers, especially those with you in a difficult time, they don't deserve to have our business. As mentioned, there are many other excellent...