A new Chinese restaurant on Soi Thonglor

A new Chinese restaurant on Soi Thonglor offers a range of promotions this month
Why call his latest restaurant "Monkeys"? "Why not?" responds Wanit "Ed" Mekdhanasarn.Years after opening his immensely popular Witch's Tavern, Witch's Oyster Bar & Restaurant and Tongue Thai, Monkeys Chinois was launched around eight months ago. Tucked into Soi 11 off Soi Thonglor, the restaurant is immediately recognisable. In the little carpark in front, Ed has installed a slab of grey stone topped with statues of the three wise monkeys demonstrating their standard maxim "see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil". Enter Monkeys, and you're immediately struck by the contemporary design, which maintains a colour scheme of shades of grey and red. You're also struck by the restaurant's compactness. No space appears wasted. Yet there's also a sense of spaciousness. Altogether, Monkeys seats around 130, but the design cleverly avoids a feeling of being cramped, whether you sit downstairs, in the small lounge or the private room, which seats 10, or upstairs in the wine bar, seating 30. Ed has taken equal care with the food. In the Monkeys kitchen, 10 chefs work their specialisations - roasting, steaming, frying and dim sum. "Chinese is the most expensive cuisine in the world," Ed smiles, adding that the raw materials aren't cheap either. Monkeys offers what Ed calls "regional cuisine". Throughout the menu, you can find Cantonese, Shanghai and Szechuan specialities: braised goose feet in clay pot (Bt340), wok-fried jumbo scallops with XO sauce (Bt490), all sorts of presentations of wok-fried river prawns (prices calculated by each 100 grams), a section on vegetables, another for rice and noodle dishes. Whether you come alone or with a dozen friends, Monkeys ensures that the menu will accommodate. Set menus, for instance, offer a meal for one (Bt790), a choice of two menus for two (Bt1,300), a choice of two menus for four (Bt2,300) and four menus for 10 (Bt7,000 to Bt15,000). From now until the end of July, Monkeys also has a "Mid-Year Promotion". Order four baskets from a special selection of dim sum, and you'll get one free (Monday to Friday for lunch). A special set menu for 10 people costs only Bt3,999. From Mondays to Fridays, you receive a 25-per-cent discount on food, except, of course, on the special dim sum and set menu. The Monkeys menu also offers some mildly fusion-style dishes. Try the crispy prawns with sweet mayonnaise and wasabi (Bt340)."The wasabi's there for a very slight Japanese twist," Ed says. Even if you're not a child, you'll be charmed by the rainbow dim sum selection (Bt240) - all those dumplings fashioned into shapes resembling the animals of the sea. Each contains a morsel of seafood steamed to the proper point. The entire dim sum menu, by the way, is also available in the evening. Another surprise is the dish of prawn balls with preserved egg (Bt250). The dumplings, sprinkled with almond slivers, contain an egg with a very mild taste. Even the sauce is properly seasoned, with the sweetness supporting, not dominating, the chillies. One dish that's already a favourite is the crispy roast rib of pork (Bt340). The sauce that accompanies it is delicious, but Ed won't say what's in it."This sauce is secret," he says. At Monkeys, you can stick with the well-known, try out the little-known or even head for the (up to now) unknown - and you'll meet some very cute monkeys.
Laurie Rosenthal
The Nation