Benjarong

I recently had the pleasure of dining at one of, if not THE best Thai restaurant in the Philippines, Benjarong Royal Thai Cuisine. Situated at the Mezzanine Level of the Dusit Thani Manila, Benjarong is open daily for lunch (1130H-1430H) and dinner (1800H-2200H). Upon the invitation of my super amiable host and friend, Mr Jeff Poon (scion of the Maxim's Tea House/MXT dynasty), I decided to relive my travels to Thailand in the not so distant past. And relive I did! With a live Thai Kim musician playing at the background, one could not but feel that one is back in one of the restaurants in Bangkok. Service was excellent (although no one met us at the reception area when we arrived) as provided by the Thai garbed service personnel.

We started off with our soup, Tom Yum Goong.

You can either have it mild or spicy and I decided to have the spicy one as I love the spices and herbs used in Thai cooking. Generous with their prawns and chicken, this was a sign of a good start of our meal.

Next came our Pomelo Salad,

I am generally not a fan of pomelo but the combination of it with prawns (my favorite and will never get tired of it) and cashew (or was it walnuts?) was just deliciously light.

Up next was the different dishes that were served all at the same time:

Pad Thai, stir fried rice noodles with prawns (again! love it) and bean sprouts. This kind of reminds me of Char Kwe Tiao of Singapore with a twist

Chicken curry with mild sauce (Not one of my favorites to be honest)

Minced meat with veggies

Shrimp cakes. Although I'm not much into using sauces on my food, this was one instance where the sauce complimented the shrimp cakes

KangKong (or Swamp Cabbage). I was told by Jeff that the swamp cabbages are meticulously selected by the Thai chef and not everything out of the vegetable is put into the dish

Thai Bagoong Rice (who hasn't tried this but you have to try Benjarong's)

Overall the meal was not heavy, I was still able to cram in mangoes for dessert. If i were with Michelin Guide, I would definitely give this restaurant 5 stars!

p.s. did you notice the lovely Thai plates used. Impeccable!

Dusit Thani Manila
Ayala Center, Makati City
Tel: (+632) 8673333
Website: http://www.dusit.com/hotels/philippines/manila/dusit_thani/index.html