Bo Lan Restaurant Review
 

Just finished having dinner at Bo Lan restaurant and I would like to share my thoughts on the restaurant and food.

Location: You will need a taxi to get there and for those that knows Bangkok it's located in Soi 24 near the Emporium.

The restaurant: A converted house with outside dining option. The main restaurant is not that big but cozy. Modern decoration but the tables were a bit "rocky" and were not stable enough.

The food: Very authentic and they did not hold back on the spice or chili! Their recipes are from the old Siam period and their inspiration came from Khun Ying Pleon Bunnag who during the reign of King Rama 5 was credited with collecting all the recipes and published them in her books. We were surprised to see a copy of the book on every table and to learn of the chef's inspiration and doubly so because the friend who accompanied us is the great grandson of the Khun Ying!

The food most closely relate to the royal cooking style of the Thai royal court so it is not the most spicy or the hot style of Thai food. However the chefs, Bo and Dylan hence the naem Bo Lan which coincidently mean "old" or "ancient" in Thai, were very faithful to the recipe and did not tone anything down. Out of all the dishes, a lot of them were generously complemented by the chefs, I would give 1 dish 10 out 10 and the rest around 7 to 8 out 10 points. Very good for 2 farang(Dylan and Adam) and 1 Thai(Bo) chefs!

The menu changes every month or every few months, the service was a bit flawed but overall good, the food did not take too long and the owners/chefs were very friendly and took the time greet us and see as of. Prices for the food were high and the decoration were good. Would I go back? If you're buying I will accompany you!

Pictures(taken with my phone): http://khun-pook.smugmug.com/

My mouth is watering at those pics.

This was awesome, Pook. Glad to know it's as good as it sounded. I'm sure many on here will appreciate this review!

Wow! Thanks for the review. I think we have to put it on our list (of course our list would take months to get through!). I notice they have a menu of sharing plates for weekend afternoons. Perhaps we can fit that in even if we can't manage a dinner there.

By the way, which dish was a 10?

I'm glad you both like my review!

Kathie it's this dish: http://khun-pook.smugmug.com/Food/Bo-Lan/10131459_iGY56

English spelling is "roughly" - Lorn with salted duck egg in the sauce or dip.

Thanks for the review it's alsways great to know what the public think. I just feel compelled to correct you on the address it's actually on soi 26.

Oops, yes it's Soi 26. Man you guys are fast!

Thanks for your review, Pook. I'm quite sure Brad will be going there, but most probably it will be after I've headed back home.

Thought you might find it interesting that Brad has met the chef (not sure which one...) as the guy goes after hours to the Pickled Liver for Maeng's cooking. There were actually four chefs from various BKK restaurants sitting together at the PL on Wednesday night after hours. Brad said he talked to them for about 2 hours.

When we went to Chiang Mai, you may recall that I said Maeng goes to a special food market to get sausage. The BoLan chef ordered the sausage, so Maeng had to hold some back to cook for him, and the rest of it went to the "regulars" at P.L. Now that Brad knows which ever chef it was that came to P.L. from BoLan, he is more determined than ever to go there for dinner sometime soon. He would like to take Maeng with him, since she knows the guy quite well.

Anyway, sounds like a nice place. Hope I can find time to go there.

Carol

Thanks, Pook for the review. Hopefully we will get a chance to go there in February...

Thanks Pook, it's back on my list for early Dec....

Hanuman- Did you leave hungry?- There's almost nothing on those plates!!

Not to be a cynic, but I am hesitant patronizing a Thai restaurant with a farang involved. This is disappointing to me and ruins the experience. Call me crazy, but this kills it for me. I won't be visiting Bo Lan I'm afraid.

Shame..

crazy.

Yes definitely a shame. It's actually 2 chefs: 1 *is* Thai (Bo Songvisava) and 1 Australian (Dylan Jones.) Both worked as executive chefs under the tutelage of arguably one of the best non-Thai Thai chefs in the world, David Thompson--who coincidentally wrote one the definitive Thai cookbook for the Western world. Not that any of that matters to you, per se, but some folks who are fascinated with the culinary world might be.

Also it's a 20 course or something tasting menu, so I wouldn't worry about our good friend Pook not having eaten. ;)

I usually judge chefs on their merit and not their ethnicity--but hey I guess that's just me. To each their own. I've had some pretty phenomenal Latin American food made by Caucasians and some pretty terrible Japanese food made by Japanese people.

As a tried and true foodie, personally I can't wait to try this place out.

Nah, not crazy. No farang in Thailand is cooking MY food. Its purely illogical.. and just wrong. Who in their right mind would fly to exotic Thailand to have some white guy cook an "authentic" form of Thai food for them(or ANY Thai food?).

FilmWill,

I realize one chef is Thai, but I don't care. I don't care how many F'in Michelin stars the guy has received or which culinary femme fatale genius he's trained under. I'm in Thailand. My food will be prepared by real Thai people.
The wife as well flatly rejects the idea of eating Anglo-prepared Thai food in Thailand. It is the antithesis of authenticity and is wrong from the root of its inception.

"Its purely illogical.. and just wrong. "

I'm glad that you recognize that your bias makes no sense, Mango.

Maybe you should accept the fact its an idea that's over your head, Kathie.

Good work, Agent Hanuman. Lovely photos, too.

Kurt, relax. We're not attacking you.

Everyone has their own opinion about what constitutes 'real' experiences. It would be nice if you didn't violently jam yours down the throat with a bathroom plunger.

Can't you just be friggin nice for 5 minutes? If someone disagrees with you, why be such a prat? The majority of people on here are all nice folks--we all have the same passion about traveling to the same area. Enough with the rudeness. It flipping stinks.

Mango,

You have your opinion and I have mine! The chef nationality is of no significant in this case but I must admit that before I ate there I thought that it could be an issue. After all, I do enjoy eating Italian, French, Chinese, Japanese, Indian.. food in Thailand and they are not all cooked by the citizen of country where the cuisine came from.

Relax mate this is just a restaurant review and not meant to be a debate on authenticity, race or nationality.

hanuman, thanks for the review and the pics. the kau kau looks ono. i recognize the bunnags from last year. nice couple.

mangs, didn't your dr advise you not to take your meds with booze? you were doing so well. cool it!

Yes Ken that's right they were the one who brought the o-torro to our party! What you can't see in the picture is that he has broken his leg and wrist from a jet skiing accident. We had 2 customized jet ski, 1800 cc engine top out at 120kph, and my friend hit a rice barge head on. Lucky for him I was just behind him when it happened!

Thanks Hanuman for the review. We expect to arrive in Thailand in early Dec. Would you mind taking us there then?

Cheers

Looks like we are scheduled to go to Bo Lan on Sunday. Maeng is joining us.
Carol

hanuman, thanks for reminding me again that i missed the o-torro due to my tardiness. lol. i think the taxi driver made his year-end bonus on that trip. lol.

Carol,

Enjoy the food and since the Bo Lan is monitoring Fodors I hope they will comp you with at least a bottle of Prosecco!

Mango7 please call me at the restaurant (022602962)I have a propersition for you!
Regards Dylan

prosecco, a new and delicious discovery for me. love it. introduced it to ht a few months ago.

believe it or not, i was at my dentist today, i suggested prosecco, as a great substitute for the french bubbly. he never heard of it, but will give it a try.

Mang - as everyone has said relax, your post are starting to take on qualities that we thought had gone away... shame, you were nice for a while.

I am going to book Bolan then in early Dec, maybe if i say "Fodorite" they will be extra nice to us!!

Ahh prosecco as you say a nice alternatice to champers when i am watching the cash..M & S do a lovely pink one here.

Mang, you gotta take Bolan up on that proposition. That way you can be rude about their food IN PERSON, which is always much more fun. I'm tempted to ring up myself and say I'm you. I'm a naturally grumpy old sod, so they won't know the difference. lol.

I think you should. Really - what an opportunity to test out the food AND you at the same time. You and your wife know your stuff - so why not take a walk on the culinary wild side? I'd bet that the guys at Bo Lan would be happy to talk about food to a foodie - and if you have any issues, I'll bet they'll discuss them. It might be a really interesting conversation.

Are you in BKK now?

Dogster,

I am sure your American accent is perfect so go on call them! Personally I think it's kind of scary or creepy that the restaurant monitor and interject in our forum.

I am just curious how Bolan will indeed compare to MBK food hall for you Mang.

Perhaps the proposition from Bo Lan to mango is that they will give him a series of dishes, some cooked by Bo and others by Lan and see if Mango can distinguish. Sounds like fun to me.

Ahhh, yup, I hadn't thought of that. I don't sound all that Australian, but I don't think I could pass as American.

Creepy? Dunno - hadn't thought of it like that. It's not an issue to me. I think it's good when they respond - why shouldn't they? We're not a secret society - even though I know at times, it seems like it.

We all like to bang our drums, share our favorites, spread the word. Nothing wrong with that in the short term. What I have learnt tho', is that last years great restaurant may not be this years; that great guide you had in 2004 may not be quite so fresh after 5000 Fodorites have gone thru their hands; that hotel you loved on your first trip to Thailand may be only as good as your knowledge of hotels... which may be none at all.

We like to repeat. We like to do what we did before. Which, in my opinion, kinda negates the idea of travel - but that's O.K. As long as people don't stop me doing what I want I don't care.

I think, my friend, you're becoming frustrated with a certain 'clubbiness' that can be found in here - but actually Mang, you're part of the club, too. lol.

But I don't want you to stop - and probably nobody else really does either. You make me chuckle. Vivat Mango. But, for fun, let's try and identify the source of the irritation. Maybe it's not Thai food at all.

I still think you should ring them up. Then you can write YOUR review. Balance is all.

You probably have a Sean Connery kind of accent right?

I was raised to be a good little English boy. I even used to do radio as a pre-pubescent actor because I spoke 'so well'.

Once nature took its course, I was thrown on the child star scrapheap, where I have remained. Of course, now that Australia is run and mostly populated by sub-literate cretins, such skills of elocution are despised.

So, a bit like Sean Connery. More like Huge Ackman.

As long as you don't sound like Michael Crawford in "Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em"! Although I do like him as the Phantom.

No. Dogster couldn't be less like Michael Crawford - although, things do keep going wrong. I like to think of myself as Daniel Craig gone to seed.

Dog - i think we do close ranks when some one develops troll like manners on here and starts attacking people. As you said we are all entitled to our opinions, in fact all are welcome but to deliberatly belligerent is annoying.

Now back to Bolan

Well, Smeagol, it's either annoying or amusing - or both, I think. You can choose.

I spent my profesional life getting attacked, either publicly or privately, so Mang's occasional spray doesn't fuss me. I like reading them AND your replies, equally. Some of the responses, in this and other posts, have been fascinating, entirely as a result of his provacation. Fodor's is always at its best when there's a bit of controversy.