Diana5531

Hi,
My girlfriend and I leaving on a long awatied girls trip to Bangkok tomorrow! Having been there before, I've decided that we are going to take some of our own wine, but we will need to buy some also while we are there. So where is a good place to buy some decent wine that is not ridiculously expensive. We are staying at the Penn.

BradinBangkok

"Wine Connection" has several retail outlets in Bangkok. I usually go to the one at Nana Square. They also are associated with the bar "V9" at the top of the Sofitel Silom, where you can buy a bottle at the store price and drink it with no corkage fee.

MichaelBKK

The closest place to the Penn where the wine is not ridiculously expensive is Vietniane, in Laos.

Kathie

I'm with Michael on this one! Remember that all wine in Thailand (except for duty free) has a 400% import tax. So even though buying at a grocery or wine store will save you the restaurant mark-up, you're still paying a huge duty. So you can get a wine you'd pay $6 for in the US for maybe $20-25 in the wine store.

I'm just not willing to pay that much for crappy wine.

Craig

Perhaps you'll feel better knowing that a recent study showed that raising the price of a wine makes it taste better:

http://www.cnn.com/2008/LIVING/wayof...ref=newssearch

glorialf

I never bought wine in Bangkok but last trip I did buy it at a huge grocery store in Chiang Mai. They had some specials that I could live with -- two for one kind of thing. Anyway I got some drinkable australian wine for about $10 a bottle.

rhkkmk

in the huge grocery stores...take the boat to taskim and walk out to the main street, turn left and there is a robinson's...look in the basement...real easy...

Diana5531

ok, no buying wine while we are here. So we;'ll just ration what we brought and hae a drink at the various other rated hotels.

BTW, just ate at Harmonique tonght. Service was actually quick despite what's been written here on Chowhound. Food was great, but it has been Farang-ized some. Still beware of the green sauce!!!

More to come.....

Kathie

When we ate at Harmonique in November the service was faster than usual. What is happening to Harmonique? It has been renowned for it's slow service since it opened!

You are farangs. Virtually all of the food you are served will have been "Farang-ized some." If you want it hotter - just ask.

Diana5531

Kathie,

So what do you think about Eat Me or the BLue Elephant ? We are thingink of trying one of those places tomorrow ? Is there a dress code at the BE?

Diana

glorialf

I find Blue Elephant very blah in terms of food

Kathie

Blue Elephant is ok, but the food will not be spicy. It's not one of my top recommendations. If you are looking for food that hasn't been Farang-ized, it is not the place to go.

I don't know Eat Me, have only read a review.

What are you looking for? Maybe we can come up with some ideas for you.

Diana5531

We are looking for good Thai food at a decent price that's not far off the track. We are going to Chote Chitr for lunch tomorrow. We did MBK today, was ok. We are staying at the Penn. We also want to do a lady-boy show.

Craig

I took a cooking class at the Blue Elephant - easy to get to from the Penn because its right by the skytrain, 1 or 2 stops from Taksin Pier. The food we had (lunch) was good but then again I was the one that cooked it ><

Kathie

I think you'll really like Chote Chitr.

An old favorite place of mine is Lemongrass. You'll need to take the Skytrain, change at Siam and get off at the Emporium stop. Lemongrass is a short walk up the soi on the left hand side. It is shown on the Nancy Chandler map. I'm at work right now, so don't have access to my resources that would give you the soi number and the real name of the Skytrain stop.

glorialf

I'm also a fan of Lemon Grass

Bisbee

Lemongrass is on Soi 24. Exit the Phrom Phong BTS and walk into Emporium. Head the the ground floor of Emporium and exit onto Soi 24. Lemongrass is just across the street. Make sure to try the Wing Bean Salad!

Kathie

Thanks, Bisbee!