A trattoria tucked inside an Asoke building just launched a new menu that champions seasonal ingredients to usher in a “new era” of dining.
About Eatery is celebrating its fifth anniversary with new dishes dubbed About New Era, all devised by new partner and head chef Lorenzo Rosso, who stresses simplicity in cooking.
“We have pared down the menu as we would like to focus on simple dishes that are made with careful techniques,” Rosso said. The chef, originally from Venice, has been living in Thailand nearly 30 years and opened a few restaurants such as the former Al Dente at The Commons Thonglor.
At a hosted Thursday sampling session, Rosso showed off the traditional pasta maker, a century-old design called a bigolaro, he uses every day to produce everything from long, thick, tube-like bigoli and ribbon-shaped tagliatelle to strangozzi, a hand-cut wheat pasta with a rough surface from Italy’s Umbria region.
About Eatery’s kitchen jettisoned most of its former dishes in its revamped menu, which is now heavy on recipes created by Rosso with a focus on premium ingredients.
Start with a Crab Cake appetizer (THB590 for four pieces), delightfully crisp and tender bites stuffed with generous amounts of crab meat and topped with arrabbiata and tartar sauce. Another appealing seafood dish is Grilled Sea Scallops & Crispy Guanciale (THB790), in which fresh scallops are grilled and served next to crispy cured pork jowl bits, pea salad and a green sauce of smooth and emulsified pesto.
Meat eaters or truffle lovers who want to treat themselves should order the Beef Carpaccio (THB690), an elegant-looking dish of paper-thin, sliced, raw beef drizzled with mayo dressing, parmesan cheese flakes, champignons and black truffles – the latter of which Rosso said can sometimes be changed to white truffles due to seasonal availability.
It’s a must to dine on at least one pasta dish while there. There’s plenty to choose from — from the classic Tonnarelli Carbonara to a Truffle Ravioli – but one of the special, and fancier dishes to try is the pitch-black Tagliolini Nero (THB590), which comes with braised squid in its ink and sprinkled with gold dust (Rosso – “I just want to make it look appealing”).
More hearty meals include the Luciana-style Octopus (THB790), a glorious octopoid dish from a fishing district in Naples’ Santa Lucia. Here, the cephalopod is stewed and served with silky-smooth mashed potatoes, olives, capers, oregano and tomato sauce. The Lamb Chop (THB870) is another that’s hard to resist with its grilled and marinated lamb cutlets properly prepared with ratatouille, roasted potatoes and saucified herbs.
It’s only wise to save some room for dessert. Among a few sweet dishes, what shined most was the Tiramisu (THB240) for its bittersweet layers of espresso-soaked ladyfingers and mascarpone cheese.
For a drink to enjoy with or to soak down the food, rely on owner-sommelier Guilio Saverino’s nearly quarter century of experience selecting wines. His bar has a variety of bottles to choose from, whether they’re organic, natural or biodynamic. The place is also known for introducing Bangkok to orange wine with its annual Orange Wine Festival held since 2015.
The new menu is available now in the run-up to the Italian restaurant-and-wine bar’s fifth birthday on Monday.
About Eatery is open 11:30am-2:30pm and 5pm-11pm every day, except Sunday, and located on the ground floor of the Ocean Tower 2 Building off Soi Sukhumvit 21. Get there by foot from MRT Sukhumvit or BTS Asok.
FIND IT:
About Eatery
G floor, Ocean Tower 2 building, Soi Sukhumvit 21
11:30am – 2:30pm, 5pm – 11pm daily (except Sunday)
092-907-2191
BTS Asok, MRT Sukhumvit
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