Butler's--haute desserts in Bangkok

J and I went to Gaysorn for lunch today. I read about a new dessert-focused cafe called Butler's in BK magazine last week, and I've been bugging J to go with me ever since. The chef/ co-owner, Tim Butler, is a CIA grad who is a well-known pastry chef from several New York restaurants such as Aquavit, Alto and L'Imperio. I think what brought him to Bangkok must be his Thai fiancee, who graduated from the French Culinary Institute (how cool!) and was a sous chef at L'Imperio.

Butler's was very chic--a cafe on a platform that sits atop a fish pond, surrounded by flowers and green shrubs. The color scheme was dark chocolate and deep purple, which reminded me a bit of Le Notre cafes in Bangkok. I really like the staff uniform there: crisp long-sleeved shirt in light brown (like cafe au lait) and a dark chocolate colored necktie tucked into the middle of the shirt. Cute!

For drinks, J and I both ordered a refreshingly delicious Iced Tea Mojito--limeade with muddled mint leaves and brown sugar, topped with iced tea. It's so good that I think it deserves a big picture tribute here:

We loved the complimentary bread and butter at Butler's too. Crusty, warm French bread served with the best butter I've had in Bangkok. I said 'best' because of a really simple touch--adding a light layer of sea salt on top of the compounded butter. I love my butter salted, and this saved me the need to sprinkle salt on my buttered bread. A lazy girl's dream come true. =)

I wanted to save my stomach for dessert, so I ordered a very light lunch. A 'simple' salad to share (that's really the name of the salad), and pan-seared scallops with taro puree and frisee for main course. J had orecchiette pasta with sundried tomatoes, thyme and clams.

The salad was simple alright--mixed salad with cherry tomatoes and lightly dressed in reduced balsamic vinegar and olive oil. However, there were some unique elements to this salad. First, it had a generous amount of fried shallots, which I guess is an homage to Thai cuisine. Second, there were paper-thin slices of fried taro, so thin that they were almost translucent (see top-right picture above)! I loved these taro slices...very crispy, salty, and also packed a potent punch of black peppers.

The main courses were good, but not great. My scallops were nice and big, and perfectly cooked. They were caramelized on the outside yet still juicy and jiggly on the inside. All they lacked was a natural sweetness that I guess only comes with super fresh/ sashimi-grade scallops. As for J's dish, it was well-flavored, but the pasta was not al dente, and J complained that there was too much oil. I guess my health-conscious streak did rub off on him after all.

Then finally we had desserts. I was so looking forward to this, and when the plates arrived, I was not disappointed (at least presentation wise). We had two beautifully presented desserts: Poached pineapple with pandanus cream and sake granite, and chocolate ganache with chocolate ice cream, topped with orange segments and caramelized cashews.

The sake granite was to-die-for, and it went really well with the pineapple. However, the pandanus cream was just too rubbery. I expected it to be creamy or mousse-like, but it was almost as tough as marzipan. As for the chocolate dish, the ganache was kind of like a flourless chocolate cake, which went well with the cashews but not so much with the oranges. I couldn't really taste the orange flavor, and if they had wanted to accentuate 'orangeness' they should have added some orange zest into the chocolate ganache. The chocolate ice cream though, was fantastic. We could tell that it was made from high quality dark chocolate, and it was only a tad sweet. Yum!

I'm glad new eateries like this are opening up in Bangkok. It's a great place to hang out with friends for desserts in the afternoon after a tiresome round of shopping. Now if only something like the Brunch Club in Hong Kong could expand to Thailand.....

Butler's

Gaysorn Plaza Lobby Floor