MUSIC HOUSE – AWAY FROM IT ALL AT THE HEART OF THE CITY

It’s a soi you seldom visit if you are not taking the shortcut from Rama 4 to Sukhumvit or vice-versa, but if you do get sucked in so-to-speak, you notice that on this otherwise ignored street, there are quite a few restaurants and weird little shops tucked away.

There’s a Carrefour at the Rama 4 end, and on the way down from the French supermarket, the road does a dogleg on to the final stretch of road for Sukhumvit, and on the corner of this dogleg stands the Music House, a newbuild restaurant offering steaks, Thai food, pasta and jazz.

On two floors, the relatively spacious restaurant is beautifully finished in fine woods and darkly elegant marbles, giving it a very polished feel and helping to give the visitor the impression that someone has taken a lot of trouble and expense to make this place inviting and comfortable.

There are plenty of staff and they move quickly to seat you and furnish you with a menu which is no bad thing, but they should let you get your bearings first I always think, before piling the service on.

I should I say I discovered the restaurant is owned and operated by a Korean-Iranian family so there are menus in Korean too should the need arise! Indeed the Korean-Iranian son was our host during the evening and he seemed to suggest that the music and even the ‘management’ are about to change at the end of this month, but he was rather vague while insisting that the place itself is here to stay with jazz and fine food.

In one corner of the downstairs room there is a generous stage with nice new sound reinforcement equipment, a piano and a trio of rather talented jazzers called Folio Jazz who hail from the Philippines and most of whom have been here for years.

They played a pleasant and accomplished selection of instrumental standards including the likes of Cantaloupe Island, Green Dolphin Street and other faraway favourites, sprinkling their sets with jazz classics like My Way and tasty ballads along the way.

With the live jazz it was certainly suddenly reminiscent of Fabb and other jazz cafes in town, but only in the sense that this is a restaurant that does food and jazz. For a start, it is less central here and is a somehow quieter venue tucked away from the heart of the action really.

But it does have an upstairs and one interesting feature still to be properly developed is an open air courtyard out the back where a few tables were placed I guess to let you smoke your brains out as you eat, but apparently the numbers are not adequate enough yet to get this shady and sheltered feature properly established, but it will be very nice when it is, I reckons.

But the food is worth the trek if that is the right word. I must admit I was intrigued as to what the food might be with the Korean connection, but it was a very catholic menu in the sense that there was a Pasta section, a Steak section and a Thai food section, and all featuring the classics of their genres.

I was hungry so I ordered the soft shell crab salad and My Girl had the spicy crispy salmon with mango sauce which she said was ‘awesome’. Mine was fine too and a great preparation for the New Zealand T Bone Steak I ordered next, with a Fillet of Sea Bass for the misses. (Don’t tell http://www.samworthington.com, but we had a Tom Yang Goong soup between us too, even if it does seem a trifle gauche!) The food was beautiful and the meat and fish fresh and we were impressed with the quantities too considering the prices were very keen and well within the average punters pocket for a good night out.

Scanning the menu among the starters there was Smoked Salmon Parcel and Deep Fried Prawn Cakes, then there was Szechuan –style soup and in the pasta section, the familiar Fettucine Alfredo and even a Spaghetti Phad Thai Koong. Among the mains there was Grilled Chicken Brochette Flambe, Grilled Salmon Steak, Laotian Sirloin, Pan Fried Duck Breast and many more.

The wine list was miniscule and as me and My Girl are not proper gourmets anyway, we switched to cold beer and cocktails to wash it all down.

Deep fried ice cream, caramel custard and banana fritters finished the proceedings nicely and we were well stuffed as the band played their way into the night and we got a cab back home.

It’s a pleasant find but although the food was good and the music not too shabby, it will take a while before this place has a real personality. The courtyard out the back would help make it a little different from other downtown eateries and here’s hoping. It might even be the place to enjoy a perfect cigar with dinner one day.

Here’s hoping!

Music starts 7 pm until midnight.

MUSIC HOUSE
74 Sukhumvit Soi 26
Klongton, KlongToey
Bangkok 10110
Tel : 02 261 2334
Fax: 02 261 2335