Got Bangkok

Wasabi Japanese Restaurant
“Wonderful japanese cuisine in the heart of Ratchada”
Open everyday:
Website: http://www.wasabithai.com (their website is currently offline)
Call: 02 660 9276
Address: 3rd Floor, Esplanade, 99 Rachadapisek Rd, Bangkok 10400 (BTS station Thailand Cultural Centre)

Wasabi Japanese Restaurant is originated from Japan and the owner is Yamada Sensei. It is a nice little japanese restaurant on the 3rd floor of the Esplanade Mall in Ratchada. Being on the 3rd floor it’s pretty much out of the way of the hustle and bustle of things in Esplanade. So it’s a nice little getaway from all the busy restaurants there. The food was great, the service was good too. So if you are in the Ratchada area and in the mood for a different japanese restaurant than your typical Fuji, Shabushi, Sakura, etc, then I really suggest giving Wasabi Restaurant a fair chance and try it out

The Menu:
What I Ate: I ordered a variety of great foods, including seared salmon, salmon sashimi, fried grouper and a few more things. Overall the meal was great, the food was delicious.
The Staff: The staff was very friendly and accommodating, we were seated at a regular middle table, but then a side window table opened up and asked if we would rather sit there with a nice view of Ratchada road. I appreciated that
The Bathroom:

Conclusion:

Extras: none

Spanish On 4
“Authentic Spanish tapas in downtown Bangkok”
Open everyday: Sun-Thurs 11am – 1am, Fri-Sat 11am – 2am (great choice of restaurant open late!)
Website: http://www.spanishon4.com
Call: 02 632 9955
Address: 78, 80 Silom Soi 4, Bangkok 10500 (BTS station Saladaeng)

Spanish On 4 aka Tapas Cafe Bangkok was is the downtown branch of ever-popular Tapas Cafe in Sukhumvit Soi 11. The new restaurant is located in the heart of the Silom business area on Silom Soi 4. During the day Soi 4 is busy with a lot of local office workers taking their lunch. At night, the street livens up and the terrace at Spanish on 4 becomes a great place for dining, drinking and people watching. The food is similar to Tapas Cafe – traditional spanish foods, and very authentic, Spanish tapas with weekly changing specials. The kitchen is overseen by Xavier Palomar, their chef from Barcelona, so having a true chef from Spain will reassure you that the foods at Spanish On 4 is very authentic. The wine list has wines from all the major wine producing areas of Spain at very reasonable prices and home made sangria is always a party favorite. The atmosphere is informal and buzzy with latin and other world music playing. Bookings are recommended for parties, or on the weekends. Happy hour runs all day until 7 pm with 2 for 1 sangria and 3 for 2 tapas on offer. Lunch sets are available daily at 220 baht. Price is usually about 200 – 500 baht per person. Capacity: 80 people. Cocktails: Full bar. Large party room and roof garden available.

The Menu:
What I Ate:
The Staff:
The Bathroom:

Conclusion:

Extras: none

Linkin Park Live in BKK

Organizer: N/A
Where: At Aktive Square Meungtong Thani
When: Friday, September 23, 2011
Website Info: http://www.linkinpark.com

Hello Bangkok! Linkin Park is coming back. They previously did a great concert at Aktive Square in 2007, and now they are coming back! Here is what they’ve tweeted: “We’ve added a show at Aktive Square in Bangkok, Thailand on September 23. Ticket info coming soon. Check LinkinPark.com for updates.”

pics coming soon

I’ll be there taking pictures If any questions or requests please let me know by contacting me here

Da Endorphine Live in Zaleng (free concert)

Organizer: N/A
Where: Zaleng Club & Pub Ratchada Soi 4, Bangkok
When: Thursday, August 4, 2011 (beginning at midnight 12am)
Website Info: http://daendorphine.com

Da Endorphine

pics coming soon

I’ll be there taking pictures If any questions or requests please let me know by contacting me here

California Wow Fitness Center Thailand
“The World’s No. 1 Fitness Centers”
Open Monday-Friday 06:00am – 23:00pm and Weekends from 06:00am – 22:00pm
Website: http://www.californiawowx.com
Call: N/A
Address: I frequently visit the Ratchada Esplanade branch, but there are 8 locations in Bangkok. There are: Chaeng Wattana, Ekkamai, Esplanade, Pinklao, Ratchayothin, Siam Paragon, Silom, and Sukhumvit 23. There are also fitness centers outside of BKK at Chiang Mai and Pattaya.

California Wow is a well known fitness center in Thailand, possibly the most popular. I joined in March 2011 and so far my “California Wow Experience” is good, but not great. I’m not sure about all their branches, but the Esplanade branch is usually very busy. The locker rooms are big, but the space when dealing with lockers is very small. The benches are the worst ever, you can’t even set things on them. But as for fitness equipment and services, they are plentiful. Their services include XXX Pole dance, personal training, pilates, kickfit, Wow yoga, group biking, kick boxing, and many more.

I did experience some problems when joining California Wow. The people I spoke with were really a bit pushy, trying to push me to spend a lot of money that day. For example, trying to push on a 60,000 baht fee for long period of time, I was only asking them to join for 1 week (to test their services to see if I like it or not), yet they were pushing for 60k, though I did end up joining at some 24,000 baht for 2 years, for 2 branches (Ratchayothin and Esplanade). And if you forget your towel, you’ll be fine because they let you borrow towels for 50 baht per day (a bit expensive for towel renting, but oh well). If you have joined California Wow please post your join day experience, and your overall experience with CaliWow please, comment here.

Some good things, I like there are so many machines, so many to choose from, whether you are going for cardio, strength, abs, arms, legs, they do have it all! Also, if you are a True Home Wifi internet user, you can login to the True Wifi using your user/pass (you should have it from your True Home Wifi information). Also, a little extra perk, I sometimes see the most famous actress/model in Thailand, Chompoo Araya A. Hargate working out there.

I was in a Bangkok Fresh Mart today and I seen the Pringles “Street Food” edition, with the flavor of Bangkok Grilled Chicken Wing!
I bought them for 58 baht and had to try them…I must say, they are a little bland, but all in all, not too bad

Yentafo Krueng Songe
“For those who love thai noodle”
Open everyday 10:30am – 10:00pm
Website: http://www.yentafo.com
Call: (02) 690-5870-3
Address: I visited the Ratchada Esplanade branch, but there are 16 locations in Bangkok, you can see a list of all their locations here.

Yentafo

The Menu:
What I Ate: We ordered the main Yentafo thai noodles, it’s similar to the roadside type of kuay teaw noodles that most thai’s love to eat. Also some fried fish cakes with sweet sauce, and some dessert consisting of fresh baked Yentafo bread covered in some super sweet shaved ice and sugars
The Staff: quick service
The Bathroom: You must use the Esplanade public bathrooms, usually very clean and big

Conclusion:

Extras: none

Paula Pop Thai Restaurant Esplanade
“Great Thai food in Ratchada”
Open everyday 10:00am – 9:00pm
Website: none
Call: 02-660-9399
Address: I visited the Esplanade Ratchada Branch. I am not sure if there are more branches.

Paula Pop thai restaurant is a nice little restaurant in the downstairs food and restaurant area in Esplanada. If you are in Esplanade for whatever reason and you are interested in Thai food, PP is a good choice, and actually there are not many other thai restaurants inside Esplenade, they have mostly suki and japanese restaurants. But to be completely honest, I doubt I will have a go at PP again, unless I’m in the mood for nam prik. In my opinion, thai foods are not best when served inside big high class shopping malls.

The Menu: They have all the basic thai foods you can think of
What I Ate: I ordered the panang moo, it’s a spicy dark curry with pieces of pork, it was not the best. I also ordered the kai jeaw moo saap, that is the thai style omelette with pieces of minced pork, it’s delicious to eat with the nam prik kapi, that is the salso-looking dip in the small bowl, but beware, it tastes nothing like salsa! It’s spicy, and very unique flavorite. It’s not really farang-friendly type of food.
The Staff: All speak mostly only thai language, but very nice and friendly at Paula Pop.
The Bathroom: The bathrooms are very near, the public bathrooms in Esplanade, same level, have 2 locations, very clean and big

Conclusion:

Extras: none

CoCo Ichibanya Esplanade
“Bangkok’s best Japanese curry house“ and “good smell, good curry”
Open everyday 10:00am – 10:00pm
Website: http://www.cocothailand.com
Call: 02 660 9283
Address: I visited the Ratchada Branch in Esplanade shopping mall. CoCo Ichibanya, located at ground floor, when entering the front of Esplanade you’ll see it there on the left hand side. There are 10 CoCo locations in Thailand, in The Esplanade, Central Plaza Chaeng Wattana, MBK Center, Siam Paragon, K Village Sukhumvit 26, La Villa Phaholyothin, Central Festival Pattaya Beach, Paradise Park, Central World, and Central Plaza Rama 3. You can see each location and address here.

CoCoICHIBANYA is a very famous curry house from Japan. This highly popular chain restaurant has been around for 30+ years so that says a lot! Also CoCoICHIBANYA is the largest curry chain restaurant in the world, with over 1,200 branches in Japan, China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Thailand and South Korea. I consider those of us here in Thailand totally lucky to have this restaurant. ANd it’s in 10 locations, mostly in Bangkok, and in Pattaya. So be sure to check out this wonderful restaurant. If you love curry, you will love CoCo Ichibanya! Aroi mak!

The Menu: The menu is filled with various types of japanese curry. And the most popular is to create-your-own-curry. You can choose which curry base, what hotness level you want, and any/all additions you order will come in a little cup, for you to dump into the curry. They have pork, beef, vegetable, seafoods, and many more to choose from! If you love curry, then you will love CoCo! The complete CoCo Ichibanya menu can be seen here.
What I Ate: I eat the hot vegetable curry, #3 level hot curry sauce, with a side of tuna to put into the curry and rice. It’s 1 of my favorite dishes in all of Thailand! I have cravings for it regularly!
The Staff: They speak very little English, but are very friendly
The Bathroom: The bathrooms are located downstairs in Esplanade, they are very clean and big

Conclusion:

Extras: You can use your Fuji discount card for a 5-10% discount at all Coco Ichibanya restaurants

Somboon Seafood Ratchada
“Bangkok’s best fried crab curry”
Open everyday 4:00pm – 11:30pm
Website: http://www.somboonseafood.com
Call: 02-692-6850-3
Address: I visited the Ratchada Branch Somboon Seafood, located at 167/9-12 Huay Kwang Intersection, Ratchadapisek Rd., Din Deang, Bangkok 10320. There are 5 Somboon locations , in Bantadthong, Surawong, Ratchada, Udom Suk, and Sam Yan. You can see each location and address here.

Sombood Seafood is a famous Chinese / Thai crab curry and seafood restaurant in Bangkok. The business began in 1969 at Sam Yan location and became well known with it’s specialty, the fried curry crab. With over 40 years in business you can already understand that Somboon and company know how to make quality food and satisfy their customers. And now with 5 branches, you can find Sombood Seafood all over Bangkok, in Bantadthong, Surawong, Ratchada, Udom Suk, and Sam Yan

The Menu: Somboon menu has every seafood you could imagine, from seabass, to grouper, shrimps, oysters, cockles, frog, and of course their specialty, fried crab curry!
What I Ate: Fried morning glory (pad pak boong fai dang), some crab in yellow curry sauce, stir fried fresh water prawns with garlic and chili, steamed sea bass in lemon sauce and a few more dishes you can see in the pics below
The Staff: Somboon staff was very friendly and helpful
The Bathroom: The bathrooms here are very clean and on the 3rd floor

Conclusion:

Extras: none