Overall Score 8/10
Taste 4/5
Ambiance 3.5/5
Service 3.5/5
Value 3.5/5
Frienz Japanese Dining Bar on BumRes.com
The Frienz – I found its review a while back in the Kon Krua
Webboard. Photos in there were so
horrible – bad quality. But, so many
comments were positive; I have to check it out for myself. The occasion was to celebrate the coming of
the New Year with my girlfriend. At
first we were thinking about going to the Polka Dot Café for their Festive Set
Menu. To be honest, I was glad that I
came to Frienz instead. Frienz is
located in the Serm-Mit Building on Asoke road, opposite to the Sino-Thai
building. Parking is available inside
the building. The restaurant is located
on street side, closed to Soi Asoke 1 – not so hard to find.
As approaching the front of the Frienz, I noticed the sign,
“Happy Hour Asahi Draft Beer 1 Pitcher 280 -> 180 baht,” then I looked at my
watch. It was 6.45pm, so I hurried and
grabbed my girlfriend to catch the Happy Hours (5-7pm). When the server asked for what to drink, I
quickly answered without thinking, One Asahi Pitcher Please! Frienz serves a
great variety of Japanese food; sides, traditional, fusio, and even Thai. Majority of the time, a restaurant with
expansive menu has lower quality of food.
I thought to myself about what to order – looks like it will take some
luck to order the right dishes. So, I
looked around the restaurant. Half of
the customers were Japanese. I still
didn’t know what to order. I decided to
order a lot of food as a strategy to reduce the risk of getting bad
dishes. Interesting solution, don’t you
think? Lol…
Pricing of the food at Frienz is reasonable to a Japanese
restaurant standard and just like I said earlier the menu is huge – I don’t
know if it’s good or bad. Let’s get into
talking about the food. Of course, the
first to serve was the Asahi Beer.
Shortly followed with the Tuna Salad – I can’t remember the actual name
but the server said that it was the Signature dish. The presentation was super gorgeous and its
taste was also beautiful. Next up was
the Karakae, 70 baht per piece. Frienz
amazed me for such a simple menu – oh so tasty!
Third dish at Frienz was the ground pork with eggplant. The Chinese look of this menu actually
possessed a Japanese ingredient – the Japanese eggplant. This type of eggplant is rarely found in
Thailand. Since eggplant is my favored
vegetable, I ordered the menu right away.
I liked it to an extent – delicious but not that delicious. Fourth dish was the Omelet with little rice
fish. I thought that there was not
enough mixture of fish in the Omelet, so I didn’t fully get the flavoring of
the tasty little fish. I must admit that
the omelet was perfectly flavored and prepared.
My girlfriend and I were impressed with this menu.
We still have a few more dishes. Coming up next was the Saba Steak that my
girlfriend ordered. The large size Saba
was grilled to almost perfection. Its
flavorful sauce added a nice touch to the grill aroma. Soon to follow was the Frienz Roll for 380
baht. This one must be the best one
since it was named after the restaurant.
And it did; each one of the sushi bite was oversized. I almost couldn’t fit it through my
mouth. I bet many people would have a
hard time eating it, lol… the amazing flavor made up for the difficulty. Choices of ingredient were well matched to
create such as special menu. Next dish
was the Salmon Nigiri (180 baht) – only for two pieces, the price was too
high. To my surprise, the quality was as
high as the premium Japanese restaurants in this neighborhood. I am sorry for saying that it was too
expensive. Actually it was definitely
worth it.
Final dish was the cold soba. At this point in time, I was so stuffed
already because I was eating much more than my girlfriend. The Soba had to be really delicious to
impress me at that time. And, just as I
expected it didn’t excite me at all. The
bill totaled to 2,000 baht exactly.
There was no service charge but there was vat. Let’s give the Frienz @ Asoke a round of
applaud for not charging the service.
Recently I have noticed that real Japanese restaurants don’t add service
charge to the bill. However, many
mainstream restaurants is charging like it is mandatory, so lame!
For the easygoing celebration of ending the year 2010 at
Frienz @ Asoke, my girlfriend and I were quite impressed with the overall
experience. The food was delicious,
reasonably priced, attentive service staffs, and most importantly the beer
promotion. Frienz Japanese restaurant
did a great job; I highly recommend this Sushi joint to you all. Driving there may be a hassle due to traffic
but Frienz will surely calm you down by serving cold beer and delicious
sushi.
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