Up and Above Restaurant and Bar @ Okura Prestige Bangkok
International Buffet at Lunch time Weekdays + Saturday
Overall Score 8.5/10
Taste 4/5
Ambiance 4/5
Service 5/5
Value 4/5
See Up & Above Restaurant Info on BumRes.com
In Bangkok, there seem to plenty of five star hotels to accommodate the grade A visitors and local big spenders. Okura Prestige on the Wireless road is one of the newer one. The Up and Above Restaurant and Bar is one of the three restaurants at the Okura Prestige, a hotel that appears to be offering the best of the best in town; with the Yamazato serving superior choices of Japanese cuisine and the Element featuring Italian specialties in the stylish interior décor. The Up and Above is the main restaurant at the Okura Prestige; serving breakfast to hotel guests, Lunch Buffet available on weekdays, and a la carte at dinner time. I believe soon they will have the Sunday Brunch Buffet for everyone just like any other five star hotels in this area; Plaza Athenee, Conrad, Siam Kempinski, Four Seasons, St. Regis, and Sheraton Grande Sukhumvit. All of which have their international cuisine fantasy land every Sunday for everyone to feast and why wouldn’t Up and Above give it try and see how they could compete with the rest.
Up and Above, the name is entailing that it is definitely not on the ground floor. It resides on the 24th floor of the Park Venture at the corner of Ploenchit intersection. The Okura Prestige Bangkok takes up the 24th floor and above. The below 23 levels are for the office rental. Okura sounds very Japanese so of course, it is a Japanese brand. In Japan, this hotel corporate is renowned for its five-star quality for quite some time. This particular one in Bangkok has the prestige in the name due to its modern design influences added to the concept. This one in Bangkok is the 24th location. There are 16 Okura hotels in Japan and 9 other locations worldwide. The 25th one, Okura Prestige Taipei just had the grand opening in August. The name may not sound familiar to you but they are sure proud to present the five-star hotel with the Japanese level of standard.
The Up and Above has just began to serve the lunch buffet in September 2012. For 980++ baht, you can choose their international food selection freely. From what I heard, the Sunday brunch will be available here soon and the price will be around 1,800++ baht. If it is true, I must say that their Sunday brunch offer is rather reasonable. For now, we are reviewing the Lunch buffet. In the line buffet at the Up and Above Restaurant and Bar, there are both self serve buffet and order over the counter. In the self service, there are small area of cold seafood, Thai food, salad, cheese, and western main course choices. For the made to order, there are sushi, Lamb chop, Roast meat, and Thai noodles of various kinds. Often times, international buffet would serve pastas. I like that they have the Thai noodles here for the foreign guests.
You won’t find me at buffet as much because I am trying to control my weight gain. Most of the time, I feel that the buffet food is not as delicious as a la carte. The fact that I want to get the most out what I’d pay for the buffet always keeps me going back to the line to try everything available. These thoughts may have put a burden in my head about coming to the lunch buffet at the Up and Above @ Okura Prestige Bangkok. I guess, to have buffet at lunch is better than at dinner time because I would have some time to work it off before I go to bed.
In this review, I ate just enough food to be satisfied. I tried hard not to overdo it since the food was actually quite delicious. Many dishes in the line buffet could be sold as a la carte, I thought. The western main dishes divided into small portions were my favorite. There were a couple of them with pan fried fish. I really like the one with the Sea bass. The Lampchop was nicely done with spices aroma. The meat was tastefully marinated and roasted with a juicy and tender texture. Both freshly carved to your request. To compliment the meat, there were fried potato wedges and grilled zucchinis, which were also done well. These meat dishes could easily be served as a la carte dishes in nice European restaurants.
For Thai food selection, all appeared to be authentically prepared. I tasted one of the Thai curry, it was fully flavored to my favor. My friend tried the Thai noodles soup and he said that the broth was delicious. Cold seafood section was small but it was inclusive of typical choices such as tiger shrimps, crab legs, rock lobsters, and mussels. Then there are an area for the cold cuts like salmon, pastrami, salami, and more. I loved to have them with the salad. The spring mix was comprised of fresh and high quality picks like rocket, romaine, purple lettuce, radish, etc. I also tried the Pita bread and hummus, which tasted too mild. It wasn’t bad but I have had better; it could be more garlicky. In general, all of what I chose to have was above average. To be honest, my friend and I didn’t expect much from buffets usually but when we started our lunch at the Up and Above @ Okura Prestige, we looked at each other and agreed that their adequate amount of international food selection was quite delicious.
I thought main dishes were the highlight of the meal, but the desserts also impressed me. When I walked into the restaurant and observed all the selection, I noticed that the dessert area was really colorful. There were various kinds ranges from local fruits to macaron. I had my simple picks, a little bit of everything; fruit tart, custard, crème brulee, ice-cream, fondue, and macaron. The desserts were amazing; trust me. Girls would go crazy over the dessert at the Up and above. Not to mention about the locally found fruits such as the passion fruits, star fruits, dragon fruits, and mango. I bet foreign visitors would get excited to try these fresh seasonal fruits.
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