Restaurants in Asia
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Republic of Noodles
For a sophisticated dining experience, the RoN delivers with its dark bamboo interior, Buddha heads and floating candles. Delicious, huge noodle plates are the order of the day, and if you’re feeling flush there’s an exquisite brunch on Sunday mornings: Rs1200 buys you an extensive southeast Asian buffet, along with unlimited Mimosas and Bloody Marys.
reviewed
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A
Eat Me Restaurant
A little bit of Sydney has blossomed here off Th Silom, helping to give Bangkok more cosmo cred. Chic, minimalist decor is accessorised by rotating art exhibits supplied by H Gallery, the city’s leading contemporary gallery. And lest we forget, the food is creative and modern, spanning the globe from pumpkin risotto to tuna tartare.
reviewed
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B
Bourbon St Bar & Restaurant
Although the ‘spicy’ reputation of New Orleans cuisine will probably make most Thais chuckle, any restaurant run by a man who owns a crayfish farm, stuffs his own andouille and has written a cookbook on spicy food is obviously serious about eats. Stop by on Monday, when the traditional New Orleans dinner of red beans and rice is served buffet-style.
reviewed
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Café de Daunen
Inside the Bogor botanical gardens, this is the nicest setting in town for a meal, with sweeping views down across a meadow to the water lily ponds. It’s a little pricey, but the revamped menu has tasty food including fish and chips, pasta and good Indonesian dishes. For a refreshing drink try the bandrek (tea made with ginger and herbs).
reviewed
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C
Paratha Wali Gali
Head to this foodstall-lined (some with seating) lane off Chandni Chowk for delectable parathas (traditional flat bread) fresh off the tawa (hotplate). Stuffed varieties include aloo (potato), mooli (white radish), smashed pappadams and crushed badam (almond), all served with a splodge of tangy pickles.
reviewed
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Café Corner
Prime real estate, mod furnishings, and tasty iced coffees have made Café Corner a Sairee staple over the last few years. Swing by at 5pm to stock up for tomorrow morning's breakfast; the scrumptious baked breads are buy-one-get-one-free before being tossed at sunset.
reviewed
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D
Guru-Ka-Langar
Guru-Ka-Langar is the free (donations appreciated) community dining room, a feature of all Sikh temples as a mark of unity among people of all religions, creeds and nationalities. The huge kitchens (one has a chapati machine) prepare dhal, rice and chapatis for up to 40,000 pilgrims a day. All are welcome to join the masses eating on the floor.
reviewed
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Barbeque Nation
The novelty at this wood-esque restaurant is small grills embedded in each table, allowing diners to partake in the cooking of their meals. The food, however, isn’t quite as sexy. There’s a good veg/nonveg buffet (lunch Monday to Saturday/Sunday per person Rs309/450; dinner daily Rs450) which includes BBQ Indian, Chinese and Mediterranean fare.
reviewed
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E
Le Bambino
Hidden away in a small residential lane, this delightful French oasis is run by a couple (French husband, Vietnamese wife) who turned their home into a restaurant and boutique hotel. The menu (available in Japanese) features hearty French fare, pizza and pasta. Upstairs, three enormous and extremely well-appointed rooms go for US$30 per night.
reviewed
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Krua Apsorn
This is the original branch of this homey, award-winning and royally patronised restaurant. Expect a clientele made up of fussy families and big-haired, middle-aged ladies, and a cuisine revolving around full-flavoured, largely seafood- and vegetable-heavy central Thai dishes. If you have dinner in mind, be sure to note the early closing times.
reviewed
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Narya Café
The Latin music playing in the background, ochre-painted walls and contemporary artwork make for a pleasant sight when entering this laid-back café. The menu offers reasonably priced sandwiches, soups and home-baked muffins, plus hot dishes such as a 'sloppy dorj' (the Mongolian version of a sloppy joe). Food quality can be inconsistent.
reviewed
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H
Soi 38 Night Market
It’s not the best street food in town by a long shot, but after a hard night of clubbing on Sukhumvit, you can be forgiven for believing so. If you’re going sober, stick to the knot of ‘famous’ vendors tucked into an alley on the right-hand side as you enter the street; the flame-fried pàt tai and herbal fish-ball noodles are standouts.
reviewed
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Ichiran
Ichiran has been serving noodles for 39 years. Unusually, customers eat at individual cubicles, and fill out forms requesting precisely how they want their noodles prepared. Flavour strength, fat content, noodle tenderness, quantity of special sauce and garlic content can all be regulated. An English language request form is also available.
reviewed
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Viet Emotion
This stylish, intimate little place has a bistro feel about it, with bottles of wine hanging from the ceiling, plus a fireplace. Try the trekking omelette, home-made soup, or something from the tapas menu like gambas al ajillo (garlic prawns). If the weather really sets in there are books and magazines to browse and games including chess.
reviewed
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J
Tianzi Tea House
Such hard-core health food is usually found in dirt-floor hippy shacks, but Tianzi has adopted the ascetic's meal to an aesthetic surrounding. Pretty open-air săh·lah, decorated with flowers and dappled with sunlight, host a range of organic and macrobiotic dishes, such as Yunnanese tofu cheese.
reviewed
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K
Chotiwala
There are two open-fronted and fiercely competitive Chotiwalas side by side, both serving up thalis, South Indian food, ice creams and sweet lime sodas. There’s little to distinguish between them and they’re easy to spot by the rotund (but not very jolly) mascots with the pointy hairdo (a choti ) sitting out the front.
reviewed
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Savoey
On an island packed with weighed-to-order fish grills, this is one of the best. Its huge ice shelf is packed with lobsters, prawns, grouper, red snapper, sole, trevally and barracuda. It also has live lobsters. It has one menu and four dining rooms – two of them on the sand. The food is always great, and the prices are quite reasonable.
reviewed
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Village Garden Restaurant
Karachi's oldest restaurant, the Village Garden is a pleasant place to sit in the open air and catch a breeze. The menu here is heavy on barbequed meat, plus some tasty karais (food braised with vegetables, served bubbling in its own pan) and the like. The TV in the middle of the restaurant is permanently tuned to the cricket.
reviewed
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Kawagoe-ya
Cosy and country-style, specializing in a range of Japanese foods like soba and donburi (rice with assorted toppings). The mini-maguro-don set (¥1365) comes with soba and more. It's outside Kamakura Station's east exit, in the basement below McDonald's. Picture menu and plastic models available.
reviewed
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N
Food Stalls at Lorong Tuanku Abdul Rahman
The best time to visit Little India is during the Saturday pasar malam on Lorong Tuanku Abdul Rahman, the alley between Jln TAR and Jln Masjid India. From mid-afternoon, this narrow lane becomes crammed with food stalls serving excellent Malaysian Indian food, as well as favourite dishes of the Chinese and Indian communities.
reviewed
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Garibaldi
Swish, sequestered Garibaldi is the pick of Singapore’s Italian crop (and Singapore tries hard) : Italian chefs and debonair staff, and over 150 Italian wines. The menu is classico; try the antipasti, then the homemade tortellini di granchio e cozze (handmade crab tortellini with mussels, zucchini and saffron sauce).
reviewed
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Cafe Havana
Conjure the illusion that you're in Havana just before the city's fall to Castro. You can opt to have an all-Cuban evening starting with Cuba Libre and ending with a Cuban Cohiba Esplendido cigar, with some Arroz a la Cubana in between. It's busy serving local partiers until late and many revitalize with the good fresh fruit drinks.
reviewed
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Q
Pho Thin
You'll get a very good bowl of pho in this family-run joint. Just be prepared for a down-home pho-eating experience: order yours on your way in, elbow your way into seats, and kick aside the little piles of tissues at your feet. Within seconds, the aromatic steam rising from your bowl will remind you why you came.
reviewed
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Oasis Restaurant
At New Bhandari Swiss Cottage, this restaurant is more refined, with candlelit tables in the garden and hanging lanterns inside. The menu ransacks oodles of world cuisines from Mexican and Thai to Israeli and Tibetan, and features a number of chicken dishes including a delicious chilli chicken. Great desserts include apple crumble.
reviewed
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Teapot
This stylish haunt is the perfect venue for ‘high tea’, with quality teas, sandwiches and full meals served in chic-minimalist, airy rooms. Witty tea-themed accents include loads of antique teapots, tea chests for tables and a gnarled, tea-tree based glass table. The death by chocolate here (Rs50) is truly cocoa homicide. Trust us.
reviewed