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Lemon Cherry
First floor, CentralWorld Plaza,
opposite Marks & Spencer,
Tel. 02-613-1572, Open daily 10am-9:30pm
After opening
the multi-cuisine sensation Orangery at Siam Paragon, MR Chatumongol
Sonakul and Vinita Srichawla are doing something less elaborate at
CentralWorld. Instead of pooling eight of Bangkok's top restaurants
into a 1,200-square-metre space as at Orangery, their new eatery is
on a much smaller scale with a simpler menu based on noodles and
burgers.
The
restaurateurs, however, wanted to carry on expanding a fruity
family. So after Orangery, its little sister restaurant is named
Lemon Cherry. To go along with a lemony name, the decor couldn't be
any other colour but green, making the restaurant a verdant oasis on
the ground floor of Bangkok's largest lifestyle shopping complex.
The food
concept takes on an East-meets-West, or fusion, style and the task
of creating an impressive menu was given to Madam Nooror, star chef
of Blue Elephant Cooking School and Restaurant. The amazing Madam
Nooror is indeed an expert in various cuisines and has her own
restaurant in Brussels and a noodle outlet in Hong Kong. "I'm a
dreamer," says the star chef. "And you have to dream about designing
delicious dishes as well as dare to do them."
On the menu, we
could see that she dared to turn traditional Thai soups and curries
into noodles. Say you love tom kha, tom khlong or green curry, you
can enjoy them in a new way at Lemon Cherry by ordering tom kha
goong noodles, seafood tom khlong noodles and green curry noodles.
The highly
recommended green curry noodles (250 baht) is actually a signature
dish with fresh soba noodles served with delicious deep-fried
bergamot prawn cake in a full flavour green curry soup while the
seafood tom khlong noodles (380 baht) is a big bowl of black squid
ink spaghetti with salmon fillet and seafood in a traditional Thai
spicy and sour soup.
Madam Nuroor
also surprised us by making larb ped ball noodles (egg noodles
served with duck and spicy larb balls). Similar to yum, larb is a
spicy Thai dish with herbs. "I don't trust meatballs," she says.
"They may contain borax, and moreover they don't have a good smell.
So I made my own meatballs and added herbs to the meat for a better
aroma." Besides larb duck balls, herbal pork balls and seaweed fish
balls are specially prepared for other noodle options.
"Wontons are
always a favourite at noodle places," she adds. "But I wanted to do
something more exciting than kiew goong". Her version of wontons is
Italian ravioli with a filling of French foie gras. The foie gras
ravioli and egg noodles in clear soup, which comes in a long
leaf-shaped bowl, is another signature dish (450 baht) with which to
experience a fine food fusion.
Burgers here
also have a Thai twist, as with the chicken burger in spicy larb
style (240 baht) and wagyu krapaow beef burger (1,250 baht). The
premium price is due to imported ingredients like the mouthwatering
chunks of Japanese wagyu beef. Even the French fries come from
Belgium.
Altogether, the
80-seat restaurant offers around 24 options for a quick lunch or
casual dining. Other tasty items include Japanese soba salad in larb
style (140 baht) and, before ending your meal, don't forget to fork
into a piece of cake, whether the melting mango cheese cake,
chocolate and ginger cake or kaffir lime leaf cake (150 baht per
slice).
And if not for a
bowl of noodles or a burger, Lemon Cherry is a worthwhile venue to
drop by for a luscious kaffir lime leaf cake with a lemongrass cuppa
during a shopping spree. |
