Review

The best chefs in Bangkok are rightly regarded for ground-breaking cooking. Yet, while the city is well-stocked with forward-thinking venues, true pioneers are harder to find. That’s why the enduring excellence of Nahm, sitting within the Metropolitan Hotel, is a blessing for connoisseurs of authentic, refined Thai cuisine. While some old stagers eventually fade from the limelight, Nahm remains one of the best places in the city to sample rarefied Thai food. Chef Pim Techamuanvivit upholds the restaurant’s questing legacy by using premium ingredients and innovation in her flavour combinations, an ethos stemming from her childhood memories and extensive knowledge of ancient cookery books written by Siamese aristocrats. Her flexible set heritage menu allows guests to build their sumptuous banquets from a comprehensive list of options. Delightful and unexpected dishes include sao nahm pollamai, fermented rice noodles with coconut cream dressing, citrus, fruits, and dried prawns, and gaeng jued ped rom kwan, smoked duck soup with sago palm tapioca. Less obscure but equally thrilling treats are pad nuea sai nomai nahm, stir-fried wagyu beef with yellow capsicum and wild rice stems, and a gaeng pu bai cha plu, turmeric curry with betel leaves and calamansi starring plump, toothsome chunks of blue swimmer crab. For dessert, order the intriguingly complex life cycle of coconut. Accompany the feast with a judiciously chosen wine pairing.