I had always thought that the Rosiabeng was a beer garden. On many pass-bys of this capacious watering hole the abiding thought that occurred to me was the umbrellas and tables and the trees that dominate the forecourt.

It was only after I asked for suggestions on this site for future reviews, that one of the regular contributors, Roving Rabbit, cited the Rosiabeng for review.

The Rosiabeng is located on Sukhumvit Soi 11, about 100 metres from the entrance of Sukhumvit Road. On the night we visited it had been raining earlier in the evening which made – for us at least – the prospect of sitting outside out of the question. However, we could not help but notice that at least a dozen tables were occupied al fresco so the thought occurred to us that maybe the inside was full.

Once inside we could see that the place was rather full, but the waitress didn’t have any problems in finding us a two seater next to the windows looking out to the forecourt and the al fresco diners.

To wet our whistles we ordered a large Heineken for your correspondent and a gin and tonic for the shopper girl.

Looking around the restaurant it seemed to us that it had the capacity for around 130+ covers and an additional 70 or so outside, so added together, Rosiabeng was one of the bigger restaurants in the Sukhumvit area.

Additionally, there were a number of Thai families and couples dining which is always an encouraging sign when dining at an ostensibly Thai eatery.

The menu was long and quite interesting but even a glance told us that the Rosiabeng was not a cheap restaurant.

After careful consideration we called over our waitress and ordered a Tom Yung Goong, a green chicken curry, one steamed Garoupa with vegetables, two oyster omelettes and a plate of spring rolls with iceberg lettuce leaves.

The beer came with a nice frosty covering on the bottle and the shopper girl murmured that her gin and tonic was “perfectly balanced”.

With the arrival of the spring rolls and lettuce leaves I ordered another Heineken and then got stuck into the spring rolls. The presentation and flavour of the spring rolls was straight out of Vietnam along with the sweet and slightly sticky dipping sauce. The rolls were small, compact and flavoursome and the dipping sauce was the absolutely perfect accompaniment to them.

The ten rolls soon disappeared as neither of us had eaten anything since breakfast at 6 am in Kanchanaburi and it was now 8.15 pm.

The oyster omelettes arrived next with a small pot of brown sauce. The omelettes were generously sprinkled with the small oysters that are prevalent to this part of Asia and mixed in with them was a handful of crunchy bean sprouts. The brown dipping sauce seemed to consist of a mixture of fish sauce, soy sauce and hoi sin, slightly heated but making a great accompaniment for the omelettes.

Next was the Tom Yung Goong which came in a tureen with enough for four or five helpings. We limited ourselves to one bowl each. It was the real deal and your correspondent finished the course with dilated eye pupils and sweat beads adorning his forehead. However, at 290 baht, I concluded that whilst it was a good rendition of the ubiquitous Thai dish it was very much over priced.

Next was the Garoupa. It was presented on an oval plate, it had been steamed to perfection with the flesh peeling away effortlessly from the carcass and it was accompanied by steamed carrots, Thai egg plants and a carved halved tomato.

The fish was quite large but with our ravenous appetites which had not been satiated for 14 hours we finished the magnificent dish but left the delicately carved tomato for another innings.

I still felt hungry, whilst the shopper girl said she had had enough, so I ordered roasted pork with garlic sauce. It only took several minutes for the dish to arrive hissing and sizzling on a hot metallic plate.

Unfortunately, the pork was rather tough but the garlic sauce was brilliant. I concluded that the pork was of poor quality, rather than the chef overcooking it, as it didn’t have the dry consistency that is the usual hallmark of overcooked meat but there was plenty of evidence of the texture being tough.

Fully satisfied, we asked the waitress to bring us the bill. We were both sweating profusely at the conclusion of our meals, but it was more due to the insufficient air conditioning in the capacious dining room rather than the efforts of eating what turned out to be a large meal.

I noted that on each occasion a new dish arrived at the table, I had to ask the waitress for fresh plates. That should have been axiomatic but whether it was a continual oversight by her or that was the way the restaurant operated I will never know.

COST: 2 X large Heineken beers at 115 baht each, 230 baht; 1 x gin and tonic at 105 baht; 1 x plate of Vietnamese Spring Rolls with lettuce leaves, 60 baht; 1 x Tom Yung Goong, 290 baht; 2 x oyster omelettes 85 baht each, 170 baht; 1 x green chicken curry, 170 baht; 1 x roast pork with garlic sauce, 160 baht/ 1 x steamed Garoupa with vegetables, 190 baht. Total: 1375 baht ($AUD48.60 at the time). Takes Visa and Mastercard only besides of course, cash. Reservations are not really necessary as it has such a large seating capacity.

SCORE: Value for money, 6/10; Ambience, 7/10; Food, 8/10; Service, 8/10. Total: 29/40.

VERDICT: The Rosiabeng Restaurant is a large Thai/Asian eatery on the left hand side of Suhkumvit Soi 11 if entering the soi from Sukhumvit Road. It is popular with both visitors and Thais. It has a large menu of Thai favourites as well as a number of choices from other countries in South East Asia. After 8.15 pm there is a very good Jazz trio that plays in the forecourt of the Restaurant. Taken all up, the Rosiabeng is a restaurant that is several notches up on your average Sukhumvit eatery, hence it is of little surprise to find it so well patronised.

CONCLUSION: After so many recent negative reviews, I can heartily recommend the Rosiabeng Restaurant. It has a quiet but efficient service, negated by the frequent requests for fresh plates, the beer is chilled beautifully as is the beer glass. The air conditioning inside the dining room could do with one or two more units. The jazz trio is an added bonus to an already popular venue. The serves are generous, and whilst a few of the dishes are very much overpriced, overall this restaurant scores pretty well on most counts.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT: With thanks to Roving Rabbit for the heads up for suggesting a review of this enjoyable restaurant.

NEXT WEEK: We travel up the Chao Phraya River to Bangkok’s neighbouring province of Nonthaburi to review a recommendation from Curt, a regular contributor to this forum, wherein we dine at the Baan Rabiang Nam Restaurant.

I haven't been to their Sukhumvit branch, but we have enjoyed the Samsen Rosabieng.

Looking forward to your take on Baan Rabieng Nam.

We went to the Baan Rabieng Nam based on Curt's recommendation and found it to be good value for money and the food was very tasty. Apologies but I'll leave the proper critique to Emdee!

We did get our hotel receptionist to write the address in Thai to makes ure we got there ok and I would recommend anyone visiting to do this.

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Alison

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It's Better to Burn Out than just to Fade Away!

emdee brilliant as usual - a marvel you are plus the long suffering shopper girl - I tip my hat in your direction good sir

Hi Alison,

I would be interested in your take on the Baan Rabieng Nam as well.

Hi Emdee

I am writing this from Estonia and can report the food is remarkably different from the Thai food which we love so much.Glad to read you found the Rosabeing Restaurant to your liking- we also found the food tasty and well prepared. Thanks for the report- as usual a good read.