Right next to the five-star Millennium Hilton Hotel is a restaurant that has capitalised on the Hilton’s high end prices for its food and beverage outlets.

Economic refugees from the Hilton have obviously made “Be My Guest” their restaurant of choice judging by the clientele on two visits to this delightful eatery.

The restaurant is housed in a wooden structure and sits right on the banks of the Chao Phraya River. There is nothing fancy here in the way of furnishings or chattels.

The tables are plastic outdoor types and the chairs are either metal or once again the plastic outdoor type.
Various pot plants adorn the interior and the outside of the restaurant and floor is a mixture of wood and concrete.

On each of our visits, apart from the groups of Hilton guests, we noticed that it was also patronised by Thai families and teenagers which is always an encouraging sign. Towers of beer seem to be very popular here with the locals with many tables choosing the intriguing towers over opting for bottles of beer.

It is my guess that the prices here are slightly elevated given that a certain percentage of its custom comes from its glittering neighbour next door.

On a Sunday night your correspondent and the Shopper Girl dined here for the second time in a few days.
One thing that I immediately noticed was the dual pricing. Upon entering the restaurant I engaged in a conversation with the waitress in Thai. She showed us to a nice table, sufficiently far away from the boisterous young people who were enjoying a couple of towers of beer on the other side of the restaurant.

She then presented us with two menus in Thai script. While waiting for her to return I noticed that large bottles of Tiger and Singha were priced at 90 baht. When she eventually returned with English language menus, I immediately picked up the discrepancy, wherein the two brews were priced at 110 baht on the farang menus.

Nonetheless we were there to enjoy ourselves so we ordered a morning glory prawn salad, a bowl of the almost obligatory Tom Yung Goong, and a Sea Bass with sweet & sour sauce and chilli.

Eyeing off the drinks carte your correspondent ordered a large bottle of Heinekin and the Shopper Girl ordered a soda water.

The despatch from the kitchen didn’t take too long at all with the Tom Yung Goong arriving several minutes ahead of the morning glory prawn salad.

The Tom Yung Goong was good. Is there ever a bad example of this most famous of all Thai dishes? I was asked at the ordering stage whether I wanted it spicy or “easy” and I ordered spicy. The waitress came back a few moments later to reassure herself that I did order spicy. And it was spicy what I got. Soon there were rivulets of sweat running down my cheeks from my brow as I slowly slurped the delightful broth and its ingredients.

On the other side of the table the Shopper Girl mentioned how lovely the morning glory prawn salad was and I will have to take her word for it because she finished off the dish before I gave up on the final chapter of the soup.

The Sea Bass was then presented on an oval plate with the reddish hues of the sweet, sour and chilli sauce surrounding it. We both shared this dish. The fish had been steamed very nicely and the accompanying sauce was little on the fiery side but it was not so potent as to diminish to any great extent the taste of the Sea Bass.

Another Heinekin was ordered as was another bottle of soda water to finish the meal. By this time it was almost 9 pm and apart from ourselves there were just six other people in the restaurant, so it would seem that the locals on that side of the river like to dine early and exit early.
As the Heinekin approached its bottom I asked the waitress for the tab and received the following:

COST: 2 x Heinekins (large) 110 baht each, total 220 baht; 2 x bottles of soda water @ 60 baht each, total 120 baht; 1 x morning glory prawn salad, 180 baht; 1 x Tom Yung Goong, 160 baht; 1 x Sea Bass with sweet, sour and chilli sauce, 140 baht. TOTAL: 820 baht ($AUD30.14).

SCORE: Food, 8/10; service, 9/10; ambience, 6/10; value for money, 8/10. TOTAL: 31/40.

CONCLUSION: Be My Guest is a very laid back restaurant wedged right next to the Millennium Hilton Hotel and about seven minutes walk from the even swankier Peninsula Hotel. It has an extensive Thai menu and does a western breakfast and has some western items such as hamburgers for those who don’t like Thai food. It has a nice atmosphere, very good service and its prices are quite reasonable given the size of its portions.

There is a whole new world on the Thonburi side of the river for visitors to explore and it seems that it is almost totally bereft of scammers and con artists at least at the time we were there.

The shopper girl is like a Bassett Hound when it comes to shopping and she had noticed many people alighting from the water craft at the pier on the other side of the Hilton from Be My Guest and returning with laden shopping bags. “There’s a market down there”, she exclaimed, to which I replied “Na”.

Not to be denied, I was dragged along the riverside pathway for an exploratory trip and sure enough there was a street market. A very good one it was as well. The prices were half what one would expect to pay at the markets on the Bangkok side of the river. As an example, one of our staff had asked us to bring back several small jars of balm that she had discovered on her holiday to Phuket a few months earlier. I couldn’t help but notice the sticker on the packet she gave me with 35 baht on it.

Calling into one of the chemist shops on this market soi, I picked up a dozen packets at 17 baht each. OK she paid Phuket prices you might say, but I reckon it was a good buy.

Secondly, I’m always asked to bring back New York Yankee baseball caps. Why is that people in Oz who don’t play baseball, watch baseball or follow any aspect of the game always want NYY caps? I picked up seven at 75 baht each. At the Sukhumvit market the going price (after bargaining) was 180 baht each.

So it was that I was happy that I had found a nice restaurant on the “other side” of the river and the Shopper Girl had found a “really good” street market.
Be My Guest opens from breakfast (around 7 am) and goes through until 10.30 pm seven days a week. It is cash only.

The street market on the right hand side of the Hilton seems to go from around 8 am until 8 pm or thereabouts seven days a week with pricing that you won’t get or see at the Bangkok side of the river markets. There is very little English spoken around this area, but that shouldn’t be a deterrent as all you need is a pocket calculator and hand gesticulations. I highly recommend both the soi market and Be My Guest.

TRANSPORT: From Saphan Taksin pier wait for either the free Hilton Millennium boat or the free Peninsula boat. At either pier on the other side of the river there is a concrete pathway that runs along the Thonburi river bank for quite some distance.It is about a seven minute walk from the Peninsular pier to Be My Guest. If alighting at the Hilton Pier, move to your left and you will immediately see the restaurant. On the return journey, just wait at the Hilton Pier for the next boat back to Saphan Taksin Pier.

NEXT WEEK: We travel along the same side of the river to a long established Bangkok establishment: Yok Yor Seafood Restaurant.

Sounds like a good find Emdee and the markets seem to be a winner as well. I will add both to my expanding list of places to eat. It makes life so much easier when we visit BKK to look at our notes and say "how about this one that Emdee recommended ". I usually wander around around for ages looking for new places to eat while the lipstick lover settles in by the pool for a relaxing afternoon until I return, usually hot, sweating and no doubt smelly and craving a cool beer. Who said life wasn't meant to be easy?

We wandered that side of the river on our last visit but missed this one so will put it on the list for next time.

Now I thought the hotel boats were just for people styaing there!!

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Alison

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

You are right Alison in thinking that the boats are only for the hotels' guests. We were staying at the Millennium Hilton (we got a tremendous package through Agoda as we don't normally stay in such high end places), but I can tell you that on our trips both to and fro on the hotel's boat, at least half were not hotel guests.

I saw people walking in off the street, through the lobby and down the pier and reverse on the way back.

I did that several times on the Peninsula's boat as it runs more frequently than the Hilton's so I wouldn't worry too much about the exclusivity of the use of the boats.

we visited the market and it was very good. The eating place sounds good too.

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Kiss
God laughs at people who make plans.