Sra Bua heard on the day we eat here that they have a Michelin star for the 6th consecutive year. Sra Bua is located in at least 3 Kempinski hotels namely Adlon in Berlin, Kempinski Das Tirol and Siam Kempinski in Bangkok. Sra Bua serves Thai food the modern way.
Upon entering, we are first escorted to the lobby where amuses are served. There we are asked if we want the menu, this menu is the winter menu, consisting of 6 courses. We decide to go for this and opt for the wine pairing.
Amuse bouche
We first receive a glass of cold lemongrass tea with the amuse bouches. A parade of amuse bouches passes by. First is wasabi yogurt with a mango meringue. The wasabi yogurt is fresh and spicy at the same time, and the sweet taste of merengue mango goes well with it. You should dip the meringue in the wasabi yogurt. Next to it comes a coconut marshmallow with an injection of tamarind. A nice combination. You may inject the tamarind into the marshmallow yourself.
Next on the table is a chicken sausage from Chiang Mai baked in the smoker. This is served with smoke. The sausage is slightly crispy and has a delicious smoky flavor.
Fourth amuse salmon with fresh wasabi shaved at the table, with yuzu and soy ice cream. The yuzu makes this a sour dish; the soy breaks down the sourness. Fresh wasabi is spicier than non-fresh so a small amount of wasabi is sufficient. The sourness with the spiciness combined with salmon is exquisite.
Next comes a chef’s special. We’ve had an amuse like this here before, an ice cream cone filled with ice cream of Tom Ka Kai (Thai coconut soup with lime grass). What a great amuse bouche this is. The soup taste is so intense it is that you are eating ice cream, otherwise you would feel like you are eating soup. This is one of the best amuse bouches ever.
The next amuse is pork cracker this one is crispy, not special, especially after the Tom Ka Kai ice cream.
The amuse afterward is again a delight. We receive a leaf containing various ingredients such as chili, lime, lemongrass and ginger. This is mixed at the table and placed on the tray. As soon as you eat this leaf with these ingredients, there is a huge explosion of flavor in your mouth.
Finally, the last amuse this consists of crispy salmon skin served on a lotus flower. The salmon skin is particularly crispy and comes with a light dressing. Delicious.
The amuses are over, it promises to be a beautiful evening.
Menu
The first dish is Tom Yam prawn. Tom Yam is a soup and this one is prepared in a percolator at the table. The soup is at the bottom of the unit, and at the top is pepper, ginger, lemongrass and limeleaves. This mixes with the broth so the flavor starts to develop. The soup is served in a bowl and with it come 4 side dishes namely a cracker of shrimp, a toast of shrimp, a cake with lobster and a ball with lobster and sesame. You should eat these with the soup. The chef got this inspiration from Denmark. We think the chef put a twist on bread with soup. Very tasty dish!
For wine, we get a 2020 Sauvignon Blanc from Attitude. This wine pairs well with the soup.
The second dish is spicy scallop with pomelo. The presentation is grandiose. The scallop is raw and lies at the bottom of a glass dish. On top is a salad of pomelo together with cilantro, ice cream of pomelo and flowers. At the table, a mortar is used to make dressing consisting of ginger, chili and fish sauce. This is poured over the whole thing and then we were allowed to attack. Delicious this flavor combination. Pomelo with cilantro and scallops is a very good combination.
For wine, we get a Riesling from Prinz von Hessen. The Riesling offers a good counterpoint to the spices.
Then flan of kingfish with a miso foam. The flan is made from egg and kingfish. The flan has good flavor. The miso foam adds a Japanese twist to the dish. On top of the kingfish is crispy onion.
For wine, we get a pouilly-fuisse from Chartron et Trebuchet. This combination eludes me, no idea why this wine is served with this.
Then we get dino fish with carrot and tamarind. The fish was topped with extremely hot oil which made the skin very crispy. This is a great find. The fish lies in a sauce of carrot, tamarind and orange. This sweetness makes it a very good dish.
For wine, we receive a Premieres Grives from France. This is a sweet wine that matches the carrot and tamarind, but not the fish. Once again, the plank has been missed here as far as wine is concerned. We decide to stop the wine-pairing. This one is no good, no sommelier at work here. Too bad because last time when we were here the wine-food combination was very good.
The next dish is fish cake with green curry. The fish cake is a kind of lava cake, when you cut it open the spicy green curry flows out. Next to the cake are some pickles that provide freshness. The fish cake with green curry is a delight to eat. Delicious.
The main course is 48-hour cooked wagyu beef with beans and quail egg. The beef is very tender, being wagyu, the meat is quite veined with fat, however, not too much. The beans were al dente and a mousse of beans was made. A nice dish, not spectacular, but good and tasty.
Then the pre-dessert arrives on the table. This is lemongrass, coconut ice cream with a meringue of lime. What a pleasure this is. The combination of coconut with lemongrass is exquisite, sweet and slightly sour. The presentation is also top notch. Various types of white ingredients are on the white plate.
Finally, we get a pistachio souffle with pandan ice cream. A green dish. The souffle rose nicely, still a little wet on the inside. The flavor of pistachio comes out well. A scoop of pandan ice cream is scooped onto the souffle. This ice cream also has an exquisite flavor. A mouthwatering dessert. Beautiful Asian flavors are incorporated into this dessert.
Service and Interior
Service is generally good. The ladies who work here understand their craft, are tremendously friendly and know quite a lot about the dishes. The gentlemen pouring the wine are less knowledgeable about what they are serving. If I had a question about the wine they didn’t know. I indicated with the Riesling that this is a good wine with spicy food to which the gentleman from the service indicated “oh is that so”. This shows that people do not quite know what they are doing, which is unfortunate, especially at this level.
The interior is grandiose. You are in a 5-star hotel you can tell. It is very poshly decorated. Inside are a few ponds with lotus flowers and with floating candles. There are tables with chairs, but also alcoves where you can dine with up to 4 people. We wanted to sit in a niche because it gives a little more privacy, this was possible when making the reservation.