There was the mackerel coca de recapte on filo and then the Galician octopus with sofrito and picada.
My delightful dinner at the freshly-reopened Embassy Room was due to these super scrumptious Catalan creations by the restaurant's new chef de cuisine Ferran Tadeo.
It's not that other dishes I had weren't worth a mention, but the two starters were so good that they deserved to lead this article.
Ever since it first opened in 2017, Park Hyatt Bangkok's main dining outlet, the Embassy Room, has been serving cosmopolitan Western cuisine with a touch of Asian flair.
The restaurant, which still retains its much-loved genteel interior and breezy dining vibe, was relaunched a month ago with a new culinary direction: Catalan cuisine.
Driving the kitchen is Tadeo, a Catalonian native from Barcelona. He internalised the food culture of his heritage quite early in life and was later trained under the world's most influential Catalan chef Ferran Adriá of the multi-award-winning El Bulli restaurant.
The young Tadeo was a part of the culinary crew at "The Last Waltz", El Bulli's historic final dinner before it would forever close in 2011.
Before joining Park Hyatt Bangkok, he was an R&D chef at the highly-acclaimed José Andrés Restaurants Group in the US and executive chef at Hong Kong's successful La Rambla by Catalunya.
Here at the Embassy Room, modern and classic translations of Catalan cuisine, distilled through Tadeo's years of distinctive experiences and travelling, are offered in the style of a tasting menu.
Lunch is priced at 1,400 baht and 1,800 baht for a three-course and four-course meal. Dinner costs 3,800 baht for an eight-course and 4,700 baht for an 11-course meal.
As my dining companion and I were about to order, we learnt that the dinner menu was designed for sharing to give a casual dynamism to the fine dining affair.
For an ideal dining sequence and experience, a minimum of two guests at the table are recommended to choose similiar dishes. We went for the eight-course dinner, dubbed Menu Ambaixador. The choice was more classic, we were told, compared to the contemporary 11-course Menu Panot, which has a lot of modern touches.
To go with the meal are Iberian wines (2,400 baht to 3,600 baht for a six-glass pairing). The restaurant serves only Spanish wine and carries more than 110 labels, the most extensive Spanish wine list in Bangkok.
The meal started off with a welcome drink of Negroni with olive oil, followed by a generous helping of hand-cut Joselito Iberico ham and warm coca bread.
Premium-graded EVO, from Spain's most respected olive oil producer Castillo de Canena, is often the star in several courses including as a condiment to the heavenly Catalonian flatbread.
Scallop tartlets with sweet peas and Kaviari caviar represented the first course. The crispy bite-sized treats gave a big-flavour kickoff to the meal despite their delicate appearance.
Soon after came the mackerel accompanied by paper-thin filo sheets laid with pureed eggplant and strips of roasted bell pepper.
I have never been a fan of mackerel because of its typical strong taste especially when served raw, however, the neat fillets of semi-cooked fish with its slightly crispy charred skin which are to be placed on the filo and eaten like a taco, provided an impressive sweet taste that went marvellously with the pungent accompaniment.
Chef Tadeo's rendition of pop a la Catalana, or Galician-styled octopus, was second to none. The octopus exhibited an extraordinary tender texture that yielded a pleasant springy chew while the sauce, an aromatic mixture of octopus head sofrito and parsley-almond pesto, was also very delicious.
Next up, the Iberico pork with trinxat egg yolk fondant, was a love-it-or-hate-it dish.
I heard some diners praising it but I found the dish, featuring grilled pork belly accompanied by a loaf of mashed potato with a lava-like yolky centre, a bit overpowering.
There are two main courses: the lobster Wellington and the 12-hour cooked Iberico lamb.
The Wellington showcased a simple but truly enjoyable unification between naturally sweet and springy Atlantic lobster, savoury Iberico ham, earthy duxelles and buttery golden-baked puff pastry crust. It was scrumptious even without the help of orange Hollandaise sauce. Meanwhile, a pomelo-lobster salad, provided on the side, lent to the pastry a bracing contrast.
The Iberico lamb, a disc-shaped cut of a rolled lamb, had a very soft texture and mild meaty taste. It came with dollops of butternut squash puree, chanterelle mushrooms and black truffle.
A frothy scoop of coconut and olive oil sorbet helped cleanse the palate before the dessert arrived.
It was a soft-baked, slightly burnt-faced brie cheesecake with wild berry marmalade which proved very rich and addictive.
The dinner came to the official finish when a selection of mignardises that included olive oil jellies and chocolate truffles was offered with a coffee and a digestif.
During my visit, the dining room was lulled by Catalan background music and attended to by a brisk, cordial and knowledgeable service staff.
- Embassy Room
- Park Hyatt Bangkok, 9th floor
- 88 Witthayu Road
- Call 02-011-7431
- Open daily noon to 2.30pm and 6-10.30pm
- Park at the hotel’s car park
- Most credit cards accepted
