PRU, Phuket
I was in a total rush to the restaurant even after pushing my reserved time, because I took a day trip to a series of islands in the day. It was appreciated that the restaurant allows me to be late. The restaurant is in a very posh area with mostly high-end hotels, which is much quieter than Pa Tong, where I stayed. In particular, the restaurant is located on a small hill, but I cannot see much view as it was dark outside. There are two floors. The ground floor has a reception area and a bathroom, and the first floor is the actual dining area, including a private room, with an open kitchen. I got a counter seat facing the large open kitchen. The menu for the night looked very western, but in fact the chef used many local produces especially fruits and vegetables.
Menu
The first dish “The King of the Fruits” looked very nice. Frankly I could not remember the detail of the ingredients (when I was writing this blog). Judging by the dish name, it could be durian, a common fruit in South and Southeast Asia. All I could recall was that it was very creamy like an ice cream and the base caviar boosted even more on the creamy taste and texture. Also, the colour and presentation were very appealing.
The King of the Fruits
The coming dish was of a very Thailand character focusing on coconuts. The soft coconut meat slice in the middle surrounded by crunchy peanut and slightly charcoaled coconut meat was a great combination, which was refreshing. Although coconuts in general have a light and almost no taste, the chef made this dish fun in texture. The decorated leaves added a bit of fresh look and taste to the brown & white colour tone.
Coconut & Black Peanut - Blossom & Spice
Let’s move to “Lotus Root & Shrimp Paste” in the menu, the dish before the main course. It was a very interesting dish, because it felt like a salad given all the spicy and fresh vegetables ingredients, but the shrimp made the plate a “solid” plate. Compared with common European set menus when heavy and creamy pastas are usually served before main, here it kept very light tone. Shrimps often provide a heavy taste, especially when fully cooked. The choice of almost tasteless lotus root, and vegetables and fruits ingredients balanced everything. I think it was a clever but, in fact I gathered in Thailand, a common style where seafood is fully cooked but paired with spicy flavour and crunchy texture.
Lotus Root & Shrimp Paste - Community Tea & Apple
Then I want to say something I disliked: both desserts, especially the last one. The plate certainly needed patience to assemble with all the cubes of different tastes. However, those cubes were way too small to taste anything in detail, and more importantly, there were a strong and strange sour taste dominating everything, which I disliked at all. The ice cream, if I remembered, was kimchi flavour!? It was a bold concept, but it did not work at all with sour tasted cubes. I often hate over-sweet French dessert, but a dessert without any sweet factor apparently was worse.
Eggfruit & Cashew Nut
For this place, I had a mixed feeling. The decoration and service in this restaurant were top quality. The experience was great too when I can actually see all the food being cooked in front of me, in fact I see no back-kitchen to deal with something more smoking and intense. The non-alcohol pairing was nice too! I enjoyed the chef being bold in mixing western style with local Thai ingredients. However the big problem for me was, I could not remember any dish distinguishably apart from the desserts that put me off.
🐼 Score: 3/5
