In a nutshell:

Loved the Thai food at Thai Pavilion – The wow factor in Neung Roi is much better though.

Address & other details: Thai Pavilion

Meal for 2: Rs. 2000 onwards

Cuisine type : Vegetarian & Nonvegetarian

Disclaimer: All restaurants / eateries reviewed by YUMMRAJ were visited by YUMMRAJ himself & he has paid for the full Bill & tips also. http://www.yummraj.com does not have even one featured / sponsored reviews. YUMMRAJ believes in going to a restaurant in anonymity, as a normal guest, experience everything & give a honest account of the same to you.

I rate all the food items & then give a final overall rating which is a simple average of the individual item ratings. What the ratings stand for: 5 = Excellent, 4 = Very Good, 3 = Good, 2 = Fair, 1 = Disaster.

Short Description – in case u r in a hurry:

The Vivanta Hotel is pretty near my house & maybe that is why it took so many months for us to get there. We had heard about the good Thai food served here for some time.

The Vivanta is a no frills, ‘not very opulent’ Business Hotel. “keep it simple’ seems to b the mantra here. The interiors of the restaurant, though not very ornate, are pretty. There r some very beautiful & well thought of elements like the palm in yogic mudra, the wooden wall with chiseled work on them, the beautiful ceiling etc & more………….

The menu card is quite exhaustive & all Food names follow a good description. There were a few funny spelling mistakes in the menu card e.g. beetle leaf instead of betel leaf!!!

The Service level overall is nice but attention level is very poor. No one automatically fills water, the wait for food is long, guys and girls are very well behaved but efficiency of service is low. We specifically asked for main course to b served one by one in order of spiciness. However all came together.

Food is good & enjoyable. However the concept, depth of the menu, the story spun around Thai cuisines , the overall experience etc were much better at Neung Roi.

Detailed Description – In case u have the Time to NJOY reading:

We started our lunch with pla hoy shell – Pan grilled scallops in orange and rice wine reduction. Super soft melt in the mouth scallops with slightly browned edges, a very enjoyable sauce with suboptimal salt in it. The scallop gets 4.5/5 & the sauce gets 3.5/5. Average rating for the dish is 4/5.

The scallops were followed by ‘Duck liver foie gras with sea asparagus in mango sauce’. Loved it. 3 slices of foie gras at that price was I guess on the lower side as compared to most restaurants in 5 Star Hotels in Delhi. Again, super soft, buttery inside & textured on the outside, the foie gras was just amazing. Mango sauce was very good but the foie gras itself far overpowered the sauce in terms of taste & flavor. Excellent dish & I give it a 4.75/5.

Post this we ordered Soft shell crab in red chilli paste – poo nim phad pong Kari, Loved this once again. It turned out to b Crisp fried soft shell crabs & the red chilli paste poured from top. Visually it was good looking but was not promising enough as a dish. However, as soon as the crab landed in my mouth, I was proved wrong. It was just delicious. The crisp outer layer of the crab & the soft juicy inner part was a great texture to keep munching on. The red chilli paste was not at all the boring plain chilli paste but had a smart twist to it. I give this dish a 4.5/5.

After the crab came Classic Thai roast duck on a bed of spinach – ped noy. Absolutely enjoyable. The duck was super soft, juicy. The sauce was absurdly YUMM. I rate this at 4.5/5

Next item to hit our table was Neua phad prik Sod hollapa – Succulent tenderloin with Thai herbs bird chillies and basil. This again looked pretty unpromising when served. The tenderloin cubes were floating in a dark brown slightly thick gravy. However a bite into it changed my perception again. Basil added flavor, bird chilles added an element of hotness. The best thing about this dish was the layers of flavor. I give this a 4.5/5 again.

The last dish that we had for lunch was Red curry with prawns. Not overcooked, not rubbery but very soft & nice large prawns. The red curry was good as well but less pungent than the original version I had at Bangkok. I give this a rating of 4.25/5.

For dessert we had Diced waterchestnut in coconut milk – This dessert was served in a green coconut. Unidirectionally sweet but with a mild flavor, this was very close to the same dessert I have had at Bangkok. Yes, it is not similar to anything that we eat in India but it is nice. Usually we have 2 -3 directions in a dessert – sweet, sour, salt or even bitter (e.g. chocolate based/ orange peel etc) or a combination of these. So I guess while most of the people wud like this, there wud b some who wud dislike this. I still give this a 4.25/5.

Rating of food at Thai Pavilion averages out to 4.4/5.

Loved the food – recommended by YUMMRAJ