Another hotel from the Centara group this week (they seem to be popping up everywhere)! This one is a little bit tricky to find, but worth it for another dining out restaurant. The easiest way is to come from Second Road, turning right into Soi 4 at the Bangkok Bank and follow the road up and around, past Jameson’s Irish Pub, continuing on this rather twisty piece of road until you see the Centara Nova Hotel and Spa on your left. You walk in to a large lobby area, with the “Glow” restaurant behind glass on your right.
The whole hotel exudes a very ‘airy’ ambience with a large swim-up bar in the center, along with a lit up ‘stream’ beneath the towering accommodation blocks. The airiness continues in the Glow, with floor to ceiling glass on three sides.
Comfortable chairs and superior cutlery give the diners the feeling that this is something special.
We ate with the two charming PR and Sales ladies, Joy and Boom, but all the staff appeared to be very friendly and switched on. Service personnel in the restaurant were in uniforms.
The restaurant menu is not extensive, but well balanced. Starters are B. 200-250 and include a Chicken Caesar salad. Mains are B. 270-360 with a roasted Norwegian salad at the top end.
We were asked to consider the four items on their special menu, which had signature dishes covering starters, salads, a main and desserts. Of these four dishes, the most expensive was only B. 290 and was a Jalapeno Popper, a very ‘meaty’ beef burger topped with jalapeno infused tomato salsa, guacamole lettuce and ripe tomatoes. Spicy, as you would expect with the jalapeno chilli peppers, but not too over the top. BTW, “popper” is not a spelling mistake, this type of burger is known as a popper.
Next was a classic tomato and mozzarella, with the buffalo mozzarella, cherry tomatoes with a garlic confit, pesto sauce and the obligatory extra virgin olive oil (B. 250).
I particularly enjoyed the Centara Cob salad featuring lettuce, smoked chicken breast, asparagus, ripened blue cheese sauce, crispy bacon and quail eggs. What was notable about this dish was just how crisp and fresh the lettuce was. In fact, all the dishes we ate that night had fresh lettuce. I enjoyed this dish very much, and for me was the pick of the night (B. 250).
The final dish on the signature menu was an intriguing salted caramel lava cake (B. 150). This was served warm with a molten core of caramel. The sweet caramel and the salt produced a very different taste in the mouth. I have never been particularly enamored by desserts but this was something quite different.
The standard menu has pasta covering spaghetti, penne and tagliatelle, plus some interesting dishes such as Mesquite grilled Australian beef tenderloin or beef filet tips, butter flamed in Jack Daniels and double cream (and catch a taxi home)!
The ambience in the Centara Nova Hotel and Spa’s Glow restaurant is excellent, the food is not expensive and it makes for another choice in the medium-priced bracket. We will go there again.
Centara Nova Hotel and Spa, 80/167 Nongprue, Soi 4 Second Road (turn at Bangkok Bank and keep following the road around to the right), hours 6.30 a.m. to 10 p.m. (last orders 9.30), telephone 038 725 999, email [email protected], secure parking basement.
