Adventure #172: La Bottega di Luca (Bangkok)

Today is the older one's 12th birthday and we are celebrating it in Bangkok with my sister and brother-in-law.  The older one likes Western cuisine, so we picked an Italian restaurant for the festive occasion.  We read good reviews on La Bottega di Luca. 

The restaurant has 3 seating areas, 2 indoors and 1 outdoor.  After a hot day at JJ market, we were glad to be given a table indoors next to the wine cabinet. 

The very enticing antipasti counter

The wine cabinet

The main restaurant

One of the art pieces on the wall. We wondered if the artist did this or the chef.....

A nice selection of warm bread

The complimentary onion soup. Delicious.

Caesar's Salad. Nicely done, dressing not too thick.

Classic handcarved Fassone beef tartar with wild rocket and shaved parmesan. Different from the ones we had in France but beef texture very good, mixed with parmesan cheese and rocket, delicious!

Fresh Tuna "yellow fin" tartarre with avocado and anchovies reduction from Cetara.  The tuna was chunky.  Very clever in mixing the saltiness of the anchovies with the sweetness of the sundried tomatoes.  Loved this.

Grilled scamorza (Smoked mozzarella cheese) wrapped in speck ham topped mushrooms in red wine sauce.  Couldn't see the smoked cheese but could taste the smokey flavour.  Once again another delicious dish.  Very rich and creamy.



Tonnarelli basil spaghetti with Blue Crab Meat in a lightly spiced lobster bisque sauce.  Light with a hint of spiciness. The older one loved this.

Luca's speciality, risotto with black truffle cheese topped with lightly spiced cured bacon from Italy. This was simply heavenly. Rich and full of flavour. That is why this is Luca's speciality! Must try.

Tagliatelle with red wine duck confit topped with foie gras medallion and thyme sauce.  I was not too sure of this dish. The duck confit was minced and although tasted good, didn't have a distinct flavour to it and it was a tad dry. The little one liked it though but she is no connoisseur.

Roasted lamb rack with fragrance of Italian herbs.  This dish didn't have a good start. We ordered the lamb medium because my brother-in-law does not like his meat too raw. And the lamb came medium rare. So we had to send it back.  I was a bit disappointed that the kitchen made a mistake.  The "re-cooked" lamb was much better.

The birthday girl got her complimentary tiramisu which was so delicious we had to have another one.

This is what their normal tiramisu looks like.

We also tried the Penacotta with berries. Yum!

We had a very enjoyable dinner. Luca, the chef, was chatty and walked round the restaurants many times. The food was excellent and so was the wine although it was a bit pricey by Thai standards.  Nevertheless, money was not an issue as long as the food was up to par, and it was.

La Bottega di Luca
Soi Sukhumvit 49
Sukhumvit Road
2/F The Terrace 49
Bangkok
Thailand
Tel: +66-2204-1731