Rosemary is the first restaurant of celebrity chef, cooking instructor and cookbook author Ubolrat “Madame Tuang” Chawteerapluk.

 

Located at the back of food-centric Thonglor community mall The Taste, Rosemary maximizes its views over Thonglor Soi 10 with floor-to-ceiling windows, while minimal, Euro-evoking accessories like whitewashed chairs and art-deco lanterns create a casual all-day-dining kind of space.

 

The menu focuses on French and Italian comfort dishes, with plenty of expensive imported ingredients like 150-day grain-fed Australian Angus tomahawk (B3,200/kg) and Maine lobster (B2,100/700-800g), as well as simpler salads, soups, pastas and seafood dishes.

 

There are hits and misses. Skip Madame Tuang’s signature black squid-ink buns stuffed with melted mozzarella cheese (Black Magic, B120), which are pretty tasteless even with the honey dip. It’s a similar story with another of the signatures, a “lod chong” cake (B110) made from vanilla chiffon cake, pandan jelly and candle-smoked coconut mousse. We love that she’s tried to tone down the sweetness of traditional lod chong (pandan noodles in coconut syrup) but the cake is too dry.

 

The rosemary chicken (B460) is also dry, and the overcooked meat can’t be saved by a sweet truffle sauce. Other proteins are treated with more care, like the springy tiger prawn that comes with the spicy angel hair pasta (B575). Shame the mentaiko (fish roe) and ebiko (shrimp roe) sauce doesn’t capture the intense, salty flavor of the sea. The only dish which really delivers is the grilled French sea bream (B890), its fresh and juicy flesh complemented by an aromatic and well-rounded lemon butter sauce. 

 

While Rosemary’s menu does offer abundant variety, as well as some especially gorgeous cocktails (from B220), we’d have enjoyed dinner more had we gone round the corner to the much-better French restaurant 4 Garcons. Sure, they specialize in set menus and the atmosphere’s less-casual, but the bill will probably be around the same. Corkage charge B500.

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This review took place in November 2016 and is based on a visit to the restaurant without the restaurant's knowledge. For more on BK's review policy, click here.