When we heard that Stefano Merlo had taken over the show at Sensi, our mind naturally turned to his awesome tenure at Enoteca. 

Fans of that wickedly rich cuttlefish ink “cappuccino” and al-dente spaghetti in a punchy, clarified tomato sauce will be happy to know that they’re both present and correct on the latest Sensi lineup, but Merlo’s food is also growing in new directions. 

In what Sensi’s terming it’s “Carta Bianca” (as in, to let someone do whatever they feel like), the chef gets to flex his creative muscle across seven (B2,690) or nine (B3,490) courses. 

These might involve eating beef tartare with your hands off of bark taken from the restaurant’s garden or tucking into a Caprese salad whose “mozzarella” is actually a sugar sphere and “tomato” a strawberry coulis. 

Merlo reckons just two or three courses in each “Carta Bianca” sitting will come from the a la carte menu, while the rest is determined by a mini interrogation into each customer’s culinary fancies at the beginning of the meal. 

Our recent visit moved from a red prawn and scallop tartare atop a gin-and-lemon sorbet to a gloriously moist fillet of seabass dressed in courgette scales and two tender strips of rib-eye steak (the accompanying sauce as rich as any we’ve tasted).

Narathiwat Ratchanakarin 17 Yaek 5, 02-117-1618, 02-676-4466