Chesa - Bangkok’s Little Switzerland

As you flick through one of those endless menus in some Bangkok restaurants where every imaginable dish from every far-flung country is catered for to cater to the masses, you might want to run for the hills.

ROB Review: CHESA SWISS RESTAURANT - View Gallery - Menu

Being in this gloriously flat city you might struggle but the next best thing to run for is Chesa.

This gourmet Swiss eatery looks like it was transported down a mountain, no doubt with a lonely goat herd, to stand unassumingly confident on the culinary map of the city. So sure of the food is this Swiss residential restaurant that you begin to wonder if you are quite deserving enough to eat such wonderful food. Well, of course you are and there is no standing on ceremony here.

For all the modern, hip places, Chesa has held onto the tradition of cooking the best dishes. Dining at Chesa is a bit like realizing that many of the restaurants you have been dining at are Heidi’s poor cousin. Like everything that seems to come out of Switzerland, this is the real deal and the best thing you can do is be grateful you have found the place and then stick a fondue fork in it. The décor is traditional and not interested in trying too hard, although it has a warm, almost family gathering type feel to it, with low ceilings, wooden beams and red country style tablecloths. Where the design might be simple, the food ranges from country style to more regal dishes and of course, as every Thai resident knows, Switzerland has acted as the mentor for those in the highest of places.

The mushroom ravioli with truffle and white wine cream sauce is simple perfection, the dried venison with a condiment of pear salad, like any great starter, makes you instantly feel hungry, happy and with heartfelt hope that you are about to have the very best of Swiss style food and ingredients. Cheese and oil fondues are the best in a shared food experience and it is difficult to go wrong with Ementhal, white wine and morsels to dip in. It is, however, the menu of grilled ostrich, sliced veal and kidney in a champignon mushroom sauce and rabbit stew that will have you yodelling for more.

The Sunday BBQ brunch also promises style with small servings from the menu served up from the kitchen, an outdoor BBQ and a raclette wheel. An inexpensive set lunch, a fantastic specials menu which bows down to chateaubriand more than every once in a while and a traditional, exciting, and adventurous main menu means Chesa likes to aim high without stretching the knapsacks too far.

Chesa is not about inflated prices for the ‘need to be seen’ crowd or about attracting drifters from the tourist trail. This is where the real ‘it’ people come to ‘not be seen’ and enjoy fine food which is prepared by chefs with understated confidence to the very highest of delicious quality, just like Switzerland itself.

ROB Review: CHESA SWISS RESTAURANT - View Gallery - Menu