Fashionable Food on Thonglor’s Catwalk

Thong Lor has long been part of the chic part of town and yet is as notoriously fickle and changeable as a temperamental fashion designer when it comes to restaurants and bars. However, it has recently been wowing foodies with some headturning, forktwirling stunners.

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Iza, the latest model on the Sukhumvit 55 catwalk is set for supermodel status as not only does it look good but is fun, exciting and totally glamorous. Iza has some Japanese heritage and there is a sake and sushi bar downstairs too. However, it was born and bred in Thailand and uses the flair of Thai flavors to serve up a tribute to Thailand’s love affair with Japanese cuisine.

The mix is captivating with the Thai style adding a nice quirk of beauty to the perfect features of Japanese food. A wide, central spiral staircase makes an entrance to the upstairs restaurant with a shimmering metal beaded curtain giving Iza glitz. The funky curved banquette stretches along just four tables and the ambience feels special. You do not have to dress up but you might want to to show you are worth it. A high table and a private room invites a few more people but you feel as if the restaurant is your own.

The food has narak Thai style such as Twilight in Bangkok, a spicy salmon in bite-size seaweed cones with sushi rice, chili and lemongrass at 280 thb. Just the right amount of heat gives the taste buds some energy. Mount Fuji, also for 280 thb is another sharing dish of spicy mayonnaise with jumbo shrimp, roe and sesame seeds. It is creamy with a moreish kick.

The designer-style grill in the table keeps diners cool and smoke-free. Plates of thin slices of meat sizzle in large succulent servings, working about at less than a few hundred baht per person. The Trio Platter for 480 thb displays kurobuta collar, bacon and chicken. The Ninja Platter is a piece to resistance for 660 thb with succulent slithers of Australian strip loin, rib eye and tenderloin. Altogether the food feeds four easily.

The tiger prawn shrimp tempura for 230 thb are long, crispy and delicate with white radish and spring onion. The dipping sauce of soy can be dressed up with different flavors to accessorize. For dessert the Harajuku Paradise for 90 thb is a raspberry mousse in an iced moji, or sticky rice paste shell, with berry sauce and whipped cream. It has all the sweet freshness of a summer collection.

Designer cocktails come in neon colors for 240 thb. Sweet and sour Mr Miyake is plum liquor, triple sec, cranberry juice. Shinkansen is made with sake, vodka, peach juice, wasabi and mint. They are great to look at but could never beat the old classics.

Iza poses a fine culinary collection but this fashionable restaurant does not take itself too seriously and lacks an attitude but not an edge, so that fun and frivolity has room on the runway too.

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