CHOOSING a venue for Sunday Brunch in Bangkok is like perusing a buffet loaded with all your favourite foods: there are so many good options on offer, it’s difficult to know where to start. Take a peek at what’s served up at Novotel Bangkok Platinum, though, and that choice immediately becomes much easier – because it’s one of the best value brunches in town.

Held at the hotel’s trendy all-day-dining restaurant, The Square, the brunch is priced just B1,099++ per person (free for kids under 12). What’s more, until the end of the month, it’s buy-one-get-one-free! So if you take a friend to dine with you, you’ll only pay B600++ per person.

Family friendly, the brunch offers a mouthwatering selection of sushi and sashimi, dim sum, roasted meats, foie gras, oysters and seafood on ice, Hong Kong-style duck, pizza fresh from the oven, meats and pasta cooked to order, cakes and crumbles, homemade ice cream, and much more. All dishes are made using top quality ingredients and the selections are kept topped up throughout the brunch so you won’t miss out on your favourite.

Set in the basement of Oakwood Residence Sukhumvit 24, Bouchot has fast become popular with locals and expats due to its delicious continental cuisine with a particular emphasis on mussels. The
 setting looks like a modern French bistro, complete with contemporary fixtures and fittings, lots of mirrors and windows, exposed brickwork, picnic-style tables and chairs, a well-stocked bar, and a lovely outdoor terrace. Like a fisherman that’s just returned from a lengthy stint at sea, Bouchot boasts a wealth of deep sea bounty: oysters, scallops, fish, lobster, crab and much more – all at reasonable prices. 
B1 Floor Oakwood Residence, 15 Sukhumvit Soi 24, Klong Ton,Tel: 02 258 5510 email: [email protected] http://bouchot-restaurant.com 

Seafood, views of the Chao Phraya, and the rush that comes with dining at the Oriental are what Lord Jim’s is all about. There is a good buffet at lunch featuring all sorts of seafood, including sashimi, sushi and oysters. In the evening, it goes a la carte and becomes one of the best places in the city for classic Western seafood dishes. For those who don’t enjoy seafood, there are other items on the menu. The wine list is first class and there is live music in the evening.
The Oriental Bangkok (BTS Saphan Taksin, then complimentary hotel shuttle boat) Tel: 02 659 9000

Thai/Chinese seafood dining at its best, this restaurant may be hard to find, but it’s definitely worth the effort. Frequented by Thais and farang who know a clam from an oyster, it puts most of the city’s seafood emporiums to shame.  The menu is large and so are the portions. All of the fish is good, but so are the scallops, river prawns and deep-fried soft-shell crab. Casual and laidback, there is live entertainment in the evening, and the open-air setting on the river is cool and refreshing.
At the end of Soi 14, Rama III, near the Montien Riverside Hotel
Tel: 02 292 0175

Tasty Thai seafood and succulent steaks are the order of the day at this popular restaurant overlooking Hua Hin Beach

ESTABLISHED 10 years ago as simply a hobby restaurant, Veranda Grill has gone on to become one of Hua Hin’s most popular Thai seafood restaurants and now even operates its own boutique resort, Veranda Lodge, which is located in the verdant gardens behind the premises. 

The restaurant’s success is testament to how doing what you love can reap big rewards, because the restaurant and resort’s owner, Khun Mae, is clearly doing what she loves. Ask her about any dish on her menu and she’ll most likely break into a wide smile and tell you how, after first discovering the recipes when she was a child, she has spent the rest of her life tweaking them to be as good as she can make them.

She certainly isn’t short of fresh ingredients. Veranda Grill is located in the middle of Hua Hin Beach so literally everything she needs is right on her doorstep.