Saturday, October 24, 2009

Restaurant Review: La Gaettana (Phuket Town, Phuket, Thailand)

352 Phuket Road, Tel: 076-250-523

This is a hard place to find. It’s in a very narrow shop-house, fifteen feet across at the most, and the entrance is set back from the sidewalk and lavishly decorated with plants. Look for the plants I suppose.

The place is swarming with help, and they are very helpful indeed. If a lady only touches her shoulders, saying nothing, someone brings over a shawl. Plates and silverware are changed in between courses, and home-made sherbet is served in between courses as well.

The owners name is Gianni, he is on hand one hundred percent of the time. He’s very helpful too. The menu is idiosyncratic. For “Pasta,” for instance, it just says “We feature a variety of home-made and dry pastas, available with a variety of sauces.” If you express an interest in pasta, Gianni asks you: long or short? fresh or dry? we have gnocchi today. The frontispiece of the menu features a photograph of Gianni, about age four, sitting on his father’s knee with his mom standing besides them. Mom and dad are smiling; Gianni is not. He’s still a very, very intense man.

Very serious about the food at his restaurant, that’s for sure, and that works out well for his clientele. We started out with Smoked Duck Carpaccio with basil and two kinds of lettuce, it was great. Then some gnocchi with gorgonzola sauce, very light and delicious. Finally some sea bass with white wine and lemon-grass sauce, with some perfect little cubed, roasted potatoes. I’m no Galloping Gourmet, but I’d be surprised if any place else could have done it better. The bread was great too, served with home-made herb butter.

The bill came to about $65 (Bhat 2,300), and that included a Bombay gin and tonic, two glasses of house red wine (Italian or Spanish? Gianni had asked me), and a Limoncello.

1 comment:

fred c said...

If Gianni ever fools you, you will be one of the luckiest fools in Phuket on that particular day.