Zanotti Italy Restaurant Bangkok

Besides Thai cuisine, Bangkok is also very famous for its International cuisine. Therefore, I had decided to pick one out of so many famous restaurants. After doing some research, my target was out - Zanotti Italy, a restaurant that won the award of Bangkok top 3 restaurant for many consecutive years! I was told that most of the fresh ingredients used are flown in from Italy twice a week to ensure that the dishes are authentic!

We called earlier to make a lunch booking. If you were budget traveler like us who wish to save the pocket but at the same time wanted to try good food, always go for lunch as it is normally cheaper. And for Zanotti, they offer 3-course weekday set lunch for 330Baht.

The complimentary plate of breads arrived when we were still browsing our menu. The breads were so good with the extra virgin olive oil and balsamic vinegar, or even on its own.

After we made our order, amuse bouche arrived, in this case bruschettas with tomatoes. There were actually two, but one was stolen. ;)
In case you want to know, amuse bouche is bited-sized food served in fine-dining restaurant at the beginning of a meal. It is not appetizer, amuse bouche is free and can not be selected from menu.

Appetizer - I forgot the actual name, but it was baked eggplant with cheese.

Entree - Fresh Baked Sea Bass with fresh tomato, olives and Italian basil

This was from the ala-carte menu, Pizza Al Prosciutto Crudo Di Parma. Many had raved about this simple thin crust pizza dish with just tomota puree, parma ham and mozzarella cheese, and now I had to agree with them. This pizza would surprise and satisfy even the most persnickety pizza fan. Priced at 650Baht, this pizza worth every single penny paid. If you do not plan to dine in, you can call and check if you can take away this pizza. Definitely worth the effort.

dessert - forgot the name again, pastry with chocolates. Sorry for the blurr photo and no menu, as I found out that I was not supposed to take pictures in the restaurant later. :p

The total bill for two include drink was about 1300Baht. We left the restaurant happily. Oh yes, casual smart dress code required for Zanotti.

Zanotti
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Log Terrace Hat Yai

K's family and relatives travel to Hat Yai as often as JB people travel to Singapore. When comes to temples, massage, shopping and food in Hat Yai, they have lots to recommend and this restaurant was one of it. With the company of our tour guide from Alor Setar(who married a Thai) and his Hat Yai's friend, we arrived at Log Terrace Restaurant.

the entrance of Log Terrace

corner of Log Terrace

walk path to the dining place

It was a restaurant that built along a river and inside a cave. In daytime, you could opt to dine with river view.

But since we were there for dinner, we opted to stay inside the cave.

the menu

thai green chili dipping sauce, thai soy sauce and thai chili sauce

pineapple fried rice with chicken floss topping

stir fry asparagus

famous thai pork knuckles

duck egg kerabu with separated sauce

deep fried fish

seafood otak-otak

lemon steamed fish

prawn tom yam

thai coconut drink

The dim light condition had made taking food picture a challenge. Honestly, the pictures taken could not tell how tasty the food was. But I could tell you that this restaurant had made all other thai meals in the trip pale in comparison. Yes, many thai restaurants serve authentic and tasty thai food. But the cooks in this restaurant were so thoughtful in choosing the food ingredients and spices that the dishes gave a different initial taste, middle taste and aftertaste. The pineapple fried rice was outstanding, the kerabu was something new and creative and other dishes were equally good. The only two warnings that I heard were the long wait time and the mosquitoes, but I had not encountered these two problems during my visit. Just be prepared!

Log Terrace Restaurant
405/1 Soi 15 Satmongkhon Amphoe Hat Yai Songkhla 90110

Pai Spa, Bangkok

I revisited Bangkok last August and Hat Yai last November. Since Thailand is our neighbour country and Malaysian visits it so often, I will not blog about the whole trip, but just do a few posts on things that I found worth recommending.


Bangkok, the land of smile is the top destination for many. To me, the biggest charm of Bangkok is their thai massage, cheap and good. I would allocate 1-2hours per day for massage whenever I visit Thailand. This trip, we discovered a good massage place, Pai Spa where we then went back again and again.


That night, we were searching for the cheapest Thai massage near Khao San Road until we bumped into Pai Spa at Rambuttri Road. Honestly it was not the cheapest, but it looked attractive. Therefore, we decided to pay a little bit more and we were glad that we tried. We paid 50THB for 2 hours thai massage, but do check their website(link below) for the latest price list and promotion.

The moment we stepped into the Pai Spa, we felt calm and relax with the interior. The whole interior was in wood and the wood color created a peaceful atmosphere.

The photo org chart of the masseuses and the stick-on good reviews from the customers gave me more confident that I had come to the right place.

While waiting, we were served tea and cold towel.

Then, the masseuse scrubbed and cleaned our feet.

We were asked to change this loose blouse and trouser.

I took a picture of the massage beds. Then it was time for thai massage. I go massage on regular basis, and I would think that this was one of the best thai massage that I had. Therefore, if you are going to Bangkok, search no more! I can assure you that this is a good one!

Hot herbal tea was served after the massage.

You could also bring home Pai Spa's products.

Pai Spa
View website

Macau Part II

After the famous egg tart in Coloane Island, we went to The Venetian Macao, the biggest casino in Macau. I am sure another new casino will just overtake it very soon. But at the time of visit, it was the biggest caniso. For the casinos owned by Stanley Ho(the billionaire casino magnate who files lawsuit against his family recently), read here.

This renaissance Venice-themed casino resort had stunning replicas of Venice landmarks, the St. Mark's Square, the Doge's Palace, Campanile Tower, and indoor canals with gondolas and singing gondoliers.

statue and fountain

the corridor

After we thought we had contributed enough to the casino, we decided to take their free shuttle to Macau's ferry terminal. 

Free shuttle pick up point was at Hotel West Lobby.

direction to different shuttles

Venetian's shuttle

From the ferry terminal, we took a public bus to Lau Kei Pork Chop Bun(青洲劉記猪扒包) for lunch. It was a revisit.

the same old building

Prices had gone up since my last visit, but the food was still good.

back page of the menu

Fish ball 净鱼蛋 MOP10

blanched vegetables 油菜 MOP3.50

pork chop bun 猪扒包 MOP11

pork chop noodles 猪扒面 MOP14

iced milk tea 冻奶茶 MOP8.50

watercress with honey 西洋菜蜜 MOP6.50

A complete meal must be ended with dessert. So when we were back at Senado Square, we visited the 30+ years old Hang Heong Un(杏香园) dessert shop.

Hang Heong Un was famous for their walnut dessert(合桃类) and almond dessert(杏仁类). Make sure you order one from these two categories because these desserts are hardly seen in Malaysia.

the shop

If you were as greedy as me, you could order walnut and almond paste with ginkgo(白果杏仁合桃), priced at MOP29. It was a little bit pricey, but if you were to know the price of nuts and the time needed to prepare this dessert, then you would not complain. The dessert paste was very smooth, fragrant and most important, it was not too sweet.

But if you really do not fancy dessert paste, you could try their water chestnut with ginkgo(白果馬碲沙), priced at MOP29.

We posed in front of Ruins of St. Paul’s although we had done it last trip.

Ruins of St. Paul’s

Dinner was at Restaurante Bee Vee. Actually I wanted to try another crab porridge shop, but too bad that it was closed that night.

New menu 1

New menu 2

Somehow, the crab porridge did not meet our expectation this time. I was impressed by the Bee Vee's crab porridge(峰景蟹粥） during my last trip(read post). But this time, I was not sure if it was because I had found JinDaoYuan's porridge(金稻园砂锅粥)(read post) or Bee Vee's standard had dropped. But then, it was still worthy to pay Bee Vee a visit if you have not tried Macau crab porridge.

fried fish ball with rice cracker(米通鱼球）

Steamed Eel in Wok(嚄仔蒸鳗鱼) was a pleasant surprise. The fish texture was firm and the sauce was very appetizing.

Before we left Macau the next day, we went to Sheng Ji Bai Zhou(盛记白粥） which was the recommendation of most of the travel books.

It was located at the intersection if Calcada Do Tronco Velho(东方斜巷) and Rua Dos Cules(天通街).

the kitchen

cold desserts

menu page 1

menu page 2

white porridge

rolled rice sheet with crispy twisted doughnut

yam cake and carot cake

steamed pork dumpling(aka siew mai)

The food was too bland for me. But you can give it a try.