I bet you wouldn't expect anything like this from an establishment labelled generally as a tourist-centric duty-free retail hub.
King Power Rang Nam's newly-launched 3rd-floor space, on the Friday afternoon that I visited, looked no different from the dining zones at any of Bangkok's mega shopping malls.
Behind a dome-like glass façade, the brightly-lit and well-appointed venue was occupied by a myriad of international restaurants and dessert cafés. The latter includes Pink Berry frozen yoghurt from the US, Pablo Cheesetart from Japan, Koi milk tea from Singapore, QQ Dessert parlour from Taiwan and Make Me Mango, a ripe-mango café from Bangkok's Tha Tien district.
There's also a food court section dedicated to street-food classics from the city's famous shops such as Tipsamai pad Thai, Tha Din Daeng stewed goose, Rong Mueang beef soup and Banthat Thong fish ball noodles.
Dynamically flocking the scene was a casual crowd that was a mix of locals and a small number of international visitors.
Following are my reviews of four individual restaurants.
Brekkie Organic Cafe & Juice Bar (062-650-5241)
Health-forward, Western-style breakfast fare is another thing I didn't foresee here.
Brekkie is an off-shoot of a small but stylish all-day breakfast café of the same name in a ritzy Sukhumvit neighbourhood. Its kitchen revolves around organic ingredients and superfood such as quinoa, whole grains, chia seeds, spirulina and kale.
Of the 30-item food list and a dozen concoctions of cold-pressed vegetable and fruit juice, Acai Bowl (260 baht), a wholesome jumble of house-made granola, sliced banana, mixed berries and acai berry powder, is among the best-sellers.
As is chicken phad kaphrao with quinoa, wild mushroom and poached egg (310 baht).
My favourite, however, was Reuben sandwich (370 baht). It's a scrumptious unification of wood-smoked roast beef with house-made thousand island dressing, caramelised purple cabbage and melted Swiss cheese on toasted rye bread. The sizeable sandwich came with sweet potato fries seasoned with Himalayan pink salt and smoked paprika.
Nara Thai Cuisine (02-248-3516)
The 100-seat, tastefully-decked out dining room of Nara is always busy with well-off Asian tourists. Its menu is impressively big, listing more than 100 items.
Undecided first timers may simply skip browsing through the restaurant's 24-page food collection and instead focus only on Nara's list of 12 best-selling items.
Of it, an exquisitely-arranged Nara hors d'oevre (390 baht) features the likes of prawn satay, crispy herbal pork balls, corn fritters, deep-fried pandan-wrapped chicken and seafood-herb salad. All were addictively good.
Nara's rendition of stir-fried crab with yellow curry (1,250 baht) proved also top-flight. The properly-cracked whole crab exhibited a meaty and naturally sweet flesh, while the eggy curry sauce was a pungent yet well-balanced blend of flavours.
Tom yum goong here (430 baht) is no second best. It offered two large, firm-meat river prawns in spicy lemongrass and lime-seethed coconut cream soup.
For desserts, it's hard to pick one winner out of the two most favoured items: juicy bale fruit cake (110 baht) and coconut ice cream with condiments (145 baht). Both were made in house and super delicious.
Nantsuttei Ramen (02-677-8511)
This ramen eatery was founded by multi-award winning ramen master Ichiro Furuya from Hadano, a city of Japan's Kanagawa prefecture.
Thailand is the second country after Singapore where chef Ichiro decided to expand his business.
To ensure the Japanese-style non-compromising high standards, almost all ingredients used in this Bangkok outlet are imported from Japan. Meanwhile, the kitchen is directed by a Japanese chef.
Highly recommended dishes here include dragon tsukemen (230 baht), cold ramen noodles with thinly-sliced pork loin and roasted sesame seed, all to be dipped in a fiery miso soup seethed with chilli pepper paste and minced pork. Customers can choose a level of fieriness of the miso soup from 0-4.
Those looking for a soothing indulgence from piping hot yet mild-tasting soup, go for kuro nantsu ramen (150 baht). The noodles arrive in tonkotsu (pork rib) broth with hagushi chashu pork loin slices, Naruto nori seaweed and bamboo shoots. Drizzles of roasted garlic oil lent an aromatic pungent contrast to the milky soup.
Other worth-having items are aburi chashu don, or rice bowl topped with marinated pork loin slices and onsen egg (125 baht) and chicken karaage with wasabi-mayo sauce (150 baht).
El Gaucho Argentinian Steak House (062-189-3789)
Probably the largest restaurant here, this 150-seater offers a steak-centric experience just as you would find at any of its outlets.
The steak house's extensive menu centres around three variations of beef cattle: certified Angus, Black Angus, USDA Prime and wagyu, from Australia and the United States. Cut options range from fillet mignon, rib-eye, New York strip loin, bone-in prime rib, tomahawk and porterhouse.
A display fridge at the front of the house offers a variety of vacuum-packed steak cuts, at reasonable prices, for take-home.
All guests are treated to a complimentary serving of bread and roasted garlic. My visit was during the restaurant's introductory promotion, where dine-in guests were offered a 50% discount on US beef steak.
My order of USDA Prime rib-eye (2,590 baht for a 350g portion, before the discount) was served in the style of a Parisian steak-and-fries bistro, where undressed steak came uncut on a silver platter kept warm by a portable flame.
The steak, usually served to the guests medium-rare so it won't get overcooked over time, proved flavourful with just the right proportion of sweet marbling fat. Sauce is to be chosen from options including chimichurri, blue cheese, red wine, Béarnaise, horseradish and pepper sauce, and costing 110-180 baht extra.
From a wide variety of side dishes, such as French fries, potato gratin, mashed potato, macaroni and cheese, corn on the cob and cream spinach, I was truly pleased with sautéed spring vegetables (180 baht).
If you have room for dessert, go for hot chocolate cake with vanilla ice cream (290 baht).
