Pinocchio

Pinocchio is way out in the boonies, by the Impact Center in Muang Thong Thani. It gets a lot of its patrons from the International School and the wealthy Thai neighborhood nearby. Pinocchio was originally located farther inside the soi in a location that was much more remote. It was amazing to me that the restaurant survived for so many years in the hinterland. The food was great but the location was terrible. Now it is in a more prominent location on a much busier part of the soi and business seems to have improved.

Whereas La Buca and L'Opera have their proprietors out on the floor, Pinocchio's has its owner mainly working in the kitchen. He is a "hands-on" kitchen guy and apparently got his start working for some big hotel in Bangkok. Because he is so "hands-on", he often looks rushed and frazzled. He hires a younger wait staff than L'Opera and they seem to be constantly in training. Things look really hectic during the Sunday dinner buffet. You have to arrive at exactly the right time, after all the food is put out and before it begins to run out.

All the food at Pinocchio's is good. The bruschetta is not complimentary (as at L'Opera) but it is quite good. The pastas and pizzas are also excellent, as are the meats.

Hope for the Future of Italian Restaurants in Thailand

There are many other great Italian restaurants in Thailand and new ones are constantly opening. In the Sukhumvit area there are at least 20 Italian restaurants. Pendelosca has just opened on Soi 2 and there is a Maltese Italian restaurant on Soi 3. Soi 33 has one or two and there is Limoncello on Soi 11. This raises the question: how can Italian restaurants survive when there is so much competition? This situation stands in stark contrasts to the sorry state of the Mexican food scene in Thailand, where there are only a handful of mediocre restaurants. This is a lack of balance. We need some good Mexican restaurants to counterbalance the oversupply of Italian restaurants. Therefore, Italians need to open Mexican restaurants; this will ease their financial situation and stress by reducing direct competition, and it will create a new fusion cuisine: Mex-Ital cuisine.

My Dream for a New Fusion Restaurant Mexican

The restaurant will have white stucco walls and be decorating with sleek blond wood and surrealistic mural-type paintings. Only cool music will be played, no Eagles, no Elvis, no techno and no Thai pop. There will be jazz and blues and Latino and Brazilian progressive ballads.

There will be a charcoal grill with chicken roasted on a spit. The chickens will be seasoned with garlic, olive oil, lemon, black pepper and salt. Simplicity is all you need. There will be no Monosodium Glutamate(MSG), ponjourot or Ajinomoto in my restaurant. (The mainstay of the restaurant will be the grilled chickens and the sauces.)

We will have Mexican salsas with a purchase of over 200 baht, to avoid deadbeats like myself. There will be 3 sauces - (1) A freshly-chopped tomatoes with garlic, cilantro and salt, like a basic bruschetta sauce. (2) A green sauce from tomatillos and (3) a knock-you-on-your-ass ground up roasted chili sauce that will be for teaching wise asses a lesson; it will not actually be edible.

There will be an emphasis on fresh ingredients and wholesome food. We will charge high prices to keep out the riff raff. We will make up a myth about a fat little boy who grew up in New York thriving on pizza and calzone and who was then forced to move to Texas, where he learned Spanish and developed a love for spicy Mexican food. A boy who learned to understand cultures through their food and who always had a dream to open up his own restaurant. Hey, wait a minute, that's not a myth, that's me.