By The Mekong

We just love dining Chinese on top of the world. With a view of Bombay’s skyline from the 37th floor of St. Regis, fine dining on Chinese, Vietnamese and Thai cuisine is really an experience set apart. Stop ‘by the Mekong’ and indulge. This penthouse restaurant is understated in its interiors – in flames of orange and wood – yet is plush in its service and food. At the hands of the new Master Chef Raymond Wong, it’s a veritable feast, a reinvented menu and meal.

With the chef’s South East Asian roots, the dishes served are a blend of home-style cooking with traditional ingredients, marinated and handcrafted in home-made sauces and fragrant spices. So, as you go along the regions that dot the course of the Mekong River, delicacies spring forth in the Mongolian Lamb Chops, Mushrooms with Baby Pok Choy in Oyster Sauce, Singaporean Chilli Crab and Golden Mantou Bao,  the sizzling Vietnamese Barbecue Wings with a tamarind and ginger glaze and then so much more.

Undoubtedly, the high you get from the 37th -floor view is only taken up a notch with the handcrafted cocktail menu at By the Mekong. The Lower Mekong is a heady mix of vodka, kumquat, basil, freshly squeezed lime juice

and sugar while the Manila Sunshine serves you gin, Malibu, triple sec and pineapple, all in one. Sip on these gently, nurse them well, while the fiery Prawns Red Curry with holy basil hits all the right spots, courtesy the bird’s eye chilli, a Thai must-have. Pair it with a steamed jasmine rice and you’re good to go. Another must is the less frequented Radish Cake with spring onions, burnt garlic and chilli bean preserved in five spice. Simple and flavourful, these savoury cakes.

To end your tour around the Mekong, the Pandan Custard is a traditional treat that will do you well, and the Cacao 64 will keep you coming back for more. That cocoa from Coorg served with a chocolate soil and raspberry sorbet in a teasing sea salt is just yum. There are set menus as well, with salads, appetisers, Dim sums and soups, with produce fresh from their farms.