La flora, situated in central Patong, is a luxury hotel with 10 poolside villas and 57 delux rooms. It also contains the ‘Current’ restaurant and, from January, will be relaunching and redesigning the rooftop bar ‘Surface’ into an open air restaurant.

The name ‘Surface’ reflects the fact that the wonderful view of the sea afforded by the location seems like it is indeed part of the surface of the roof. While the Current restaurant offers a wide variety of Thai and European food, the Surface will be offering a limited seafood based menu, all of which will be cooked in a slow grill and all of
which I was also very lucky to take part in a pre-tasting.

Assistant Chef Tong, who has been at the restaurant for two years was enthusiastic extolling the virtues of the menu, “we only use the freshest seafood and ingredients.”
The panoramic view allows you to literally see where your food has come from, especially
the delicious Phuket lobster. He added, “This type of food is light and very healthy and perfect for a relaxing evening.”

Also perfect for the evening is the experienced cocktail mixologists on hand to whip, shake and stir all manners of cocktails up. Sipping a martini, the preparation of which included no stirring, with grilled pineapples and cardomon (240 baht) and watching the sun
set was a wonderful experience. Sensing that many will still be coming just for drinks, Surface has left a separate section with large wicker arm chairs for people to just enjoy drinks, the remaining space now has seating for between 26–30 people.

Food & Beverage manager Khun Ake explained to me, while I was eating what will be Surface’s four wonderful dishes, his plan for the future, “Colour will be central to
the theme, concept and overall feel of the experience of Surface."

While the ‘Current’ restaurant employs very earthy tones of brown and dark brown to its décor, the Surface will be using the warm and aquamarine colours of deep oranges and light blues. Lending a helping hand to the vision is nature’s colourful palette. The wonderful yellow sand, blue sky and sea and the soft green of the trees that form the mountains all around you compliment the décor.

The first of the courses that will be served as part of the Surface’s menu was the Fillet of Salmon (650 baht) served with half a grilled red pepper stuffed with fried rice, peas and baby tomatoes. A feta cheese sauce comes separately in a small glass and can
be poured as liberally or sparsely as the customer’s taste buds allow. I found it just delicious and so covered mine and found it to be the perfect accompaniment to the scrumptious salmon.

The next dish to be served was the slow grilled lamb rack (790 baht) served with a generous sprinkling of mint leaves. It also came with fried rice, with mashed tomatoes on top which made for a juicy, sundry combination. The fantastic Phuket lobster (1500 baht) was next and was very sweet, light and fluffy. It came with slices of lime if one wanted to add a little more zest to the dish.

The final dish was one that I personally didn’t want to like as much as I did, as this would be admitting that I am to some extent a simple and uncomplicated man with regard
to gastronomic delicacies; Australian Prime Beef Tenderloin with crusted black pepper (790
baht). Yet it was simply wonderful, succulent and incredibly tasty. I am man. It also came with crunchy vegetables, and four large chips just to remind you that one needs
more than meat in a meal.

It was a fantastically colourful night, and I vowed to return soon, for I felt that the relaxing atmosphere, wonderful food and tasty cocktails meant that I had barely scratched the surface of the enjoyment to be had at this restaurant.

La flora - 39 Taweewong Rd, Patong Beach. www.laflorapatong.com. 076 344241