The recently-opened Panache restaurant, by Outrigger Phuket is hoping its innovative and interactive menu will bring something different, something fun and something affordable to those wishing to dine within the Laguna Resort Complex.

The 100-seat restaurant is part of the new suites area of the Outrigger Laguna Phuket Resort and Villas. Also within the vicinity is a kids? play area, swimming pool and even a fitness centre.

?Guests can drop off their kids in the play area or by the pool, safe in this knowledge that they will be taken care of, and they can just worry about enjoying their meal,? said Darren Shaw, General Manager of Outrigger.

However, considering the design of the menu of the menu, it is quite unlikely that any of its customers will be worrying much at all.

Panache is test-running a rather new style of dining, and encouraging its diners to pick and choose what they want by combining a particular buffet with either a meat or particular pizza dish for example.

Lunch and dinner is included a la carte and eaten combined with whichever particular buffet menu a guest fancies.
So for example, buffet salads along with homemade dressings and condiments will cost 220 baht, but if you wish to eat with either pizza or noodles and the buffet salad, this will cost just 360 baht. If you would like to take a little from all stations, which includes access to the fruit, dessert and coffee sections, then that comes in at a very reasonable 440 baht.

The thinking behind having separate ?cold? buffet sections was two-fold explained Darren, ?We didn?t want to have hot food out on display all day as it obviously goes cold and doesn?t taste very nice and it?s also a question of hygiene.?

This style of being able to pick and choose Darren believes will be keep everybody happy, as guests not only just pay for what they eat but are able to decide exactly what and how they eat it.

The ingredients for the pizzas are right there on display as is the woodfire oven, so diners can walk up to the pizza station, select what they want on the pizzas and then tell the pizza chef exactly how they wish him to cook it.

There is also the delightfully-excitingly described fresh noodle station, akin to the pizza station, the diners can select everything from the type of noodles, of which there are seven fresh varieties: sen lek - rice noodles, woon sen - glass noodles, mah mee - yellow egg noodles, sen Jai ? white flat noodles, mee spam ? big egg noodles, soba ? buck wheat noodles, sen mee ? angel hair noodles.

Diners can also select the meat and other ingredients and then sit-back and watch the noodle man prepare it exactly how you like. Again many options are included: gutiau-soup, wok-fried with oyster sauce, rad-naa ? in thick broth, phad sa-ew ? soy and oyster sauce, phad thai ? tamarin sauce, Singaporian style and Phad kee maw ? spicy.

All of this is done under the watchful eye of Austrian Executive Chef Robert Czeschka who although trained in Europe has spent the last six years honing his Asian taste buds in Malaysia, China, Vietnam and currently Thailand.

The ?interactive kitchen? is paramount to the concept and success of Panache and Chef Czeschka is very much a participant and so prepares the dishes after finding out exactly how the guest likes their food. "Fewer calories, hold the garlic, extra anchovies?" enquires Chef Czeschka, "This piece of sirloin, not that? It?s all possible," he promises.
"I like to think of it as a culinary conversation," says Chef Czeschka. "With such a cross-cultural mix among our guests our approach is to be flexible and really cook what people want."

For those wishing to dine on neither pizza nor noodles there is also plenty of options separated in the novel way of grouping dishes in the easily recogniseable ?small, medium or large? with regard to the size of portions.

An example of a small dish would be salmon rosettes roses of smoked salmon, honey and yoghurt dill sauce, salad bouquet (320 baht).

A featured ?medium? dish is the marvelously renamed ?Goong Disco? (Plar Goong): marinated shrimps prepared in a sashimi style, served alongside lime, chili and mint (340 baht). Traditionally stewed in whiskey: So good and so spicy that it apparently makes those who eat it want to dance uncontrollably. The Post is not too sure about that, but it was pretty darn tasty.

If you?re feeling hungry, you could choose a large dish like Goong supeng tod king prawns in a crisp tempura batter, wasabi mayo, kikoman soy and sprigs of noodle tree for 520 baht.

All of mentioned dishes can of course be combined with the salad, noodle or dessert section. ?This is a relatively new concept,? said Darren, ?and one that has not really been test-ran but so far we have received positive feedback.?
Why not give it a go? Your only limit is your own imagination...

Panache, Outrigger Laguna Phuket Resort and Villas, 0-7633-6900