Mayfair Collection’s Bangkok Kaizen Slaps

Featuring a wide array of Japanese dishes and Thai food, your taste buds will thank you for going here.

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Let’s Eat!

The Mayfair Collection restaurant scene is ever improving, adding notable Bangkok Kaizen to its list of restaurants. Featuring a wide array of Japanese dishes and Thai food, your taste buds will thank you for going here.

I met up with my fellow food enthusiast friend for a weekday lunch, not knowing the adventure our taste buds were about to embark on. Luckily, they seated us at a large round booth, so we had plenty of room for the many dishes we were served. The list is long, so I’ll use bullet points:

  • Grilled Squid: Whole grilled marinated squid served on slices of cabbage with spicy seafood dressing
  • Fish Cakes: Fried red curry flavored fish cakes served with cucumber salad, sweet chili sauce, and topped with crushed peanuts
  • Chicken Gyoza: Chicken gyoza served with homemade dumpling sauce
  • Classic Pad Thai: Thai stir-fry of thin rice noodles, eggs, tofu, chives, bean sprouts with a sweet-savory-sour sauce, scattered with crushed peanuts. Choice of meat: chicken, tofu, or mixed vegetables
  • Larb Gai: Spicy Thai minced chicken salad, chili powder, roasted rice powder, red onion, mint, scallions, with Thai chili lime dressing
  • Sushi Platter: There were three delicious rolls featured, but I honestly can’t remember which. But I do believe the beautiful sauce dragon comes with the Chef’s Masterpiece Sushi Rolls. Order an assortment so you can try a variety of their sushi, nigiri and specialty rolls.

I lived in Thailand once upon a time, so I’d like to think I know good Thai when I taste it—and this is it! The flavors run deep in every dish, the spice levels can get very high (upon request), and they serve only a spoon and a fork at the table. In Thai culture, you use a fork to push your food onto the spoon and eat off the spoon. Chopsticks are also available, more for the Japanese part of the menu. But, you do you when it comes to cutlery.

The menu is dense and physically feels like one at a diner, equipped with spiral binding and photos of dishes. Personally, I appreciate a menu with images sometimes, especially when I might not know the language of the dishes. Moreover, you can certainly find the more familiar dishes you know and love (like Pad Thai, Fried Rice, Maki Sushi, etc.) but I highly encourage you to explore the many options you likely haven’t tried before.

Bangkok Kaizen gained a lot of hype on social media with their “Pizza Box of Sushi”—a concept meant to easily take sushi to go, picnic style. These typically feature rolls like X, Y, and Z and make it easy to try a lot of flavors without leaving it up to chance. They are a great option for a group office lunch, picnic with friends, or a family-style dinner.

While they do have lunch specials and most dishes are good for one person, I’d recommend going with a group so you can try a little bit of everything. Or, even better, go back many times and work your way around Thailand and Japan. The staff is lovely, the inside is inviting, and the food is absolutely delicious.