Co Limited at Siam Paragon is the second outlet of the two-year-old restaurant brand known for its kitschy visual identity.
A venture by some of Bangkok's established restaurateurs and fashion designers, it showcases local favourite recipes, especially street food, with an upscale gourmet flair in a style-centric, vibrant setting.
Co is the formal Thai word for cow. Hence, you can tell that Co Limited is a paradise for beef lovers.
The menu features over 100 items under categories such as appetisers, charcoal grills, hotpots, side dishes to eat with rice, personal-sized meals, noodles and seasonal specials. Most of the dishes feature prime-cut beef, confirming the restaurant's obsession with red meat.
To cement a playful dining vibe, several dishes are titled to mimic the high spirits of the masses. Meanwhile, the English description of some items read like a Google translation parody.
Grilled ox tongue with marinated egg yolk and spicy jaew sauce (390 baht), the first dish to arrive at our table, lived up to its reputation as the restaurant's number one best-seller.
The dish, featuring large cubes of flame-grilled seasoned ox tongue, was developed to fulfil the need of diners who'd like to have the delicacy in sizeable pieces, which is rarely offered by most eateries.
Other than being substantial in size and very supple and springy in texture, the grilled ox tongue was lent a delicious dash by a creamy dip made with raw egg yolk cured in soy sauce. Such a clever touch helped raise an already crowd-pleaser to a gourmet treasure.
Next up was a Spicy Chinese Snack Yum (295 baht), as described in English on the menu. It actually is a popular street-style Thai salad prepared with fermented rice noodles and various toppings.
Co Limited's version includes pork crackling, fermented pork sausage, crispy tiny fish, crispy roasted pork belly, tips and young pods of a lead tree (kra-thin), string beans, sawtooth coriander, shallots and dried red chillies. The salad was seasoned with pasteurised house-made pla ra (fermented salt-cured fish) dressing and it proved addictive.
Sexy Chic Smoke Pot (790 baht), a popular charcoal-grilled item, features a beer-marinated free-ranged chicken smoke-roasted in a pottery jar with herbs and cannabis.
The poultry is presented whole in the jar to guests simply for a visual thrill. It then goes to the kitchen to be cut and comes back on a bed of crumbly fried garlic and shallots accompanied by jaew-flavoured sticky rice, grilled corn on the cob and three choices of sauce. A result of hours-long marination and sous-vide before being rubbed with herbs and spices and slowly roasted, the chicken was succulent underneath its crispy-thin golden skin.
From the hot pot collection, I tried beef shank soup "super style" (690 baht).
Real connoisseurs of Thai street food know the culinary term "super" stands for an intensely sour and fiery consomme prepared with galangal, kaffir lime leaves, shallots, coriander, bird's-eye chillies and lime juice, and chicken feet as the protein centrepiece.
Co Limited's rendition with beef was as zesty and pungent as I expected. However, the beef slices, barely marbled with gelatinous connective tissue, could have been more tender.
The 20-item category of personal-sized rice and noodle dishes is also based on beef and pork.
Expect to find the likes of stewed ox tongue over rice; garlic fried rice with Australian beef steak and onsen egg; rice topped with mi-ciut omelette and grilled beef; fried rice with crispy pork lard, fresh chillies and salted egg; deep-fried fish sauce marinated pork belly with sticky rice and chilli relish; and wok-fried noodles with sirloin steak in gravy.
I went for the rather hardcore option of beef tallow fried rice with oven-roasted bone marrow and half-boiled duck egg (300 baht).
The dish, featuring aromatic beef-fat fried rice freckled with crusty morsels of deep-fried tallow accompanied by piping-hot cream-hued marrow, was given contrast by roasted garlic cloves, fresh lime and fried dry chillies.
This best-seller proved that when you double the fatty content correctly, what you get is a creation that provides palate ecstasy.
Should you be a connoisseur of boat noodles, do not hesitate to order some here (150-220 baht). The management is confident their recipes, beef and pork, aren't second-best in the city's arena of high-end guay tiew ruea.
Desserts (85-280 baht) are represented by temple fair classics with upgraded and perhaps extravagant presentations. Options include shaved ice of various flavours; ice cream on a soft bun; and crispy roti pastry with sweet condensed milk.
The service was folksy and brisk.
