Places to Eat in Bangkok: Ayame Sushi

Categorized | Living in Bangkok, Places to Eat

Tags | 24 hour mcdonalds, ayame japanese, ayame sushi, bangkok food, bangkok restaurants, bumrungrad hospital, bumrungrad mezzanine, food in bumrungrad, japanese food in bangkok, sushi in Thailand

Places to Eat in Bangkok: Ayame Sushi

Posted on 02 July 2009 by Mike Behnken

Eating at the Hospital

I will admin, probably the only reason I went to Bumrungrad Hospital’s food ‘mezzanine’ in the first place is because it is a 1.5 minute walk from my apartment building. It is not the only reason I go there on a semi-daily basis though. The fact is there is some good, clean food in the internationally renowned hospital.

Whether it is a destination for people living or visiting anywhere else in Bangkok is a question. Having a 24 hour McDonald’s may be a good thing to know for nearby Nana Plaza late night partiers though. I will blog about Bumrungrad’s other places to get food in a bit, but today I’m blogging about the Japanese restaurant which I had been eyeing for nearly a month and not visited.

Sushi in Thailand

A total coincidence but I was jogging down Sukhumvit 23 today amidst all the foot traffic, traffic and of course air pollution and I saw a street vendor selling sushi in the 90+ degree heat. It still looked like “art” but not the kind of art I like to get myself involved with.

Sushi restaurants in Thailand are not as common as in San Francisco or New York. Bangkok is an hour away from any seaports so I would think different types of fresh fish take at least a couple days on ice to get from the sea to any place selling sushi.

I am not saying I’m ‘sushi expert but I have eaten sushi everywhere from Brazil, to Costa Rica to San Francisco to the world famous fish market Tsukii in Japan which has the freshest and some say best sushi in the entire world! In San Francisco I had sushi about 3 times per month but at this point I hadn’t had it for over 4 or 5 months so it was time.

Ayame

I always noticed Ayame amongst the Bumrungrad mezzanine restaurants but I knew it was more expensive and had sit down service like a normal restaurant. I never saw more than 1 or 2 tables full in Ayame and when I went in I was the only person.

I was seated and first thing I noticed was 2 sushi chefs. This was good news because I know from San Francisco, any sushi bar w/ no dedicated sushi chef(s) is almost 100% likely to have terrible sushi. Ayame is decorated with traditional Japanese items, has a couple of large fish tanks to add to the experience.

I ordered a ton of food as usual and I didn’t know what to expect. I started out with a wakame salad which tasted the same as every wakame salad I’ve ever had. I had some teriyaki chicken with the skin and a lettuce salad which was decent as well.

In Japan I had to ask for my sushi “wasabi nuki” (without wasabi) because they put the wasabi on top of the rice under the fish. I tried to explain to the Thai waitress and she didn’t understand so I figured they would leave out the wasabi.

I first tried the salmon nigiri which I get every time. The salmon melted in my mouth which I think is good? I tried the saba nigiri next and it was pretty good as well. I had a roll they called ebitem maki which had seaweed on the outside and I’m pretty sure had fried shrimp in the middle and it was pretty good as well.

Price

Price is probably always going to be an issue when I talk about restaurants because I tend to eat a lot more than the average person. Sushi restaurants pose the biggest problem because you pay per piece. In this case I will detail my bill at Ayame to avoid confusion. The price reflects an order of sushi. If you order an entré only and an appetizer your bill will likely be around 500 baht.

Total: 1,272 Baht ($37.26USD)

Wakame (seaweed) salad: 150 baht
2 Sake (salmon) Nigiri: 300 baht
1 Saba (mackeral) Nigiri: 100 baht
1 Tamago (egg): 60 baht
1 Ebitem Maki (roll w/ fried shrimp): 200
1 Order Teriyaki Chicken w/ Salad (no rice): 200
1 Asahi Beer: 90 baht
10% gratuity: 108 baht
Vat tax: 84 baht

Overall Impression

I thought Ayame sushi was pretty good. Nothing I ate there made me angry for being so bad which was an often occurance in San Francisco’s many sushi restaurants. I left satisfied, and full although I spent about 42x more than what I spend on average for lunch!