Devouring the “Wow” at Patong’s New Bon Pan-Asian Tapas
Bon Pan-Asian Tapas’ standout grilled beef tongue with jalapeño peppers; crispy tofu takoyaki balls showered with bonito flakes.
It’s a Thursday night at Bon Pan-Asian Tapas in hectic Patong, and the thumping beat of Spanish reggaeton is reverberating through the chic, red and black space. Diners bounce along to the music on the tall chairs set along the chef’s counter, watching hungrily as a kitchen staffer carefully turns spiced Uyghur lamb skewers on a small Binchotan charcoal grill while a shiny, red pebbled Kamado smoker full of sweet baby corn fumes a few millimeters away. Another staffer leans over the chef’s counter to pour glasses of bright, fruity Japanese umechu plum wine for guests while the restaurant’s sous chef painstakingly slices and tweezes orange sections for a sweet, creamy, crunchy Thai-inspired dessert that layers crispy millefeuille with pandan chantilly and coconut mousse.
Every bite at this brand new spot is a chic, sleek around-the-world party. And recently our new Phuket Foodies Collective was invited by the owners to join in on the tasty fun and sample the restaurant’s menu. (Bon Tapas officially opens December 14, but their kitchen is already churning out its pan-Asian dishes every night but Tuesdays.)
Bon Tapas spices up its modern design with playful accents like geometric maneki-neko cats and “stone” idol tissue dispensers.
Bon Pan-Asian Tapas is a new project from L’Arome Group, which boasts luxury restaurants from Nanjing to Paris and here in Phuket at L’Arome By the Sea at Kalim Bay. (Swiss chef Yannick Hollenstein’s local seafood and produce-fueled modern French dishes recently earned L’Arome Phuket a spot in the Michelin Guide Thailand.)
Affiliated with Hotel Indigo, Bon Tapas hides just around the corner from the boutique operation’s boho-chic lobby, a glowing red neon circle logo announcing the sleek eatery’s fun, bold energy from the minute you step inside the long, skinny space.
(When I say fun and bold, I mean it. Bon Tapas serves fine-dining level cookery yet the staff plunked a giant TV on the floor along its back wall to screen World Cup games and hides its napkins in stern stone idol heads. You pull tissues out of the idol’s nose. It’s weird and hilarious, especially after a few rounds of Takizawa Tokujo Honjozo sake.)
Bon Tapas manager Keeron pours the Phuket Foodies Collective glasses of crisp white wine.
The words “Pan-Asian” can often turn out to be a code for muddled dishes that lack a point of view, but Bon Tapas side-steps this trap handily, turning out creative, beautiful plates that proudly flaunt their regional influences, from Japan to Vietnam to Mongolia to China–with a bit of a French accent. It’s also making dishes that engage in an interesting dialogue between different countries’ cuisines. And the plating is lovely, to boot.
Bon Tapas’ dishes were dreamed up by its head chef, Singaporean import Danial Fitri Yap. But during our visit, the kitchen was handily overseen by Sous Chef Oliver Ma, who cooked at L’Arome’s Nanjing outpost before arriving in Phuket barely two months ago.
“When customers eat here I want them to see and taste the dishes and go, ‘Wow,’” he says. “I need the wow.”
Bon Tapas has got a pretty impressive “wow” rate going so far: Meaty miso glazed cod, seared so hard it creates an unexpectedly delicious caramelized crust, paired with simple sauteed bok choy. Lamb skewers inspired by the cuisine of the Uyghur people–an ethnic minority native to the Xinjiang region of China–rolled in a rough blend of cumin, chile and Sichuan pepper (120 baht/skewer). They arrive wreathed in curls of smoke on a tabletop grill; every bite is an explosion of flavor. And tender red mullet swimming in a creamy, herbaceous green curry broth dotted with briny oysters (380 baht) is refined yet hearty. (It’s called gaeng som on the menu, but it’s too thick and a bit sweet for that Southern sour curry label.)
A dish of savory, lime and coriander-tinged beef tongue (320 baht) was a standout, conjuring both visions of Mexico and Thailand, the thin slices of meat sizzled on the Binchotan grill until their crisp edges curl like a ruffled skirt, then served draped over juicy grilled jalapenos. It would pair well with the restaurant’s short lineup of beers, including Phuket’s own Full Moon Chatri IPA. (It’s beer, wine and sake only at Bon Tapas; no cocktails.)
Smoky shrimp with prawn bisque and cilantro salad; super fresh French Josephine oysters with rich, herby butter gratin.
Plump grilled shrimp (480 baht), tasting of smoke and lemongrass, were meaty and delicious, but they took a back seat to the star of the dish, a generous pool of velvety prawn bisque–so rich you’d want to use it as part of a daily skincare regime. “We need an entire loaf of grilled bread to sop up the rest of this bisque,” I murmured to my French Foodie Collective partner. Nearly at the same moment I overheard our Thai Collective member say to our Chinese-born friend: “We need lots of rice to eat all this up. Now.” It was as if the United Nations of Sauce Lovers had passed a joint-resolution to happily devour this dish by any and all means necessary.
Gigantic, briny-sweet French Josephine oysters, warmed in a bath of Burgundy herb butter gratin were another freeze-frame moment. Fuming with garlic and green herbs, they tasted like the delicate cousin of French escargot. I could eat a dozen of them if they weren’t priced at 240 baht per oyster. (Bon Tapas’ prices, though on the expensive side, are well in keeping with this caliber of menu–with many of the dishes sized big enough to share.)
There were a few missteps, like clunky little tuna towers (380 baht) overshadowed by a blanket of parmesan and weighted down by bland cubes of starchy rice cakes. And an overly sweet pork belly taco (240/piece) lacked acid punch and was wrapped in a depressingly tough, tasteless tortilla. (Westerners get excited enough at the mere mention of a taco on a Phuket menu. Please don’t crush our hopes for proper Mexican fare yet again.)
And during our visit, a few of the garlic-fried crayfish looked old and suspect to one member of the Foodies Collective, although the pool of umami-packed sauce the crustaceans sat in–a mix of slow roasted garlic, oyster sauce and draft beer, was lick-the-plate excellent.
Top: Bon Tapas sous chef Oliver Ma and staff carefully prep a pandan millefeuille as well as order of rock lobster with squid ink pasta. Bottom: The finished crispy-creamy millefeuille.
Overall, Bon Pan-Asian Tapas’ menu is a rollercoaster of bold flavors and fun presentations, underscored by that thumping reggaeton and a friendly staff. It’s easy to spend hours here, drinking and nibbling the night away with good friends, new and old. Wow is right, Bon Tapas.
A big thank you to Spoon & Wander for organizing this #PhuketFoodiesCollective event as well as Chef Oliver, Keeron and the Bon Tapas crew for being such gracious hosts!
Check out more FB Group facebook.com/groups/phuketfoodies to find out more spots #phuketfoodies eat.
Bon Pan-Asian Tapas
📍124/4 Rat-U-Thid 200 Phi Road, Patong,
Kathu, Phuket 83150 (Hotel Indigo Phuket Patong)
☎️ +66(0)65 239 2777
⏰ Open from 4 pm Wednesday to Monday, closed on Tuesday