The Athenee Hotel spoils its guests with five in-house restaurants: Kintsugi Bangkok by Jeff Ramsey serves cuisine from Western Japan, where many of the dishes’ ingredients are sourced; Silk Road has excellent dim sum and classic Chinese dishes on its menu; House of Smooth Curry has a great menu of classic Thai dishes from the country’s four regions; and breakfast, lunch and dinner are served, accompanied by a pianist tinkling the ivories, at the sprawling Raintree Cafe which opens onto Wireless Road.

But the hotel’s culinary highlight might well be Allium, a fine French eatery. The set menu encompasses the restaurant’s highlights and includes a very tender Australian lamb rack and a wonderful pan-seared salmon. Adventurous diners may go for the lobster burger with mac and cheese croquettes and the foie gras on brioche with beetroot and balsamic. The only drawback is the salon-style piano soundtrack, which is a little too intrusive. 

Breakfast is buffet style with myriad choices – Thai, Japanese, Indian and Continental – along with great health juices and smoothies. The Bakery, also on the ground floor has an excellent selection of fine chocolates and tarts. Longer-term guests can access a resident kitchen. The best place for a pre-dinner drink is the Glaz Bar in the lobby with its colonial-era glitz, though the View Bar by the pool is a close contender as it offers great outdoor ambience at sunset.