Tucked away in an end corner behind Samsen railway station, Platform 1 sits in a simply decorated, retro, white house. The atmosphere is quite lovely (especially if you sit on the second floor where you can watch the trains passing by), which begs the question why so quiet, even at dinner time? Well it’s not down to the staff who are welcoming and sweet despite (or perhaps because of) the lack of diners. Unfortunately, both the ambience and their efforts are sadly undone by the dreadfully disappointing food. Platform 1 certainly has pretensions in the food department, serving up a long list of Italian plates, as well as covering more sophisticated dishes like lobster bisque (B250) or chicken confit (B350). But the execution just doesn’t follow suit, as with their baked sea bass with stir-fried vegetables (B290) which ends up badly overcooked and tasting like bad Chinese food. The roasted duck breast with orange sauce (B350) is also a letdown—the duck is chewy and swimming in a horrible sweet pond of orange sauce that would even be too saccharine in a cake. We did have higher hopes for their Thai fusion offering, spaghetti pla salid (spaghetti with deep fried leaf fish and chili, B250). After all, the owner of Platform 1 is a family member of well-known Thai restaurant Rosabieng, so there should be something in the box, right? Wrong—the result is bland, the fried fish feels chewy and past its prime. Another section of the menu tries its hand at affordable Vietnamese dishes, yet the recommendation of rice noodles with pork sausage (B140) is downright bizarre. The broth is weirdly sour while the noodles’ stench overpowers everything else. We really wanted this place to work. They’ve got such an inviting, chilled atmosphere, but some serious work needs to be put into the taste and the freshness of their food, before we’d ever consider returning.
