It is tragic that Serenade hasn’t yet been adopted by hip and devoted restaurant goers the way Soul Food Mahanakorn and Iron Fairies have been. The shared small plates and cocktails concept, as well as the regularly changing menu of exciting dishes make this a pretty unique option in our fair city. There are two cornerstones to the success behind many of the dishes: the best possible ingredients, whatever they may be on a given day, and a touch of inventiveness that combines the best of both classical and modern cooking. On our last visit, for example, they had acquired a supply of fatty, succulent Berkshire Kurabuta pork collar, which was served chargrilled with earthy, moist duxelles (mushrooms finely chopped and reduced in butter) and a cream sauce whose heaviness was undercut by the addition of mustard and sage. And when the available ingredients are very Thai, the food retains its originality, managing to easily sidestep being simply fusion, as in the case of the hand cut frites with spicy aioli, the former fluffy but crisp and spicy, the latter elusively spiked with kaffir lime leaf; or the grilled flank steak with the umami-licious jim jaew demiglace (that’s a French sauce involving veal stock, B280). All this to say nothing about the lovely dishes on previous versions of the menu, like the grilled longan salad, or the robust lamb stew topped with a dollop of goat cheese Chef Timber whipped up for a few tables on another night. Of course, the danger with a menu of constantly changing dishes is that sometimes misfires do occur. The grilled reef squid with seasonal bruschetta, for example, isn’t as special as other dishes, and on a couple of occasions, our food was slightly too salty. Still, every visit to Serenade is full of new delights, the least of which is their ritual offering of a flavor-packed amuse-bouche that always leave us wanting more. So why aren’t they abuzz? Maybe it’s the slightly gloomy décor (or the cheesy name), the community mall location or that people just don’t get places that defy categorization. Too bad. They are missing out on a spontaneous and sure-handed kitchen.
