Kamala

I found Jaras Restaurant by doing a “fine dining” Google search. It only had 11 reviews, 5 stars. Then I remembered the last 2 years have been a ghost town. It’s located in the InterContinental Hotel at Kamala Beach, about 15 minutes south. So I hop on my single rider chariot built for speed not for comfort just before sunset. I’m greeted by a host when I arrive, they valet my hog, and I’m taken to my seat away from the main dining area like a celebrity. The executive chef shows me the kitchen and his pickling/fermentation room where I fucking geek out. What’s the temp in here? Humidity? How long? Where’s the weird shit? Then they intro me to the chef that will be personally responsible for plating and ensuring everything is perfect. Do they think I’m Adam from Maroon 5?

The entire dinner was nonstop the most amazing service I have ever had. The food was unreal, deconstructed Thai food as you would know it, but arranged in a different way with beautiful plating. All ingredients from local farmers. “Farm to table” in the US is a marketing scam, here it’s the real thing. The fermented pork neck (if bacon and loin had a baby) was UNREAL. Every little detail was amazing. Only feedback: the crab cake donut was dry so instead of using pork fat to keep the inside moist, either use more pork fat or do the dumb American thing and add mayo and less breadcrumbs. The massaman curry I will 1000% be recreating back home but I don’t think they’ll let me fly farmed goat from Bangtao back to the states. The host would keep coming back, “done already?!” Yes, my sweet thai angel I have a problem with eating too fast, these tiny plates don’t stand a chance. Next.

When dinner is over, they bring me a signed menu by the chef, a gift bag with some of the local ingredients used, and the Director of Food for the hotel comes over to say hello. At this point, everyone at the restaurant is staring at me and I even saw a woman in the corner sneak a pic. Being > 6ft is a vibe, I get it now ladies. Time to hop on my Nimbus 2000 and back to the crib. I have to stay one more night in Phuket on my last day in Thailand so the InterContinental might be the spot and I might have to have Jaras one more time.Read more