We love the breezy yet classy ambience at Cafe Claire which serves a really great sirloin steak with green pepper sauce and almond potatoes. Dutch chef Henk Savelberg's Bangkok installation dishes out modern French ensembles that are light yet sophisticated. It isn't cutting edge granted but provides a pleasing alternative for an epicurean domain too used to familiar tastes.

Service folks here are generally as friendly and polite as Thais are expected to be but it is otherwise unmemorable, business as usual mode.

Part of the Wireless Road fixture, Oriental Residence Bangkok has elected to establish itself on the affordable luxury scale with generously sized rooms and suites replete with kitchen amenities and living space.