Pomodoro, Watthana

Nice smart, modern decor. Quiet. Plenty of friendly & attentive staff (too many, to be honest). The complimentary bread basket is amazing; crispy flat bread & fluffy pizza-dough triangles & batons, served with a red-pepper puree & tomato salsa. The pizza-dough bread tastes phenomenal, so you're basically getting free bruschetta. You also have oil/balsamic on the table. The only problem is the staff trying to take it away once your starter/meal is ready - "No! Leave it here..". Unless you're starving, there's no need to get a starter. On my first visit I ordered the tricolore salad (Mozzarella, Tomato, Basil). I was a disappointed - not much flavour in the slightly underripe tomatoes (probably not vine), slightly tough mozzarella (probably not buffalo) and only a few leaves of basil. Never mind though, as I was enjoying the bread basket. Mains; I enjoyed the spaghetti bolognese (you can tell a good/bad restaurant by whether or not they can get the simple classics right). The sauce/spaghetti ratio was perfect, the spaghetti perfectly cooked (al dente), and the portion was large but not wastefully so. The only criticisms would be - not enough depth-of-flavour in the ragu, no 'real' Parmesan on-hand, and the frankly ludicrous spectacle of the 1m long black-pepper mill (apart from the daftness of the size, the pepper must go stale before it gets to the bottom of such a large mill?). Avoiding condiments though, a very decent plate of spag-bol. My date tried the lasagne, which (although the recipe always varies wherever you go) I found to be much too cheesy/rich - more like a block of carbonara sauce. Eating only little & often in the Bangkok heat, I did not want dessert. Verdict: a nice place to eat simple (tomato-based) Italian food, bread & have a glass of wine, but avoid anything cheesy/rich; the Thais have no great concept/judgement of how cream/butter/cheese dishes should taste. Also, I found Pomodoro a bit over-priced. It would score 3/5, except for the awesome bread basket, friendly staff, and that it is a genuinely nice place to relax & escape from Sukhumvit.