Thank you Vana Belle Resort for sponsoring this post. As always, all opinions are my own.
In March of this year I went to Thailand for the first time in my life. I went to several islands, and one of my favorite islands was Ko Samui. While in Ko Samui, we stayed at Vana Belle, A Luxury Collection Resort, managed by Starwood and located on Chaweng Noi Beach.
Vana Belle Resort is located right next to the beach, and you are provided with chairs and umbrellas, as well as with food and drinks service right on the beach. You feel like you are on a private beach. The rooms have private pools, the staff is super attentive and very friendly, and the food is amazing. By the way, I made this photo below right from my room, and my room was not even the closest to the beach, so I think there are even better views from other rooms. Yes, this is the view I woke up to every day while staying at this Starwood resort:
Vana Belle Resort has 2 restaurants, Kiree and Panali. Kiree Restaurant is their main restaurant where the breakfast is served every morning for guests, as well as lunch and dinner. On Saturdays, Kiree Restaurant at Vana Belle offers a special Saturday Brunch, which starts at 12:00 pm and finishes at 4:00 pm. This Saturday Brunch is pure food indulgence, with a great variety of foods offered. There are both the buffet and à la carte menus, and after you're done with this so-called "brunch" (it's more like breakfast, lunch, dinner, dessert, and cocktails all combined at once) you will not want any dinner and possibly not any breakfast the next day.
And, it's not just a regular breakfast food or regular buffet hotel food - the menu choices at Vana Belle's Saturday Brunch are so exquisite with so much variety that having breakfast at Vana Belle in Ko Samui easily became my favorite Thailand breakfast experience. The brunch includes an extensive selection of fresh seafood (lobster, mussels, tiger prawn, crab); a huge variety of cured meats (including duck and 18-months aged parma ham), foie gras, unique cocktails, and a separate a la carte menu with more items to choose from.
Add to that the secludedness of the location, the luxurious setting in which the breakfast takes place, the fact that the beach is right there, waiting for you after you're done with breakfast, the lush jungle-like greenery all around - and you forget about everything and realize that somehow you ended up in a Paradise.
Saturday Brunch at Vana Belle is a perfect way to spend your Saturday afternoon on vacation in Thailand as a couple, as a family or a group of friends. I've seen all these groups of people enjoying their lazy Saturday afternoon at Kiree Restaurant Saturday Brunch.
Let's start our Saturday Brunch at Kiree Restaurant at Vana Belle. What immediately catches my attention is the extensive fresh seafood buffet selection: crab, lobster, prawns, mussels, oysters served on ice in huge buckets.
I start the brunch with my favorite, the Phuket lobster:
It's really good, especially accompanied with the freshly squeezed juice or a cocktail:
Continue on to Tiger Prawns and mussels:
French oysters with condiments + a glass of sparkling wine:
Smoked and house-marinated salmon:
Trying a little bit of everything:
There is an amazing bar of cured and smoked meats (and that's what they offer every day for just a regular breakfast, as well):
My favorite - smoked duck:
My other favorite - 18-Months Aged Parma Ham. This was really the best prosciutto I ever tried:
All different kinds of cured, smoked meats that you can think of.
In addition to the seafood buffet and the cured and smoked meats buffet, during their Saturday Brunch at Kiree, they also offer a special A La Carte Selection Menu.
There were lots of tempting choices on that menu, and I wanted to start with Lobster Thermidor - it sounded really good, like something from Julia Child's cookbook. Well, it did not disappoint. I ate my whole plate and almost licked it too, it was so good. Lobster meat baked in creamy mustard sauce, take a look:
Here is another picture for you of Lobster Thermidor, the view from top:
Next, we tried seared foie gras, which you can order with an omelet, as well. Really good!
Seared salmon steak with sauteed asparagus and herb butter. This was one of my favorites. What's nice is that the portions are not big at all, so you can try lots of different entrees and not get full just from one entree.
Mussels Provencale in tomato white wine sauce with crusty baguette:
If you want something green and healthy, sliced ripe avocado and yellow mango salad is delicious!
and beautiful:
You can even order Steak, yes, with avocado on the side, we are in Thailand.
or, Grilled Pork Chop with crispy bacon and a rich beef jus:
If you wish to have something sweet for breakfast instead, try this impressive Cinnamon & Honey Toast (yes, that's a toast) with rice berry ice cream, caramelized pineapple and a drizzle of dark rum.
Or, try homemade ice-cream in a martini glass - I ordered Popcorn ice cream and it was so good!
There are little popcorns right in the ice cream:
The buffet at Vana Belle has so many choices. In the photos above, you saw their seafood buffet and cured meats buffet selections. They also have a dessert buffet where you will find everything, from chocolate cakes, cheesecakes, to chocolates and macaroons.
They even had chocolate salami, which is literally a sausage except it's made not with meat but with chocolate and then sliced. You can see it on the 2nd row from the bottom.
Little cute chocolate cakes:
Another kind of chocolate cake and white and dark chocolate bark, as well.
Little cheesecakes with strawberries on top:
These green macaroons were so good and, definitely, my favorites:
The pink macaroons were delicious, too!
And, more chocolate cakes! By the way, all these dessert buffet selections (except the macaroons) are available for regular breakfast everyday, not just for Saturday Brunch. Pretty amazing, isn't it?
And, of course, if you wish to have a drink with your meal, Vana Belle offers truly unique and exquisite cocktails, as well as wine, beer, and soft drinks. I love cocktails, so I tried a couple. Each one of these was delicious, flavorful and so beautifully presented:
Look how this cocktail is decorated with a real honeycomb:
And this one with a tropical fruit and some cinnamon, I believe.
This drink is super refreshing with a fresh Thai basil:
Saturday Brunch at Kiree Restaurant at Vana Belle Hotel in Ko Samui, Thailand was an experience I will never forget. An extensive selection and great variety of excellent food both at the buffet and with a la carte menu, friendly and attentive staff, luxurious setting, picturesque location with the beach just steps away from the restaurant - all of this amounts to a truly amazing experience in Thailand. You just want to stay in this Paradise for ever, enjoy the beach and the lush greenery all around while sipping on a cocktail.
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