Last weekend YMOTG and MyTGF decided to go upmarket for dinner – the usual 100 baht for 3 courses of gristley beef and chicken-with-chillis-stuffed-with-chillis-in-chilli-sauce just wasn’t doing it for me, and let’s face it, there’s only so much rice a man can eat.

We’d heard about a fancy restaurant called Sirocco and been told it was worth a visit, and that dinner for two would cost around 3000 baht (AUD $100). It turns out that Sirocco is situated on the open 64th floor of the State Tower in Silom, and is apparently the highest open roof-top restaurant in the world (Photos of the view here).

Donning our finery (we were politely told when making the phone reservation that casual attire simply would not do), we hailed a taxi and made our way through the saturday night traffic to Silom, most infamously known for being the home of the Patpong Night market and go-go bars. A little further down the road we found the building and made our grand entrance.

The express lift to the 64th floor must have been powered by Ferrari as ours ears popped painfully due to the speed, but that was soon forgotten about when we were greeted at the top by one of the most spectacular sights I’ve ever seen. I’m of course talking about the waitresses in the restaurant, swanning about in the dimly lit ambience and smiling with just a subtle hint of flirtiness (is that a word? It is now). Stunning. And the views aren’t bad either (actually, it’s unbelievably beautiful – you don’t get a real idea of the massive urban sprawl that is Bangkok until you’ve seen it like this.)

We were seated in the bar/restaurant called Distil for the meal on couches in a setting reminiscent of the hotel Bill Murray’s Bob Harris stayed at in Lost in Translation – low lighting, dark timber, soft music and “HOW MUCH IS THE STEAK? ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME?”! I almost choked when I saw the drink prices and menu. 25,500 baht (AUD $850) for a bottle of Bollinger champagne, and $60 for a steak the size of your palm!

Not wanting to lose face, I smiled, nodded, and calmly supressed the aneurism throbbing at my temples and reassured MyTGF that she could have cough anything cough on the menu. And so with great trepidation we ordered soup starters and eye fillet steak for mains.

After the meal we took our drinks out to the balcony to take in the magnificent view. Unfortunately it was blowing about 40 knots outside and MyTGF spent the entire time clutching her skirt to prevent it flying off up around her neck, much to the amusement of several older thai businessmen and one drunken aussie holiday-maker (bloody aussies, they’re everywhere!)

The food was predictably small but oh-so-tasty (and by no means the best I’ve ever eaten), the service was exceptional, the atmosphere pleasant, and the bill…well let’s just say that at a total of almost 6000 baht (AUD $200) for two soups, two small steaks and 3 drinks, we won’t be going back until I become Prime Minister of Thailand – and that ain’t gonna happen any time soon!