More Than a Sweet Spot in the Sun
Sun Lounge at Silavadee Pool Spa Resort turns healthy into fun.
Sun Lounge. The name alone conjures up outdoors living, relaxed times and a chilled atmosphere. And it’s exactly that – the kind of place where you can let yourself go, take time to unwind and let your cares drop away. It’s located at Silavadee Pool Spa Resort, known for its romantic vibes and good living. When you arrive, a buggy takes you from reception down through a beguiling landscape of rocks and lush foliage towards the sea, where you’ll find Sun Lounge perched overlooking the rocks. Sit inside in the spacious lounge itself or outside on the decking.
Not so long ago, Sun Lounge contented itself with offering a variety of foods and drinks of the kind you’d find in an upmarket café. But recently it’s upped its game, and the accent is now on healthy foods and drinks – though you can still eat your fill of the very popular international menu, thanks to the lounge being housed next to the all-day dining restaurant, Moon.
The new menu focusses on healthy foods and makes them appealing. Healthy doesn’t need to mean boring. You’ll find some great starters, for example, try the chargrilled homemade bread (Silavadee is one of the very few resorts on Samui to have its own bakery) with beetroot and green olive dip. An unusual combination, but one that works well.
Also try the fresh spring rolls, where the vegetables come from Silavadee’s own garden. After being wrapped Vietnamese-style, these are accompanied by a tamarind and a jungle honey sauce. Like everything else here, the rolls are bursting with taste, freshness and vitality. Next on the menu there are a variety of salads. Choose the Heirloom Tomato Salad which channels Greece with its feta cheese, basil, mint and parsley. Or something that seems to encompass far-flung parts of the globe, yet where all the ingredients sit well together – a salad simply called Raw & Delicious. It has couscous and chickpeas as well as an Asian-inspired dressing, along with bell pepper, tomatoes and organic sweet corn.
You’ll also find pasta, which focuses on vegetables, fish or both, then mains with a variety of meats and seafood. Above all, try the highly tasty Sun Lounge Buddha Bowls. These bowls, made of wood, and much like the ones that you’ll see monks carrying, contain a feast of raw and/or roasted ingredients, along with a variety of textures and flavours that are topped with a sauce. Not only healthy, but packed full of taste. There are three bowls to choose from: Thai, Raw and Protein. Each is filled with different colours and is packed full of goodness. The Thai bowl, incidentally, is inspired by southern style cuisine, and the centrepiece is blue rice – the colour isn’t artificial (no artificial products are used in the cuisine here) but is actually made from butterfly pea, a kind of flower.
For desserts, the homemade ice cream is excellent (try the coconut butterfly pea ice-cream for something new and different). There are also sorbets and home-made macaroons, fruit tarts and cakes to choose from. The menu at Sun Lounge will leave you pleasantly satisfied, but without that over-full feeling. Accompany the foods with a delicious selection of energy drinks, immune system boosters and detoxing and cleansing juices. You’ll also find half a dozen smoothies, Fentiman’s botanically brewed herb drinks, Ronnefeldt teas, house ice teas as well as Segafredo Zanetti coffees. And if you’re in the mood for a tipple, you’ll also find organic wines, cocktails and lager, too.
You might be wondering why Silavadee is going to such great lengths to offer food of this kind. It’s a fair question; after all, other resorts simply focus on pasta, pizza and sandwiches, knowing how popular they are. Silavadee offers all this as well, as we’ve mentioned before, but the healthy focus at Sun Lounge stems from Silavadee adding a wellness program to its repertoire. When they check in, guests have the option to add a wellness element to their stay. There are three basic types of program which combine a personal trainer, yoga, mindfulness practice, sport and meditation. To go with this, it was decided that Sun Lounge would offer a comparable dining experience. This is wellness cuisine at its best, and guests are happy to come back for more. Naturally, you don’t need to be staying at Silavadee to enjoy all this; outside guests are welcome to just drop in. Silavadee is located two kilometres off the ring-road on the eastern edge of Lamai. Take the turning by the IT Centre and head up the small lane until you come to the resort. Sun Lounge is open daily from 8.00 am – 6.00 pm.
Sun Lounge is ideal if you’re coming as a couple, friends and family, or just by yourself and seeking a bit of peace and quiet. Enjoy the laid-back vibe and be prepared to linger. But above all enjoy the excellent food and drink that’s available. The fare here is natural to the core, delicious and always inspiring.
Dimitri Waring