Mia's Bangkok Travelogue: Roast Cafe

Out of the few cafes we've hopped during our #tkgbkk (stands for TK goes Bangkok, if you're curious), I have to say Roast did it best.

There's two branches located quite near each other, one at Thong Lor and the other at EmQuartier, which is at Phrom Phong BTS, which is nearer to our hostel. But somehow, due to no reviews of the EmQuartier branch found online, we took a cab to the branch at Thong Lor instead, on our last day of #tkgbkk trip. 

The Roast is located at the Top Yard of The COMMONS, which is a 5 mins' drive or 20 minutes walk away from Thong Lo BTS station. If you're insistent on not cabbing, I will recommend you visit the EmQuartier branch instead.

The place is so big and spacious I think it's more of a restaurant (that serves great coffee) instead of a cafe. We visited on a Monday morning and it was pretty empty at 10 plus in the morning, but the crowd came soon enough at 11 plus or so and they were pretty much full house. Are we truly maneki-neko or what? 

We did notice, in both CTC and Platinum Mall, that whenever we step into an empty store, a hoard of shoppers will flood in within minutes. 

It worked, EVERY SINGLE TIME, until a point when J and I were kinda bored from the senseless shopping and we just stepped into the empty store nearest to us and true enough a group of shoppers came in seconds later.

There, we brought you customers. Mission accomplished. 

Of course, let's start off with the free bread! HAHA, kidding.

But I have to say that that's really some decent bread, though. 

Caffe Latte

Comparing this with the one at Gram (review HERE), this definitely won, hands down. Proper latte art, smooth and fragrant coffee with the right amount of bitterness, which doesn't require any sugar added. 

Vanilla Bean Shake

A must try for all vanilla fans out there. Extremely rich, creamy and sweet with a strong vanilla taste. 

American Pancakes

served with crispy bacons and whipped butter

Soft and fluffy pancakes, albeit a little tasteless on their own (you know some pancakes has a slight sweetness? This doesn't.), with a shockingly huge glob of whipped butter. Needless to say that glob of fat was promptly removed from the stack and left on one side of the plate. 

Truffle Alfredo

Not a truffle fan (they smells like petrol, yikes!) but due to addition of bacon, ham and mushroom, this has a more complex and rich taste as compared to the one we had at Karmakamet Diner (review coming up real soon!). 

Seafood Stew

market seafood in tomato & white wine sauce, served with toasted baguette

This was my favourite dish of the day. The sauce/gravy was so rich and flavourful, it's a pity they didn't make a soup out of it. The seafood were generally a little overcooked (slightly tough) but that didn't really matter because the gravy was just heavenly. 

Infused with the sweetness of fresh seafood, slightly tangy from the tomato and with a savoury and mildly spicy kick, this is the dish to go for if you're a seafood fan. 

Crab Cake Benedicts 

served with potato rosti, onion jam and grilled veggies

Well, not a fan of this at all. It might be because all the serving portions were so tiny it's impossible to get a good taste of the food when split among 5 of us. That sorry looking piece of potato rosti was literally a one-bite-only, or two, if you have a smaller mouth. 

The crab cake, albeit tasty with the sweet flavour of crab meat, was the loose and crumbly kind of patty, which really didn't go very well with my palate.

Slow Roasted Fried Chicken

48 hr buttermilk and hot sauce marinated half chicken

The meat was slightly dry and tough (because I got the breast meat) but definitely flavourful. The spiciness was discreet initially and slowly creeps on you as you eat, so don't be too quick to comment that it is not spicy at all. But of course, the overall spiciness isn't something unmanageable for the typical Singaporean. 

The extra hot sauce dip serves alongside the chicken totally reminded me of Nandos, somehow.

Cranberry Brioche French Toast

I hated this. French toast and cream cheese just do not go well with each other, period. 

It was such a pity as this dish has so much potential, but they just decided to kill it by giving the french toast a thick layer of cream cheese cranberry compote filling. 

The french toast itself also pales in comparison to what we had at Gram, by the way.

Chocolate Souffle

Another meh dish. I guess Roast does savoury hot food better than their desserts or were we just plain unlucky to have ordered what they do not do well? The souffle wasn't smooth at all, and you can taste some grains of sugar here and there. It was supposed to be a chocolate souffle, but the everything 'chocolate' about it ends at the appearance. There's absolutely no chocolate taste to it, just a plain sugary sweetness.

And another boo to poor presentation. Looks like the souffle had a case of uncontrollable-diarrhoea, no? 

Roast is located at 

Unit #T1 (Roast), The COMMONS

335 Thonglor Soi 17, Sukhumvit 55

Klongton Nua, Wattana, Bangkok 10110

for information of their opening hours and menu, visit their website HERE

Till then,

Mia Foo

Continue

Mia's Bangkok Travelogue: Gram

Our visit to Gram was an impromptu decision made the very morning we woke up and got ready slightly earlier than expected. It was 9 plus in the morning and we were googling frantically for cafes around our hostel (for my review of Analog Hostel, check it out HERE) that opens early enough for us to have our breakfast.

Through blog listing, we were first directed to 24 Owls, located at Ekkamai Soi 12, which is supposedly open for 24 hours. But that turned out to be a hoax (or they've changed their opening hours, who knows?) as they're closed when we reach at 10 plus in the morning and one of their staff told us they opens at 11am/1130am. 

Fortunately for us, the taxi we took to get to 24 Owls from our hostel was still making his u-turn out of the soi, hence we flagged him down again and directed him to Gram, located at Soi Sukhumvit 49, with their opening hours stated as 9am. 

And when we reached at about 1030am, they were open and we were their very first customers! 

Couldn't find #10 table tag to document our small joke-of-the-day in picture. Initially we all thought the cafe is called 10Gram as J has mistaken read pointer #10 of the blog list as part of the cafe's name. 

I was kind of disappointed to know that the cafe was extremely small and fully alfresco seating, with the unforgiving sun beating down on us as we ate our first meal of the day. Would have been an ideal dating place if Bangkok has cooler weather though.

Their latte was decent but seriously lacking in latte art. Due to the outdoor seating, a twig fell from the trees we were seating under and right into my cup of coffee too. 

How lucky of me.

Egg Royale 

Poached Egg, Smoked Salmon and Hollandaise Sauce

You can't go wrong with a well toasted English muffin, flavourful smoked salmon, well poached egg and topped with Hollandaise sauce. 

And here's some #eggporn for you. 

Creamy Crispy Egg

Deep fried egg, mixed mushroom in mushroom cream sauce

This is definitely a dish you shouldn't order when you're starving because there really is just ONE fried soft boiled egg with a miserably small crispy toasted baguette in a handful of mushroom that's drowned in flavourful mushroom cream sauce. 

But, can't deny that it's really yummy though. 

More #eggporn for you? 

 Soft Shell Crab Burger

Crispy Soft Shell Crab, Avocado and Sake Teriyaki sauce

This is just one messy eat.
I guess this will be a good choice if you love avocado like crazy (they literally stuffed the burger full of sliced avocado) and prefer a saltier taste for your burger.
Not for me though.
Avocado overdose with too salty sauce and totally unglam way of eating = a big nono.

Fruit French Toast

French Toast with mixed fruits and honey

This is my favourite dish of the day! 

My preciousssss....

The french toast was perfectly done, crispy on the outside yet soft and fluffy on the inside. And you can see they were extremely generous with all the fruit toppings (all my favourite strawberries, kiwis and bananas!) and drizzle of honey. 

The addition of toasted almond flakes also added a good crunch and fragrance to the dish. 

If you are a French Toast fan, you absolutely have to try this out! 

Ovaltine Volcano Pancake

Ovaltine, Oreo, Condensed Milk and Vanilla Ice Cream

I had great expectation for this dish, but was totally disappointed. I can't be sure if it's because we left the pancake for too long before eating it hence it has turned cold and the condensed milk has harden up the coating of ovaltine powder on the pancake, making every bite of the pancake just... torturous. 

And just judging by that generous serving of condensed milk, you can safely assume that this dish is only for those with a huge sweet tooth. 

Even I cannot....

And so, signing off with a rare (nicer looking) #flaylay food shot from yours truly.

Mains typically ranges in the 200 to 300 Baht range and you can get yourself stuffed to the brim with barely $20 SGD!

Gram is located at
Soi Sukhumvit 49, 1/F 49 Terrace
Nearest BTS: Thong Lo

Till then,
Mia Foo

Continue

Mia's Bangkok Travelogue: Little Zoo Cafe

First up. if you haven't read about my awesome experience with Analog Hostel for my 2016 Bangkok trip, do check it out HERE.

And so for our 2016 BKK itinerary planning, the 5 of us decided to each come up with 1 place of interest we would really like to go and plan the overall itinerary around them. Needless to say, my google search keyword included animals, pets and cafe and Little Zoo Cafe immediately popped up!

It's a little tricky to get to the cafe, but you may either catch a cab from Mochit BTS or book their shuttle van on their website at just 100 baht per pax per round trip. The shuttle pick up point was simply stated as Exit 1, which caused a lot of confusion among patrons. Well, the real pick up point is actually a short walk away after you came out from exit 1. Just follow the road (towards Chatuchak Weekend Market) until you come to the junction, cross the road and you will see their local police station. The shuttle van pick up point will just be in front of the police station. 

We took the earliest shuttle pick up time of 945am and reached the cafe at barely 1015am and had to loiter around the cafe as they do not open until 1030am. 

But they let a yoga meowster out to the 'holding bay' of the cafe to entertain us while we waited around for the 15 minutes or so, before we were asked to change into their slippers and wash our hands and allowed into the cafe. 

Some shots from my vantage point. Haha, we were given the tables up on the loft, which was a little scary to climb down at first.

But oh well, it's really not that scary after all. For you big feet ladies (like yours truly), just remember it's easier to go sideways than risk tipping your feet over the ridiculously narrow threads. 

The cafe seemed a little too small at first but there's actually level 2 (via the white stairs at the back) with raccoons, more cats and a snowy white owl.

I was hoping to be able to interact with the raccoons, but they were caged all the time we're there. 

Back to level 1, apart from the free roaming cats and a Yorkshire Terrier, there's also a separated room housing the meerkats and fennac foxes. 

The meerkats were just so adorable! They seem to have an obsession with our rubber slippers as they kept pulling them off our feet sneakily and trying to dig through them. Gave us a lot of laughter with their comical actions indeed!

There's three fennac foxes in total, 1 male with 2 females and just so happened that the male fox was in heat when we visited, so he was a little aggressive and protective over one of the female fox (we presume is his mate).

Fortunately for us, the other female fox was so sweet and tamed! They're really tiny and their fur so soft and smooth. 

Still managed to steal a selfie with the aggressive male fox... from a safe distance. 

And now, back to their food! I have to say, we were all blown away by the quality of their dishes!

Though seriously lacking in latte art, their hot latte was still pretty good and I could easily drink it without any added sugar syrup.

 Lava Egg Set

I wasn't too focused with the food ordering (was preoccupied with the animals) but I definitely heard "egg", "lava" and "set". Slightly tricked by the name of 'egg lava' we all thought the bulge in the middle is some oversized poached egg and even video-ed down the slicing process, only to find out it's just fried rice contained within. 

Nevertheless, this is still some tasty "seafood omelette fried rice".

 Fish & Chips

We had a unanimous reaction at our first bite of the fish. 

"Mmm, this is good!"

The fish fillet tasted really fresh and solid, not like the usual thin and flaky type of fish that has more batter than actual fish itself. The batter was also perfectly done; crisp and flavourful yet overly thick. And those waffle fries, how can anyone find fault with them? 

 Waffles with Bacons & Eggs

The waffle was pretty well done, crisp on the outside, soft and fluffy on the inside and slightly sweet. But those eggs were so raw we really do not understand the rationale of not cooking them longer. Who eats egg whites raw (see that translucent blob of uncooked egg white there)? Would have been an enjoyable dish if it weren't for the almost raw eggs on top. 

I highly suggest that you make a special order for more well-cooked eggs if you were to order this dish. 

 Ham & Cheese Sandwich

This is definitely a decent ham and cheese sandwich, but simply pales in comparison to the other dishes, especially the fish and chips and the pasta. Or perhaps by the time we got to the sandwich, it has already turned cold so the toast wasn't as crisp as I would like it to be and the cheese not as runny as I would have imagined them to be. 

Crab Meat Spicy Garlic Pasta

This is just heavenly. If you do take spicy food, YOU MUST TRY THIS. I know the blacken pasta (squid ink?) looks a little funky, but I can assure you it wouldn't stain your teeth black. Savoury, spicy and with bits of crab meat and ebikko (shrimp roe) within, this pasta is just bursting with flavour with every bite. 

Price wise, it's pretty reasonable. It's definitely not as cheap as the street food, yet significantly cheaper as compared to the cafes we have in Singapore. A dish typically cost about $15 SGD or so. There's no entrance fee to the cafe, but I do believe all patron has to make at least 1 individual order each. 

Till then,

Mia Foo

Continue