Japanese with a twist

Vanilla Cafe adds a new twist to an area already known as a hip place to spend leisure time in Bangkok. The cafe is a part of Vanilla Garden, a spacious compound with a Japanese-fusion restaurant, modern Chinese restaurant and bookstore.

The owner, Visaka "Jom" Raiwa, first attracted attention two years ago, when she opened Vanilla Industry at Siam Square, selling aprons, T-shirts and stationery with unique graphic designs of cute animals.

Vanilla Cafe is a Japanese restaurant with modern/fusion food and a retro interior with lots of good corners for relaxing and enjoying the passage of time.

Tucked in the back of the main garden, Vanilla Cafe is set in a renovated home in an old residential area of Ekamai. Their dishes are not traditional, but designed to please modern palettes. The place is decorated with retro-style wooden furniture and figurines. Japanese cartoon books are scattered around and on display.

"We have been in the business for quite some time and all of our shops are located indoors, so I wanted to have an outdoor place with a garden where people can come and enjoy the scenery," explains Jom, who has created a menu of dishes based on those she enjoyed in modern cafes in Japan.

Vanilla Cafe's menu features all things from appetisers and sushi to pastas and rice and noodle dishes.

We tried their crabmeat cream croquette (Bt220) which is served in a bamboo basket and with a dipping sauce that is half mayonnaise and half tonkatsu sauce. The creamy and crispy bites are best enjoyed with a dab of mustard which makes the otherwise expected tastes of the croquette much more interesting.

Then we ordered a basket of black tarako spaghetti rolls (Bt220) which tastily combines the different textures of al dente spaghetti and crispy and fresh cress with the rich flavours of tarako (Japanese cod roe). This dish, coupled with dollops of mayonnaise on top, does not need any dipping sauce, but you can always ask for soy sauce.

For main courses, we tried their hamburger steak on rice (Bt280) which is served with a generous helping tasty homemade beef gravy on top of a thick layer of minced beef hamburger. Served with a bowl of palette-cleaning miso soup and pickled lotus stems, this dish makes a hearty meal.

Since pastas are also mainly featured in modern Japanese restaurant nowadays, we decided to try their linguini pesto with prawns and zucchini (Bt320). Stir-fried with flavourful pesto sauce, the pasta was a bit on the salty side on the day we tried it. The prawns are well-cooked but we just did not feel that the chopped cashews sprinkled on top of the dish complement the overall smooth texture of the dish.

Vanilla Industry is widely known for its wonderful selections of desserts, both Thai and Western and here their wide assortment is tempting. We tried their delicious strawberry cheesecake crepes (Bt220) which might be my personal reason to come back to this place for more. Served with chopped cheesecake, fresh sliced strawberry and big scoops of vanilla ice cream, this dish might be my personal reason to go back there and enjoy chilling out.

Parking is available in the area.

Vanilla Cafe

53 Soi Ekamai Soi 12

10am to 1am daily

(02) 381 6120-1

Sirin P Wongpanit  

The writer can be reached saleewong@gmail.com.