CAPE TOWN DIVA: Pastries at Vanilla Garden, Bangkok

I needed cake - my big weakness in life - so after my experience there earlier this year, I made a turn past Vanilla Garden in Ekkamai to appease my gateau craving. I also really wanted our younger son Oscar (15) to see the double story cafe building, an ode to Japanese come Scandinavian design. The interior is very stylish with vintage Japanese comics and toys on shelves and small tables. My best is sitting on the verandah (on the most fabulously shaped wooden benches), looking down at the stunning pebble garden with its ferns, tall fountain and big tree canopy. There are three buildings in all at the Garden- a bookshop that used to be called Sauce but that now seems to be undergoing a name change; the Royal Vanilla Japanese fusion restaurant that looks like it's being renovated, and the Vanilla Cafe. I've never eaten lunch at the VC before (have heard the food is excellent by the way), just pastries and cake and this time around I was so disappointed. We all were. Pretty as they were, and as artistic as the chef was with his creations, all three dishes we ordered tasted bland and my crepe was dry and crispy. Maybe it was a nouveau sort of a pancake but whatever, it wasn't a great experience and the fact that the waitresses were unfriendly didn't help either. I won't be going back for a while but I recommend a visit there as the cafe is a design masterpiece and a tranquil space in frenetic BK.

The coffee is ok, not the best in BK...but the presentation is fabulous, as with all VC dishes...