Crepes & Co

Crepes & Co is a very popular restaurant in a calm, sedate setting on Sukhumvit Soi 12. Wicker furniture, billowing tent-like roof, waiting staff in striped breton tops, kerchiefs & berets. The atmostphere is very pleasant.

And the food? Well crepes have never really wowed me - ever. And this was no exception. I mean, how much profit margin can you make on flour, egg and water? We took a crepe with tomatoes, ham and olives (some pizza-like name) which tasted as expected: edible but not spectacular.

We also had a mixed Lebanese starter: babaganoush was nice but very pureed, houmous was yummy, falfafel was good but a little dry. Could have been more generous with the pita bread.

And as it was last night of the Moroccan promotion, we had a lamb tagine with prunes. Again, nice, but not spectacular. The sweetness of the prunes is delicious with the meaty lamb. But Bangkok lamb tends to be quite tough (maybe it's mutton or goat?), and it would have been nice to have more sauce for the couscous.

All of this for over Baht 1000 (no booze). Depends on how loaded you are of course, but a tad pricey for what you get. Still, I loved the atmosphere which was wonderfully relaxed. And I wouldn't mind trying a different crepe or the brunch.

Ngwan Lee Lang Suan

This Chinese restaurant is at the Lumpini end of Soi Lang Suan. It looks a little like a warehouse with fluorescent lights, interesting vats of dark stews, various animal parts and burnt mini rice cookers on shelves. While this may all sound rather unpromising, the food here was really very nice.

We had steamed sea bass in soya sauce with ginger and spring onion. While my partner judged the sea bass to be a mite dry (compared to Hong Kong standards), he still managed to scoff as much flesh as he could, and spoon up all the sauce onto his rice. We also had some simple but tasty greens, and a subtle chicken in chili sauce with plenty of stir fried basil leaves for that extra zip.

The service was very understanding of our limited Thai and of course the ubiquitous Heinekin girl made her rounds. One of the nicest things was that when our bill came, we mistook some of the numbers and overpaid - not by a huge amount. But the waiter still pointed our error to us when he could so easily have pocketed the extra.

Would definitely come here again, maybe in a group next time.