IT’S FABULOUS
FABLAB CAFÉ THAI FUSION Sun-Thurs, 10am-10pm; Fri-Sat, 10am-12am
126/43 Ekamai Road fb.com/fablabcafebkk, 02-101-4287
THE SETTING
If you’re familiar with the name Fablab but you know it as a fashion apparel store, you’re not mistaken. They’ve already got three stores in the city, one in CentralFestival EastVille and one over at Siam Center, but only one houses Fablab Café: their flagship store on Ekamai Road. While the second floor is where the shop is located, the first floor is where patrons can feast in the midst of a very hip and stylish setting. The place is quite small, but what the restaurant lacks in space, it makes up for in its chic ambiance and sleek aesthetics, which is to be expected when the restaurant is an off-shoot of a multi-designer house. They’ve also got a third floor where they host activities and workshops. The place and setting itself is appealing and it’s no doubt that patrons will be feasting in style here, but the question remains — is the food as delightful as the restaurant’s look?
THE MENU
Fablab Café’s menu offers a pretty wide variety of dishes for patrons to enjoy. If you’re feeling like going for a steak, pasta, or a traditional Thai dish, Fablab Café has got you covered. We started off with a scrumptious appetiser named Signature hashrimp (B170++). If you didn’t get that, that’s an amalgamation of “hashbrowns” and “shrimp”, which is a pretty accurate description of the dish: perfectly cooked hash-browns topped off with some juicy pieces of shrimp. What elevates this dish is the lemon garlic sauce in between the shrimp and hashbrowns.
Moving on to the main dishes, Fablab Café offers a breakfast menu that’s served around the clock. One of the dishes on offer is Eggs and hash (B290), two eggs served with a generous helping of fried diced potatoes and a smattering of tiny bits of crispy bacon, along with a juicy sausage that’s a tiny bit spicy. It’s served with a selection of condiments if you wish to put some on, but really, the dish itself is pretty tasty already. All in all, it’s a solid breakfast dish.
Since they do call themselves a Thai fusion restaurant, it would be a mistake not to try one of their fusion dishes. The Schnitzel on eggs (B250) sounds nothing like a Thai dish and at first glance, it looks like your usual omelette on rice with fried pork on top. However, with some kaprao sauce, the dish becomes a spicy and savoury delicacy. It was definitely a delightful surprise for us when we took our first bite and it’s certainly something to try when you visit.
If you prefer something a little more meaty, then we suggest you go for either the P.A.B. cheeseburger (B280) or the Ribeye (B360). The P.A.B. (pork and bacon) cheeseburger is served with sautéed onions and an egg which makes the bun quite fragile. Therefore, eating this burger will definitely get messy, but hey, all good burgers are like that. The burger itself is juicy and scrumptious and it’s served with a side of fries because burgers are not complete without fries. Finally, there’s the Ribeye, a cut of meat that’s a little fatty, which is to be expected. It was a little oily and the sauce it came with was nothing special, but ask for the jaew sauce to go along with it and it makes the dish pretty good.
Fablab Café’s speciality is their Cubes and tubes, drinks which are served in vials that you combine into one beaker. They’ve got a number to choose from, but we chose to go with the Chocolate (B200), which was just rich in its taste. The ice cubes are also iced chocolate which means the drink doesn’t get watered down. They’ve also got the condensed milk served in two vials, which means you get to decide how sweet you want the drink to be.
INSIDER’S TIP
Fablab Café also sells a bunch of pastries that are originally only available from online Instagram shops. Be sure to check them out! Also, there’s a shop on the second floor, as mentioned previously, so why not turn brunch into a shopping day?
VERDICT AND VALUE
Fablab Café is chic in its design, offers a pretty solid menu and doesn’t bog you down with any heavy prices.