Vanilla Retreat

Ever got instantly addicted to a Nutella frappé, an opposite of liposuction? You will at this place. One of those places you wish they had always been here:

Vanilla Garden at Ekamai. A retreat for mind and senses. Quiet oasis amidst bustling urban jungle.

If you love Starbucks but are tired of Starbucks, this is your place.

Vanilla Garden is a carefully manicured series of buildings with each an own purpose: A bookstore, the modern Royal Vanilla Chinese restaurant and – tucked in the back of the garden – the Vanilla Café. A Japanese retro-styled fusion café with lots of good corners for relaxing and getting over the passage of time.

Call it “overly modern Japanese” with the figurines and Japanese cartoon books filling the shelves. The place is cute. Slightly flashy. Trendy highsoc kids love its kitschiness. Who cares?

Choose a quiet afternoon for your first visit. You’ll forget where you’re actually sipping your Macademia latté. Downtown Shibuya? Ginza?? Better even: Paris. With that luscious selection of pâtisserie such as crêpes, cheesecakes and all sorts of buttery pastries.

Such fine pleasures come not cheap. You still get great value for money. The crab meat cream croquettes with a half mayonnaise, half tonkatsu sauce or the black tarako spaghetti fusion rolls cost no 300 baht.

Mains are nor traditional nor experimental. They are just good.

Anxious to get that sushi gratin plus soft shell crab with unagi crispy roll?

Or if you’re in for a smoothie or that extraterrestrial Nutella frappé: Starbucks is apprenticeship in comparison.

Vanilla Garden tries to create a perfect world, meticulously followed down to the tiniest detail.

If there is a drop of rain, staff protect you with Vanilla Garden’s very own umbrellas.

A timeless world taking care of you – as must Princess Bajrakitiyabha know, our Princess who graduated with flying colors and a law degree from Cornell University. A no mean feat!

When I recently ventured to Vanilla Café for another dose of Nutella frappé and some salmon all parking spaces were taken by an armada of expensive cars, police and lots of uniforms.

At a cozy table Princess “Ongpa” was enjoying the café’s very best. Taking her time and relaxing as inconspicuously with her not small number of private staff relaxing at a nearby table.

The Princess was one of us. And she evidently enjoyed her outing.

As there is something to Vanilla Garden.

Says owner Visaka “Jom” Raiwa: “I wanted to have an outdoor place with a garden where people can come and enjoy the scenery.”

A concept not easily found in Bangkok. Jom, founder of Vanilla Industry at Siam Square, renovated an old residential estate and created that oasis in the midst of the labyrinthine green sois of Prakanong.

The clientele is loyal and growing.

Just don’t visit the Vanilla world with a ravenous hunger or if in a hurry.

Vanilla Café is a site of muse.

53 Soi Ekamai Soi 12
Call 02 381 61 20