Restaurant Review: Cafe Chili

After a year of living in Bangkok, I find I haven't tired of Thai food. I don't think I ever will. I'll sure of some restaurants, but not the food itself.

Café Chili is a Thai restaurant on the ground floor of the Siam Paragon shopping mall. Despite that address, it is actually tucked away in the far corner of the mall, away from the hustle and bustle of the food court and supermarket areas. The location has its cons.. it took us a bit of wandering to find it, meaning it looses out in business by being so remote. Yet, once we walked in, I felt like I was no longer in a massive noisy shopping mall but a charming little restaurant.

The good was excellent, but the portions small, even for Thai standards. We ordered our own, but should have gone family style to get a larger sampling and tasting of the many many choices available. And spicy means really really spicy.. I got spiced into tears on my pomelo salade. It has been a long time since I got so spiced into tears.

To me, the pomelo salad was a clincher. Even many Thai restaurants don't offer this dish. You can get green mango or papaya salads anywhere at varying qualities, but anywhere. Pomelo salad, not really. It features all the key flavours Thai cooking focus on- sweet, sour, spicy, and savory. On top of that, it's fresh, requiring a good pomelo with almost crisp texture to complement or contrast the wet nature of the other contents. And this restaurant had it down.