Organic Lunch + Hidden Street

BANGKOK | SUMMER 2016

- FARM-TO-TABLE-HIDEOUT -

I've been seeing this restaurant all over my Facebook's newsfeed for a while, I finally got a chance to come here myself. This is another branch of the well-known organic restaurant, "Farm-to-table", called "Farm-to-table Hideout".

This place is named exactly after what it is. My friend and I followed GPS to the place and ended up on Thanon Ban Mo. I decided to park and tried to find the place. Both of us expected it to be on the side of the street, but we couldn't find it. I called, but it turned out to be the number of the original Farm-to-table. And I was too prideful to call again to ask for the location of their "Hideout" because I would have to admit that I called the wrong number the first time.

But my friend found a map to the place, and we decided to walk into the original Farm-to-table and turned into a small alley to the right. The only reason we knew we were on the alley was because there was a woman taking picture in front of the gate. And I did the same haha

We went there on Monday around lunch hoping to avoid the crowd because it was a weekday, but nope... I was wrong.

We walked inside very confused because there were two people sitting in the front of the doors with doorknobs made of ice-cream scoopers. There wasn't any waitress coming to give us a queue at all.

Not until a group that was occupying two small tables inside left that someone finally came out to write down my name for the queue. I actually didn't understand why she did that because not too long after she went in, she came out again to called my name loudly in front of me.

I didn't like how tiny and compact this place is. There was almost no space to breathe. The table arrangement seemed to me as if the person who designed this tried to fit as many tables as possible in this tiny space. Maybe it's because I expected a more relaxed atmosphere.

After leaving our stuff at Table No. 2 1/2 (What?), we went to the cashier to order our food. I was going to order the popular grilled chicken with passion fruit sauce, but sadly they ran out of the menu. So we ordered Chicken Red Curry with Lychees and Organic Salad with Jasmine Rice Dressing for savory dishes. Another weird thing was that we didn't have to pay right away, but we had to come to the cashier to order and again to pay before we leave (What?).

Anyways, we came back to chill and talk without trying to look at someone else's food too much because they took a while to bring out the food. I was surprised to see some Japanese tourists here because it was so hard for us, Thais + Bangkokians, to find this place.

My friend ordered Iced Matcha Latte for her drink, and it came first. The drink came in a double wall glass cup which seems to be very popular in Thailand's coffee industry lately. The first sip was sweet, but you would get used to it after the second sip. I could taste strong matcha flavor and the milk tasted really heavy. I think it would taste better low-fat milk, but the drink wasn't bad at all.

For my drink, I got the Chiangmai pour-over coffee. They offered two types of single origins here: Columbia and Chiangmai. The waiter nicely explained the difference in flavors to me, and I chose the Chiangmai. I was surprised to see that my coffee was iced, but it wasn't their fault since I didn't tell them I wanted hot coffee. People always assume that you order iced beverage here in Thailand. No surprise, not that many people would want to drink hot coffee in this kind of hot and humid weather.

The coffee tasted really good though. I normally drink coffee with milk, but it wasn't to dark for me drinking it black like this. The coffee wasn't sour at all. I like it.

The coffee tray and the match glass seemed to take a lot of room on this tiny little table already, so I had to take out the tray and return it to the waiter.

Few minutes afterward, the Chicken Red Curry with Lychees came; followed distantly by the Organic Salad with Jasmine Rice Dressing.

I tried the curry first, and it tasted really good. It wasn't spicy to my standard but still very flavorful. I like the idea of adding lychees to add some more sweet & sour kick to the dish. My friend didn't think the same though. She felt like it was too uncommon. But I love how perfectly they cooked the eggs here. The yolk was a little runny and tender #yum

The salad was really simple and plain. The jasmine rice dressing was not extraordinary good but tasted a little healthier (less sweet) than the bottled salad dressings you find in supermarkets. I like the greens though.

For sure, we wouldn't leave without getting a dessert. Again, it took them pretty long to serve the dessert after we finished our savory dishes, but eventually, it came. We ordered the Kao Tok Tang with Coconut Ice-cream. I was surprised to see that we got the coconut ice-cream instead of the Butterfly pea one. Looking around, other people got the same dish but with different flavors of ice-cream from ours. Anyway, a side of a scoop of not too sweet ice-cream was definitely a good combination to this Thai dessert. Mom told me she used to buy me these a lot, but I honestly don't recall having something like this before in my life. I first scooped out the Kao Tok Tang, in one piece, and almost killed myself eating the whole thing at once. It was't even big. However, the texture of Kao Tok Tang was very similar to mochi but stickier and less sweet and no fillings. That's why I think adding the ice-cream was a really good idea.

Overall, this place wasn't bad but also wasn't that great to drive half an hour just to come eat at this place. I would recommend eating here if you pass by the area and want to fill your stomach with something healthy.