All Six to Twelve

After the swarm of hiso Lang Suan residents has cleared in the morning, All Six to Twelve emerges as an affordable food outlet designed for all of us. It offers an international breakfast buffet in the morning, easy meals for lunch and a long list of drinks ready to take the edge off after a hard day at work. At night, it’s more like a pub and restaurant, exuding New York City loft chic: high ceilings, lots of light, an open plan, simple white brick walls and a grey and black two-tone décor. Metal ceiling lamps and naked wooden tables give it a slightly industrial edge. There’s even a small outdoor area for enjoying that first coffee of the morning al fresco.

When it comes to ordering, there is a wide choice of international comfort foods like salad, pizza, steak and pasta, much of which is Thai and inter fusion. Case in point, the laab burger (fried spicy minced pork with Thai herbs, B100) served with two small patties of fried laab. The minced pork is pretty good, with the balanced aroma and taste of a genuine laab; but sticking it between two slices of bread creates a pretty bland taste overall. The US scallops with black ink spaghetti khee mao (B230) is another mishap: flavorful, yes, but with the usual overcooked pasta drowned in greasy oil. Another fusion dish, the kab moo palo hang (crispy belly pork with Chinese herbs, B130) sounds tantalizing, but when it arrived our expectations were diminished with the very first bite. It’s so sweet that it’s like eating candied crispy belly pork.

But other dishes can be quite satisfying. The chicken steak (steamed and fried chicken with Chinese herbs served with blueberry gravy sauce and mixed salad, B180), for example, is extremely tender and fragrant with just the right amount of saltiness. It’s so good, the gravy seems almost unnecessary, although we do love the salad with its dill (Lao coriander) seasoning. The nachos with shrimp and cheese (B140) provide the requisite effect—you just can’t stop eating them—even though we felt the salsa was too sour.

Service, too, can be a source of disappointment, with grabbing a waiter at peak hours particularly difficult. All Six to Twelve definitely isn’t fine-dining—it’s more of a bar with nibbles really—but it’s still a cool hangout, with reasonable prices which are made all the more surprising given its hiso neighborhood. Corkage charge B400.