Run by a family of restaurateurs with Japanese and Thai eateries on Narathiwat, Bella Casa’s menu borders on fusion. The dirtiest word in cooking, fusion here stands for a home-style cuisine that has kept up with the times and integrated Asian and Western influences. Despite this, some dishes remain quite classic, like the Chinese spring rolls. The dish is pleasing despite the simplistic flavor—sweet sauce vs. spicy pickled chili—and slightly dry texture. The minced pork dip also plays the extremely sweet up against the seriously spicy, but flavors of garlic, lemon and shallots are subtle and blend together perfectly. Venturing into Bella Casa’s own creations, the tofu salad sprinkled with shrimp roe is a healthy option that—like the aforementioned starters—uses only the freshest, cleanest, crispest ingredients. For mains, you’d do well ordering the recommended pork chop. The generous chunk of meat may be a bit dry but it tastes great and the accompanying pepper sauce is creamy without being oily, loaded with tender peppercorn and full of flavor thanks to small chunks of red pepper. The side dish of five slices of panned apple provide the perfect touch of acidity and sweetness, so perfect we could have done with a couple more. Too bad some Western fusion dishes go down a heavier, cheesier path, like the drunken spaghetti with cheese and seafood or the meat lasagna crepe. On our last visit, ours was a sorry, gooey mess with a slight aftertaste (the fridge?). Don’t skip dessert: the delicious matoom cake has a fluffy texture under a nutty crust. Service is friendly and informed but they start getting a bit distracted after 9:30pm. Denizens of Bangsue are lucky to have a restaurant serving food that’s cheap and filling yet light and tasty, all in a cozy ambience with brick walls, solid wood furniture and a soundtrack of female crooners. For the rest of us, it’s so close to the MRT, it just might be worth the trip.
