As you'd expect from a restaurant that is an offshoot of a fashion brand, Café CPS is chic and stylish. What you might not expect is that the food is as surprsingly well executed as the style. A co-invention of CPS Chaps and Bed Management, Café CPS borrows from the Soi 11 club's futurism—low lighting, automatic glass doors and mixed materials of wood, stone and stainless steel—creating an atmosphere more like a bar than restaurant. Black, metallic and white are the dominating colors, while lounge music fills the air. Transparent acrylic partitions pepper the dining area and provide a sense of privacy to each table. You can choose whether to sit in the moodily-lit dining room, laze on a chunky sofa on the outdoor terrace to enjoy the short-lived cool weather or take pleasure in shoppers-watching at the patio in the mall. Though Café CPS claims to be “not just another café,” it feeds you with pretty much the same food found at "That Other Café.” At first glance, the brief menu is made up of a familiar selection of soups, salads, pastas and Thai favorites. However, Café CPS manages to deliver a pleasant dining experience that is a step above the typical plastic mall fare. The usual suspect, Caesar salad, came with crisp spinach, garlic croutons, tomatoes, mushrooms and muu phaen (crispy pork sheets). And if you like your food cheesy, the cheese-loaded carbonara and rigatoni gratin, which includes both ricotta and mozzarella cheese, won’t disappoint. However, those looking for a bit of excitement can go straight for CPS’ imaginative sandwiches and salads, with dips ranging from balsamic vinaigrette to yogurt. The crispy calamari on green papaya slaw—in simpler words, somtam—though it wasn’t street-side standard, was flavorful with a nice crunch thanks to the deep-fried squid. Starving diners can opt for the hefty shaved steak and egg sandwich, which came topped with melted mozzarella. The roast beef and mushroom sizzler skillet served with tortilla and tomato salsa was another satisfying, substantial dish. Though it came with bland sauce, the deep-fried whole tabtim fish was addictive and worth its price. Portions are big, so you might not need rice to accompany the side dishes—a plate of rice . Desserts are inconsistent. The New York cheese cake's rich texture was spoiled by heaps of whipped cream and syrupy strawberry sauce. But the Very Berry Passion Crepe was refreshing thanks to the accompanying refreshing mixed berry and passion fruit sorbets. All in all, it's a Siam Square restaurant that hasn't sacrified taste on behalf of its looks.
