Exhibit Café

If you haven’t been here before, Exhibit Café takes some finding, and some perseverance, buried as it is deep in the heart of Sukhumvit 31. Its location makes the large car park a necessity, rather than a bonus, but it certainly hasn’t stopped a mix of local expats and hi-so Thais making a bee line for this restaurant-cum-art space. Despite the venue’s name, art only plays a secondary role to the actual dining (exhibitions only have room for 10-11 pieces), but it is clearly the inspiration for the gallery-like décor: bare concrete floors, plain white walls and lots of spotlights pointed at the artworks. We do love the wood-clad feature wall, though. The menu is equally no nonsense, if extensive, focusing on those twin favorites: Thai and pasta dishes. Still there are plenty of interesting choices—they use good quality ingredients (no MSG here) and service is excellent—so you shouldn’t baulk too much at paying that little bit more for your tom kha gai. Appetizers are certainly generous. You get plenty of strips of juicy moo dad diew (sun-dried pork) and big hunks of light and crispy, if chewy, calamari accompanied by a nice creamy dip. The pasta options are varied but we particularly enjoyed the spaghetti with veal sausage and dried chili and garlic, a balanced mix between the rich, garlic infused tomato sauce and the hint of spice from the chili. That can’t be said of everything we’ve tried, though. The soft shell crab salad, is big, but the whole crab did get slightly lost in the voluminous salad and the balsamic dressing was a little too heavy for our tastes. Likewise, the kao kratiem gai (rice topped with garlic chicken) suffers from too much pepper, detracting from the quality meat. Desserts range from a selection of homemade cakes to a choice of crepes—and they get brownie points for using real fruits in the raspberry pancake with ice cream. Like the art featured on its walls, Exhibit Cafe might not push any boundaries or use the most thrilling palettes, but apart from the occasional missed stroke, the decent food and warm service mean visits are worth the effort. No corkage.