Ari holds a myriad choice of restaurants, but, unfortunately, Gallery won’t be getting on our list of options. Set in the Ratchakru’s sub soi, Gallery is initially promising: a nice retro cement house decorated with, you guessed it, vintage sofas, patterned wallpaper and a little garden outside. The truth is you’ll probably get the chance to have the garden to yourself as this place is often pretty empty. The most obvious reason would be the food, which generally tastes like it is actually served up in a very sad canteen and then left to sit for a while. Even the cocktails taste slightly mass produced and are extremely syrupy. As an appetizer the New Zealand mussels topped with seafood sauce (B185) is simply dreadful—the lime flavor that pervades the dish tastes artificial and very bitter, the whole thing is just way too salty and the actual mussels are tiny. In ดact the khao pad tom yam (stir-fried rice in spicy sauce with seafood, B120) is about the only acceptable dish that we’ve tried and even then it’s soggy and slightly acidic. We’re clutching at straws when we report that at least the portions are very generous here. The pork ribs with BBQ sauce (B395) are huge and a real struggle to finish; it’s just a shame that the flavor is so flat—as if it had come straight from a BBQ sauce bottle. The recommended pork quesadillas (B185) are also weak: the pork is only stuffed into one end, which means you’re left chomping on old, chewy tortillas after one bite. The service can’t rescue this place either—it’s a real struggle to get the wait staff’s attention and then get them to communicate with you once you have. Eating here might not break your bank but sub-standard food, cocktails and service make that a moot point. If you have to visit, then stick to something they can’t mess up, like a beer, maybe.
