~All About Veggie~: Bangkok - Ethos Vegetarian Vegan Restaurant

Friday, May 21, 2010

Bangkok - Ethos Vegetarian Vegan Restaurant

I was shopping and eating and massaging in Bangkok in March right before the riot started. It is a pity as many tourists are avoiding this island of smiles for a period of time now. Anyway, the previous times I went to Bangkok I did not really travel out of Busy Pratunum area and Platinum Mall as I was busy shopping the whole time! Luckilt this trip was planned in a more relaxed manner where we could try out more food places that were displayed in the happy cow web.

Ethos is quite a cool vegan & vegetarian restaurant with free Wi-fi, an internet cafe, travel agency, massage services and quiet ambience. It is located in an area called Khao San Road that is really popular with backpackers as many of the budget accomodation are located here. I was pretty surprised that there are quite a lot of vegetarian places in this small area alone. On the road that Ethos is located, there is another vegetarian outlet - May Kai Dee.

Anyway Ethos serves a quite a range of food ranging of Thai food to western cuisines.

Entrance of the Restaurant

Not a very big place but definitely cozy. Should be able to sit at least 40 pax. I guess there was also a second level which I did not manage to go up and take a look.

Simple Menu

A simple menu which doesn't have any pictures. Hence it was up to our own interpretation and imagination of how the dishes would turn out. There was also a section in the menu teaching people simple thai language tips on vegetarianism. We ordered a total of 4 dishes, a soup and dessert for 4 pax.

Tofu three flavours 80 BHT

Nicely presented, this tofu is basically Deep Fried Tofu served with Spicy and Sour sauce. I didn't quite like the texture of tofu in Thailand in comparison to the tofu we have in Singapore, as the tofu tastes harder. This tasted just okay in my opinion, as the spicy and sour sauce was too special for me to remember as well. In addition, it was mentioned as 3 flavours, which I think refers to Sweet, Sour and Spicy. Anyway, for the price, it is considerably cheap. The conversion rate is 1SGD: 22BHT.

Tom Yum Vegetable Soup 85 BHT

The only time I drank a really traditional Tom Yum soup was from Yuan Yuan Thai veg which is in Singapore. Hence i was looking forward to this as I finally get to drink Tom Yum Soup in Bangkok! Sadly, this didnt taste as nice as it looks. I was expecting it to be "VERY spicy" as what it was written in the menu, but this was far from being spicy, as it was almost tasteless to me. I reckon it was due to the fact that this place is patronised mainly by foreigners instead of asians, hence the spicyness was not there. Nonetheless, the amount of ingredients used was appealing.

Spaghetti with Meatball

The meat balls were made from chickpea flour mixed with grated vegetables and spices and deep fried to serve with spaghetti in rich tomato sauce. Gwennie said the meatballs wasnt too bad but I thought the spices were too rich in taste. Spaghetti was just okay in my opinion.

Fried Rice with Mixed Vegetable & Tofu 80 BHT

Rice cooked was 100% organic. Pretty nicely presented with lots of pine nuts and sunflower seeds as garnish. This fried rice didnt taste too badly as it was full of vegetables. One thing that came to mind was that most thai places in Bangkok do not serve mock items as their main ingredients and most food are prepared using fresh vegetables.

Pad Thai 80BHT

Again full of vegetables and ingredients. Was ok especially with the spicy Chili powder and peanuts. Wasnt a dish that sunnietart liked as it was full of beansprouts.

Banana Dessert

It was the dessert that saved the day! I couldnt remember the name of this dessert but It was served hot. Bananas served with hot coconut milk and cereal on top. This was really tasty but fattening at the same time.