Taste & See: Ma Be Ba is located at 93 Lang Suan Road, which heads south off of Ploen Chit between Ploen Chit and Chit Lom BTS.
Sit and chat for hours, drinking nothing but water, long after the dinner is through and the other patrons have left--not only do they not get irritated, they send out free dessert.
Ma Be Ba is one of the last in a long strip of Italian restaurants, past several muddy driveways of empty lots at the end of Lang Suan Road. A bit hidden, but well worth the search.
For some strange, strange reason, we had the restaurant nearly to ourselves [perhaps because it was a Tuesday night?] but the four of us got all-star service as if the restaurant had been opened just for our benefit. The portions were a bit small and on the pricey end [350-500 B] but we had no problem filling up with the enormous bread basket, containing at least 5 kinds of bread. [Including one strangely reminiscent of elephant ears/Indian fry bread. Hello, County Fair?]
I'm not writing up Ma Be Ba for the food per se, but for the experience. A live band plays sappy covers, charmingly mis-singing key words ["You can take my . . . bread away"] and the odd salsa song. The dining space is also quite charming, a little Mediterranean haven inside the stinky concrete jungle that is Bangkok. Best of all, the chef made a personal appearance at our table to talk through a suitable menu for a gluten allergy [at an Italian restaurant!]. Later, when the food was long gone, the chef sent out, gratis:
Bonus: Just up the street is an absolutely beautiful coffee shop with several rooms of couches for sprawling out on. The fact that it is Starbucks . . . well, what can you do. It is hands down the best Starbucks I've ever seen.
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