Nature’s Charm Cafe had been on my list for a long time.
I don’t know why it took us this long, but finally we made it for our lunch date today.
It was an easy walk from the Thong Lor BTS station, about a 10 minute walk.
It’s on a quieter street.
Their sign on the building is hard to see, heavily covered by the wires.
The dining space is upstairs.
We got there a little late, around 2:00 p.m. for lunch, and it was nice and quiet.
The menu was unexpectedly huge.
I did my homework and studied the menu on their website in advance, but their actual menu shown at the cafe was much bigger than the one on their website.
From the look of their online menu, I quickly assumed that they mostly served western dishes, but in fact a lot of Asian dishes were also offered.
It took us a while to look at every page (the above pages in the photos are only a part of their whole menu!) and decide what to order.
It is nice that they had lemon-watermelon water available for self-service.
My husband chose this appetizer, vegan Ma Haw.
I had no idea what it was (I didn’t know if it was supposed to be sweet or savory), but it was unique and delicious!
The balls were made of some kind of nuts, something that had meat-like texture, and they were held together with something sticky.
They were sweet and savory at the same time, and served on juicy orange slices, topped off with fresh cilantro and a small chili pepper piece.
According to my little research…
Ma haw is a popular Thai appetizer, translated as galloping horses, sweet-savory pork/peanut balls served on pineapple or orange pieces.
I never had it before (vegan or traditional), so I can’t say how authentic it was, but it was delightful.
My husband also ordered this tofu dish (I don’t remember the name) and a bowl of jasmine rice.
It was hard for me to choose what to order because I was torn between a dish that would look pretty and a dish that I wanted to eat at that time.
I’ve seen others pictures, and I knew they did a great job at presenting many of their dishes (so photogenic!), particularly western dishes.
But I ended up with Bibimbap because I was in the mood for it.
And I wasn’t disappointed.
I loved the variety of the toppings, especially all the vegetables.
The gochujang sauce was very tasty, not excessively spicy.
If you get this dish, make sure to add a vegan egg.
Their vegan fried egg was 💯!
I will definitely go back to this cafe, hopefully soon, because there as so many things on their menu I still want to try.
When we went downstairs after our wonderful meal, we noticed theses shelves displaying interesting products, including what I had been looking for for months: 100% coconut milk without any additives.
And at that point I realized that this cafe was owned by the same coconut milk company!
Anyway, we happily bought a can of 100% coconut milk as well as a few other goodies.
It’s great that now I know where I can buy 100% coconut milk.
This will be another reason for us to go back.
Nature’s Charm Cafe – Website