A Danish Delight

If you can eat the burger at Café Europe within 3 hours you get another one free. A photo album shows a petite, blonde smiling next to an empty plate – one of the few to have managed to scoff a kilogram of meat in record time. At 795 thb this has to be the biggest burger in Asia. And yet it is found in a simple, chilled out and unpretentious eatery, far enough down a Sukhumvit soi to feel neighbourhood-like rather than city-slickeresque.

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With 6 tables outside and a handful inside, the floors are wooden, the lighting is soft and the décor muted. The feeling is of stumbling across a lovely, backstreet European café – hence the name. The female Danish owner is part of what this little place is about. You only have to come here once to feel that you are a regular and will be welcomed back with genuine warmth. There is a hospitality which is lacking in many modern day trendy restaurants where the aim is to simply take money rather than give time and energy.

The personal approach at Café Europe means the food is actually better than the slightly higgledy-piggledy menu might suggest. The dishes range from open sandwiches, to steak, foie gras terrine and burgers with dishes ranging from 100 to a few hundred. The value is quite incredible. The pièce de résistance is the platter which is big enough to share with a choice of dishes. The best include marinated herring with onion and dill and a firm favorite. The homemade roasted beef with horseradish and fried onions is served cold and rare and cooked by somebody who must have cooked more roasts than most people have had hot dinners. It is top quality.

The remoulade is a Danish mix of pickles, onion and cucumber. The liver pate with bacon and mushrooms is homemade and comes with a big basket of many types or bread, with ryes and multi-grains. All homemade again. The bacon is delicious and generous and the pate smooth, silky and velvety. The roasted pork with red cabbage comes in thick, mouth-watering slabs and comes with a good crunch too. The fish meatballs with tartar sauce add another unique flavor to the plethora of platter goodies. At 300 thb the board actually seems under-priced, given the quality of the food and the time and energy and willingness to please of the owner who personally cooks nearly every dish.

The rest of the menu includes a create-your-own burger. The homemade patty tastes flavorsome and meaty. If this is a small scale creation then the biggest burger might also be one of the best in Bangkok too. At the end of the meal what looks like a mint is popped into a cup of water and starts to rise up into a tower and turns into a soft, citrusy hand-wipe. It is nice touches like this that bring fun and personality into Café Europe and makes it stand out from the crowd.

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