Chocolate Ville - Bangkok

Picturesque isn't it?

The information center

Windmill on the side of the street

From the name, I guessed it had something to do with chocolate, perhaps various choc dishes or even choc factory. However, I was totally wrong. I tried to browse and google bout it but couldn't find any significant info re to it except the facebook account and many pics on Google. It is actually a diner restaurant with a specific setting and theme of American suburb estate in 18th centuries. Its tag line is dining in the park. Curious aren't you?

The park map

Mini front white beach with props

The pier

That's why we went there right after we checked in at the hotel. Apparently, the place is quite new and some hotel staffs haven't heard of it. However, we weren't feeling down...we stopped a taxi and showed the map (which we saved earlier) to the driver. Lucky us, the driver seemed to know the area though not the place. We were stuck for 15mins in traffic due to office hour however traffic on the highway was scarced. It was a long way from our hotel at Chit Lom (Lang Suan) area that it took an hour to reach it. But we arrived at the perfect time when the sun was almost set yet we still had adequate light to take some pics.

Cute rubber duck setting

Romantic place isn't it?

Cycling in front of Sommerset Cottage

We were welcomed by 2storey-size of wooden windmill in front of the parking lot. One white information center and red gas station buildings, again in wood (every building here is wooden) serve as the lobby with mini beach park in between. Totally awesome! We were practically wowed (no jaw dropping though) and quickly reached our gadgets and started to take lots of pics. Too bad we arrived pretty late and the information center was closed just few mins before our arrival. So I didn't get any map nor brochures but I took the map pic inside the park (so you can check it out). There are lots of props on the mini beach, including sundecks, big parasols, even a red fire engine. Pretty tiny fake flowers beautify the red station gas with classic telephone on side. But the front view didn't prepare us for what was inside.

One of many beautiful bridges there

The setting inside the one of the houses

The menu book

At a glimpse, it looked like a place which I often saw on my old newly-invented-colour-tv (about 2-3decades ago). At that time, we didn't have many tv channels so the movie option was limited. One movie that I remembered though was Little Missy, a story about a white-skin-lady who falls in Ŀ♡√Ɛ with one of her black-skin-slave. Nah, Chocolate Ville looked a lot like the setting on that movie...so can you imagine, stepping into a place that transports you into 200years backward? Wonderful :-)

When the lights are on

The lighthouse

Awesome sky when the sunset

We walked up a small pathway leading us to the lake (wondered whether it was natural or human-made lake). Shaded by willowing widow trees, we saw the back of big (house-size) yellow rubber duck on the lake. An eye-catching since the colour around the place is mostly pale shades of pastel. There are small pier, a medium size terrace and beautiful canopied bungalow surround the lake. Some beautiful bridges were connecting one 'island' to another. Down onto our side of pier, a small speadboat and wind-surfing-boat are docking...another perfect place to pose :-) We circled the lake, taking various poses on various spots. There are few houses with lovely cute setting such as the white house, sommerset cottage, lighthouse, florist, bakery, bell house and many more.

Another pretty spot

View from the lighthouse

An hour passed so quickly...we felt tired and hungry and we were directly shown to our outdoor seat by the lake. Few swans were enjoying the sunset, swimming elegantly around the mini water fountain. Scanning the menus, we were confused seeing the number and variety of it...so many to choose, from Italian pasta, western type of fastfood, asian signature dishes and comprehensive selection of Thai culinary. I asked for the recommended ones and with minimum English, the waitress explained and took our order. Cheesy baked potato skin for our appetizer came. It was quite good, with bacon strip sandwiched between the potato skin and mozarella cheese. Too bad, it was quite spicy for my girls with chili powder and chopped spring onion as the topping. Next came my girls's dinner, fish and chips with green salad and coleslaw. The portion was quite big, each fish cutlet was longer than my streching palm. We started to talk bout how different thing was here, compared to Jkt. In Jkt, the picture on menu book is normally bigger than the real dish. However, here, the real dishes didn't compliment what we saw on the menu book. Perhaps, they should put the information about the portion on the menu in English (they probably have it now but since we can't read any curling Thai's language - we didn't know for sure). But nothing surprised us more when me and my hubby's dishes were served. I was definitely jaw-dropped...seeing how huge the size of my pork ribs. Lucky I only ordered for the half portion of 5 pieces of ribs...I wondered what would happen if I were to choose the full portion one (arrgghhh...I don't even want to imagine it). The bbq marinated pork ribs were tasty and I finished it all (just fyi, I am no fan of pork). My hubby ordered german something (the dish's name - we totally forgot) which looked like a fried huge part of a pork's tight (as big as my girl's head - so go ahead and try to picture it out). He was started to think...how many laps he had to swim to burn it off "̮˚°◦♡ώκωķ(∩_∩)◦°˚"̮ . But, he successfully managed to finish the dinner as well...hurray for us ‎​Ħǎː̗(^▽^)ː̖Ħǎː̗(^▽^)ː̖Ħǎ. For beverages, we went for the normal chrysantenum iced tea, iced milo for my girl and iced coffee for my hubby. The total bill for our dinner was about B1500 (they don't put service tax on the bill so we add another 10% on top of it) and it was quite cheap, again if we compared with the same dishes and the same portion in Jkt.

My pork ribs...see the size comparison with my mobile

My husband's meal...scary isn't it?

Baked potato skin

Fish and chips

With full belly, we walked around for a bit, trying to help our body to digest the eaten food. Beautiful sunset sky and the just-turned-on lights created another perfect setting for our pic. Then we climbed our way on the lighthouse. The view from the top was spectacular but definitely not doing anything good on my tummy. I was wondering whether I was afraid of high places...what they call it for? I forgot the bla-bla-phobia term. Anyway, we retraced our way backward, taking another set of pic with nite view. It gave a different vibe between day and nite and I prefered nite better :-) More romantic (swoon). Satisfied ourselves with pic, then we headed to the parking lot trying to figure it out how we were going back. Seemed no problem at all, lots of standby taxi were available. But these taxies didn't go by meter, so if you would like to use it, you would better know the rough distance and fare required (sharpen your bargaining skill first pls). Lucky for us, there was a taxi which dropped its guest and we quickly snatched it up and rode smoothly back to the hotel уααу!└(^o^)┘ \^o^/ └(^o^)┘уααу!

Oh-so-romantic gazebo

 

Spacious restroom

The place is beautiful. The diner was awesomely classy with friendly vibe. Though limited English capability, the waitress was doing their best in servicing us. Reservation during weekend is recommended, especially for dinner but on weekday, walk-in guest is welcomed. I liked their restroom, big spacious toilet cubicles are meticulously clean and smell good too (lemongrass). I recalled most of the restroom in Jkt with only enough space to do the toilet business, and bumped your shoulder or elbow on the partition if you manuver too much. Free un-passworded wifi was available around the place, enabling you to directly upload the pics taken onto your Instagram or FB accounts *grinning* To wrap it out, it was a perfect place for unwind and dine in style.