Former Asia’s Best Female Chef Garima Arora has just opened a new Indian breakfast canteen and wine bar in Bangkok – here’s everything you need to know about the new restaurant
For chef Garima Arora, evolution is the key to survival. “You have to find new ways to work with the resources you have, rethink what you thought worked, be more flexible and open,” she said at a special edition of #50BestTalks, presented by Miele, in October. “You can take this time and mull over everything that can go wrong – or you can take an opportunity, take a bet, take a risk.”
True to her word, the chef of Gaa in Bangkok – No.15 in Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants 2020 – has now unveiled her latest lockdown project: an all-day, casual concept set on the first floor of a 60-year-old Thai house that she is calling Here. The space transforms from a modern Indian breakfast canteen during the day to a stylish wine bar in the evening.
“I’ve always wanted to have a fun, everyday place,” says Arora. “Here is intended to recreate the energy of a canteen as we know it back home, where you can walk in for real, comforting and nutritious food that packs big in flavour. In a way, it’s the kind of restaurant that I want to eat at for breakfast, lunch and dinner.”
Left: black rice dosa with homemade cheese and gun powder; right: lychee milk, cold coffee and piña colada protein shake
Opened on 14th November, Here serves wholesome dishes from Arora’s native India between 7:30am and 5pm – such as black rice dosa or sweet and savoury millet porridge with fruit, served with bread, homemade fresh cheese and grilled rose – while in the evening, it switches to an à la carte menu featuring fresh Indian breads, kebabs and betel leaf chaat. The restaurant’s wine cellar is packed with close to 3,500 bottles focusing on Old World wine, with non-alcoholic fruit juices and ferments also available.
For Arora, everything about the new place – including the name – is focused creating an accessible and welcoming experience. "It's where we want to be – ‘Here’,” she explains. “It is not every day you find a place that is this particular and special in Bangkok, a place that feels homely and exciting at the same time. In India, we are big breakfast eaters and – truth be told – also big lunch and dinner eaters. At Here, you can find all the flavours that I loved eating growing up in India but, of course, with a twist." 
Left: cheese and chicken red curry paniyaram; right: savoury millet porridge with fresh mango salsa
Here also features a takeaway storefront for Bangkokians on the go, from which you can enjoy freshly made Indian chai and coffees, tea snacks and Arora’s take on kulfis, Indian ice creams.
“No one teaches you how to react on behalf of 40 people when things go wrong,” says Arora of the pandemic and subsequent first lockdown in Bangkok, where she was forced to close her flagship restaurant Gaa. “You figure it out as you go along. That’s when I decided that if we’re going to keep these 40 jobs and get back stronger, we have to think of more innovative ways to make ends meet.”
Bringing her signature modern Indian style to a new concept and location, Here is set to attract the attention of the city’s foodies – at least until Gaa’s reopening in its new location, slated for the end of the year.
Discover more about Arora's culinary philosophy in the video:
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