Just past Bangkok’s outer limits, situated along a wide canal featuring cavorting fish, street art, and lots of water life watching, is a cafe worth leaving the city for.
Park your car nearby (or get dropped off in a cab) and take a short walk down a path and over a yellow footbridge. There are a handful of cafes, food stalls and a small market along this little stretch where the canal becomes wide and comely, but one in particular caught our eye and looks the most inviting.
Samut Prakan’s Cafe de Canal, with its floor and beanbag seating on a series of floating barges tied up to the cafe, looks like a chill place to wile away a weekend.
Just opposite the cafe, along the canal wall, local graffiti and street muralists have been putting up an ever-evolving long, bright artwork. Guests can sit with their coffee and marvel at the colors or — if they’re lucky — watch while the artists work.
The lively canal is also teeming with fish and the cafe sells packets of dried snacks you can buy and drop for the fish. Having them swarm beneath your feet while you relax is good for a laugh.
The scenery extends to more than fish and art though. The natural surroundings are lush, with greenery at the edges of the canal, palm trees overhanging for a bit of shade, emerging mangroves, and bamboo rafts that locals use to traverse the waterway. If you’d like to get on the water, you can rent a small, colorful pedal boat from the cafe and take a little jaunt with a friend.
Once back at the cafe, visitors can push up an umbrella if the sun gets to be too much and quench their thirst with a Canal Style Iced Coffee (THB70/US$2.1).
For something without caffeine, they offer a Pinky Minty Iced Milk (THB70/US$2.1), or a Cookie Pink Frappe (THB75/US$2.3).
From their menu, there’s a Tom Yum Spaghetti (THB75/US$2.1), which is apparently one of their most popular dishes, and the Pasta Gratin (THB80/US$2.4), which appears to be nothing but a bowl of melted cheese. No complaints there — we wholly approve.
The dessert selection is made up of cakes, crepes, and waffles including the Fruit & Chocolate Waffle (THB189/US$5.5).
This wouldn’t even be a bad place to spend the day working if you have a flexible job that allows you to work remotely…
FIND IT:
Cafe de Canal
66/1 Tambon Bang Phueng
Samut Prakan
Open daily, 10am-10pm
