COCONUTS HOT SPOT — If you’ve been walking through Asoke in the past several weeks, you may have noticed For Fit’s Sake, a small, simple restaurant just before Sukhumvit Soi 20 with a super-fit clientele.
It’s worth a stop if you haven’t already and you know it’s going to be high-quality since it’s owned by famed Bad Burger owner Panida Paethanom, better known as Chef Poupée. That’s right, she opened a healthy restaurant in November beneath her burger joint. And the best part? You can order off both menus at both restaurants. So, it’s perfect if you are dining with someone who has a completely different idea than you about what makes a great meal.
Like Badburger — which makes everything from its vegan cheese to its buns from scratch, For Fit’s Sake is a place where you can ask anything. Poupée can accommodate vegetarians, vegans, and meat eaters. It’s also no problem if you are on Atkins, Paleo, Whole30, or sugar-free diets.
On a recent visit, we were also impressed with the low prices — nothing is over THB300 and many meals are under THB200.
Poupée said, “I priced the menu for everyday. I wanted people to be able to afford to eat here whenever they want.” Though not a health nut herself, she does work out and said it was hard to find the simple, healthy fare she wanted after a tough gym session and she realized that people who have been exercising often don’t have the energy to cook afterwards. She designed her menu with this in mind.
The star of the menu is the create-your-plate option. You start with a protein and your price is based on that. Choose from slow-cooked tender chicken breast (THB170), slow-roasted pork loin (THB180), lean minced beef meatballs (THB195), crispy grilled salmon (THB250), or spicy vegan sausage (THB190).
Then, a vegetable, a carb, and a sauce are included in the price. Veg choices include: broccoli, french beans, mixed veggies, baby carrots, sauteed spinach, and mixed mushrooms. Carbs include: Japanese brown rice, riceberry, grilled pumpkin, homemade potato gnocchi, and mashed sweet potatoes.
For sauces, choose tomato, pesto, green curry, and masala. We were pleased to learn that the first two are made without for sugar — rare for Thailand and very rare for a tomato sauce.
Other menu highlights include: salmon avocado, tuna avocado, or vegan poke bowls in two sizes (THB150-300); low fat curries with chicken, pork or vegan protein in green or masala with rice included (THB150-200); salads; and all-day breakfast including trendy acai bowls (THB250) and avocado toast with poached eggs (THB250).
The place serves smoothies, teas, and coffees to drink. Smoothies are made without sugar and are offered with a choice of whole milk, skim milk, soy milk, yogurt, or almond milk. Since one of us follows a sugar-free and dairy-free diet, the staff was pleased to create a green apple and pineapple smoothie (THB120) that met the requirements.
For mains, we had to try a buildable plate. We started with the salmon which was slowly cooked in a slotted grill pan until the skin was crispy and divine. As someone who does not usually eat slimy fish skin, I can say that this was really something special — I actually ate the skin. For veg, we tried the sauteed spinach, simply and delightfully prepared with only oil, salt, pepper, and garlic. We wanted the grilled pumpkin for a carb but when our server told us that they’d just finished making a warm batch of mashed sweet potatoes, we took that instead.
Due to being sugar- and dairy-free, we were grateful there was any sauce we could have at all but the tomato sauce fit the bill. When it arrived, we tasted it before adding it to the plate and had to call the server over the confirm that it had no sugar — it was very sweet. They confirmed their original sugar-free claim and explained that the sauce is sweetened by slowly sweating sweet onions for a long time to bring out their natural sweetness. We were very happy and proceeded to dump the entire ramekin onto our plate.
The next item to make it to our table was a salad with housemade smoked salmon and homemade seafood sauce (THB190). The large portion of smoked salmon for the low price surprised us. It was served atop a large bed of butter lettuce, cherry tomatoes and red onions. The sweet sourness of the sauce balanced the earthy smokiness of the salmon well and it felt super-healthy.
Of course, we’ve all got that one friend. He insisted on a burger from upstairs. He chose the chic be cheesy burger (breaded minced chicken stuffed with mozzarella) with mac-and-cheese on the side (THB259). And he washed it down with a chocolate mint milkshake (THB80).
So much for new year’s resolutions. But that’s the beauty of the dual menu, if a few people want to eat healthy and a few don’t, you can suit everyone’s needs at this place.
FIND IT:
392/9 Sukhumvit Road
BTS ASoke
Open daily, 8am-10:30pm
