“One of the flagship desserts is the Inferno-Mountain, a dessert modeled on Mordor, the awful volcano in JRR Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings trilogy. Like Mordor, your dessert literally erupts as your waitron pours delicious raspberry sauce and then flaming liqueur over the enormous chocolate mountain.”
First timers to Bangkok are often surprised by how trendy the city is. This was certainly my impression on my first visit; I expected the street side restaurants, tuk-tuks, and hanging wires that one reads about, and though these things are all present, I didn’t imagine the number of the hip cafes, bakeries and cocktail bars.
Having recently spent two weeks in the city again, I wanted to seek out some of these interesting spots. I heard about Mocking Tales, a unique café that specialises in ice cream based desserts, coffees, and cocktails; it seemed like a place worth visiting. Matthew and Au are Bangkok locals and are the masterminds behind this mystical place.
And mystical it really is. This is largely due to the fact that the café’s menu and atmosphere draws inspiration from well-known fairy tales and fantasy novels. Every fairy tale, like every good drama, works because of conflict; usually the conflict between good and evil. Accordingly, Mocking Tales plays on this contrast by serving light, café style food and its fun ice-cream based desserts during the day. However, after the sun sets, the lighting and ambiance changes as patrons come to enjoy ‘the dark side’; dinner, cocktails, coffees and of course the desserts for which Mocking Tales has gained considerable attention.
One of the flagship desserts is the Inferno-Mountain, a dessert modeled on Mordor, the awful volcano in JRR Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings trilogy. Like Mordor, your dessert literally erupts as your waitron pours delicious raspberry sauce and then flaming liqueur over the enormous chocolate mountain. The mountain then melts, revealing the ice cream and brownie interior, and forms a sweet raspberry-chocolate magma sauce. This particular dessert is sizable and was happily shared among our party of four. We were also treated to a Poison Apple, and just like Snow White, we couldn’t resist the delicious appearance of this dessert. This particular dessert arrives at your table enshrined in a liquid nitrogen induced cloud. The sorbet and toffee sauce was exceptional.
Both the ice-cream and sorbet used in the desserts at Mocking Tales are made on site and are exceptional – the peanut butter cream was a standout. What’s more is that the restaurant recreates their space with new décor every 4 months and so this is a place you can keep returning to for another special experience. The décor themes for each cycle are based on one particular fairy tale. Moreover, the menu itself is an unfolding story; new ‘chapters’ are added as the co-authors develop new desserts and cocktails according to a uniting theme.
Mocking Tales is a bold creative project and is not to be missed. What is so astonishing is that neither Matthew nor Au are professional chefs and yet are producing desserts resembling something out of a Heston Blumenthal kitchen. Mocking Tales is a haven for ice-cream lovers and anyone who is looking for a special evening out. For those travelling to Bangkok it is certainly worth a visit and there is something for everyone with an array of interesting desserts and cocktails to try. It is quite unlike any place I’ve been before and is a wonderfully nostalgic experience.
