Late last year, Dean & Deluca launched its first proper table-service restaurant, The Mezzanine, at its mothership branch in Mahanakhon Cube. Tucked up among the building’s ventilation pipes, above the stone-blanketed deli below, is a small and far more moodily-lit space with a few tables and chairs, faux-brick walls and a proper bar.

 

The best part about sitting up here is not the different menu—it’s mostly comprised of the deli’s favorites—but the fact that you’re removed from downstairs’ confusing array of service methods, food counters and tills. In addition to D&D staples like sandwiches, salads and reheated favorites from all over the world, the menu also contains a lengthy list of Mezzanine-specific a la carte dishes like fish and chips and striploin steak.

 

Some of the food, for the price, is excellent. The clam chowder (B225), for instance, is thick, creamy and well-seasoned, with plenty of clams floating around. The hand-cut fries (B45), too, are deliciously crisp, with fluffy, flaky edges. They taste as good as they look, cut from potatoes which are sweet and just a little waxy.

 

But in other ways, the restaurant falls flat. Clearly, they’re running a tight ship in the kitchen, with dishes flying out within five minutes of us being seated, but we worry it’s at the expense of quality. The 180g New York striploin steak (B495), for example, comes cooked medium-to-well or nothing. And anyone could tell our shepherd’s pie (B495) needed to gratinate for longer, the shards of totally colorless cheese still holding their shape under an oily film.

 

They no longer use fresh pasta from beloved Italian restaurant Appia, and our taglioni with walnut and pistachio pesto (B190) certainly didn’t taste like it.

 

When dessert comes around, you’re also asked to head back downstairs and pick for yourself, though the lemon meringue pie and plain cheesecake (both B145) are worth getting up for. So deli or Mezzanine? When you stick to the dishes you can get downstairs anyway, then sitting in The Mezzanine makes life a whole lot simpler. But it’s a dark world up there compared to the pristine-white space below. Corkage charge B1,300

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This review took place in May 2015 and is based on a visit to the restaurant without the restaurant's knowledge. For more on BK's review policy, click here.