Having made his name with the modern, ready-to-wear womenswear label Asava, designer Polpat Asavaprapa now combines fashion with food at Sava Dining by Asava.

Like the clothing line, the dining area manages a sleekness that isn’t overly complicated, combining floor-to-ceiling glass with blue, wood and white tones. Unfortunately the same can’t be said for the messy, magazine-like menu, which skips between Thai, Western and fusion. They say the focus is on hearty, home-style dishes, including some dressed-up street food classics. But the results just aren’t that exciting, dogged by neutral flavors or unnecessary combinations.

One example of experimentation gone wrong is the spaghetti kapi moo hong (spaghetti with kapi shrimp paste and white wine sauce topped with caramelized pork belly, B320). The texture of the pork is great, but the sweetness doesn’t match at all with the weirdly sour and salty shrimp paste. The pad mie krached nong ped grob (stir-fired rice noodle with water mimosa served with duck confit, B320) is another mismatched dish. While the duck is as good as it gets, crispy without being too dry, the noodles and vegetables seem to have been stir-fried separately; the former ends up being oily and tasteless, while the vegetables lie sad and unseasoned underneath.

The oiliness continues in the khaopad pla salid (fried rice with gourami fish with basil and spare ribs soup, B240), though at least it’s more flavorful. The street-style yam sen pla haeng (spicy fish and shrimp balls mixed with poached morning glory and crispy fish flakes, B220) just can’t live up to what we’ve tried on the roadside, though we appreciate the fresh and chunky ingredients. 

There is still some hope, and strangely it comes in the form of fusion dishes like bruschetta nham (B190), a tasty combination of fresh chili and garlic sprinkled with cheddar cheese, and the matoom aoon pudding (warm bale fruit pudding with vanilla ice cream, B220) with its gloriously sticky and salty caramel sauce. In the end, we’re left wondering how long Sava Dining can survive without delivering a stronger, more consistent statement, in keeping with its sister fashion label.

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