Zense is a new restaurant located on the 17th floor of the Zen department store in CentralWorld, Bangkok. It has indoor and outdoor seating totaling 400 people with views of the city. The interior design is casual with various seating types throughout different levels to take advantage of the views. Zense stands out by having four separate kitchens and menus run by well-known operators serving Thai, Japanese, Indian, and Italian cuisine. This unique cooperative model allows for more variety and efficient food preparation than a single kitchen could provide. While many high-altitude restaurants in Bangkok have expensive prices to match the views, Zense offers high quality food and drinks at reasonable prices.

1. Since Bangkok is blessed with a mellow climate for much of the year, outdoor dining, as every resident
here know is quite popular. What’s become even more popular in recent years is “view dining,”
restaurants that combine great views with outdoor areas so people can feel even more a part of the
panoramas that are spread out beneath them.
The latest such place in this category to open is called Zense and it sits, appropriately enough, on the
17th floor of the Zen department store at CentralWorld. The space, inside and out, is rectangular with
the long sides facing the southwest and northeast providing diners with a view towards the Silom
business district in the distance and the Royal Bangkok Sports Club in the foreground to the southwest.
The northeast side doesn’t have a deck and most of the seating is on the other side of the restaurant but
it too provides a sweeping panorama. This is a large space, able to seat 400 people, and its somewhat
whimsical interior design lets you know that it’s not too formal. And at night this becomes more evident
as the muted interior earth tones and light wood flooring contrasts with the brightly colored light panels
out on the deck.
The large deck looks like it seats about 150 of those 400 and the high glass walls that separate the deck
from the interior seating area provide a great view for those inside as well. The interior itself is built on a
number of different levels, enhancing the potential for diners to partake of the view. The interior also
contains a number of faux stairways which stretch up to the ceiling, going nowhere. And then there are
stairways with wide steps that contain big bean bag-type seating. There are several other seating
options including conventional tables and chairs, counters with high bar-type seating, smaller square
tables with the aforementioned beanbags and the outdoor sets with wicker chairs and small pillows.
Variety seems to be the basic theme of Zense as the cuisine is as varied as the seating arrangements and
design elements. Instead of just one menu or even one kitchen there are four of both here. Outside food
operators have joined with the management of the building to create a sort of cooperative restaurant
where the food operators provide their own kitchen staffs and the restaurant management provides the
service and other staff.
The concept was apparently well-structured for all involved because some very well-known and
successful people are here serving up Thai, Japanese, Indian and Italian food. Gianni’s Ristorante from
Soi Tonson is the Italian purveyor, Red is providing Indian food, Kikusui is the Japanese representative
and the Thai food is prepared by the owner of the former White Café who now has a thriving catering
business. This unique idea provides guests with much more variety than most restaurants and with four
separate kitchens the food can probably be prepared more efficiently than if one kitchen was trying to
do everything at once.
Whatever the original motivation for this idea was it will be interesting to see how it evolves and
develops over time. One thing is certain at this point however, and that is the fact that the food quality
is quite high already but the prices are not. An unfortunate aspect of some of the high-altitude places in
Bangkok is that they have prices that are comparable to their elevations. This is not the case at Zense so
you can enjoy the food, drinks, atmosphere and view and not, in these trying economic times, think
much about the bill.