Somboon Seafood

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Somboon Seafood

Curry crab with chili oil is a common dish in Thailand’s gastronomy scene, from fancy restaurant to roadside seafood joint, no hassle to get your share. Foreign visitors follow foot step of the ex-Japanese PM Junichiro Koizumi (小泉 純一郎,), members of the Royal Family, and loyal local clientele to Somboon Seafood Restaurant, arguably the best of curry crab in Bangkok people would sacrifice atmosphere for excellent food. Unfortunately my taste bud not so agree with them!

Somboon Seafood is packed almost every evening, without reservations long waiting in queue couldn’t be waived; alternatively you may tell the receptionist that you are staff of an embassy and would like to show your honorable guests the best curry crab in town (make sure your face look sad if your guests have to join the queue), in 2 minutes you may be escorted to your seat. Our table was set in a semi-private room on the 3rd floor, the noise from the very crowded restaurant came through from the hall, lucky that I brought my iPod so I had my own rock n’ roll with the curry crab.

The first dish to arrive was not the crab, it was Stir-fried Mimosa Green. The vegetable was crunchy with enough heat from the bird eyes chili burned my tongue. Good warning for not talking the rest of the evening. Then arrived the Hoy-Jor (deep-fried minced crab meat ball), the golden brown look balls were crispy outside while the meat was moist, well done.

The curry crab can be ordered by dish of small (B250), medium, large or whole crab by weight (approx. B1,000 per crab). Our Wok-fried Curry Crab with Chili Oil was an aromatherapy in gastronomy, ultra fresh, tasted bravo (even it didn't taste as good as ten years ago!) and best to accompany with plain jasmine rice, and I did.



Our bowl of Tomyumgoong (hot and sour prawn soup) was somehow quite Tha-Chinese, means not too spicy so it is suitable for beginners to Thai food. We are rice monsters, to accompany more rice we ordered the Goong-ob-wensen (baked prawn on bed of glass noodles in tin pot), Baked Goose Web in Tin Pot, Stir-fried Morning Glory (water spinach), and Steamed Prawn with Garlic, they were all delicious. We also have the Deep-fried Sea Bass with Chili Dressing and it was good.

Somboon Seafood is packed almost every evening, oh since the crab need some rest (if not the chefs) so lunch is not really existence; hey pal Somboon Seafood is a dinner only restaurant. Service is prompt and decent, I found out service is better in its main branch (Chula Soi 8) while the popular Surawong branch is always (too) busy with less attentive service. Menu is easy to read, pictorial menu is available for tourists. Since Somboon Seafood is so popular please beware that there is scam of taxi and tuk-tuk drivers will bring you to Somboom Seafood or other expensive seafood restaurant by telling you that Somboon Seafood is closed.

Our Ratings (1 to 5 the higher the better): Somboon has [3.4]
(Ratings are based on Food, Service and Ambience, with Price taken into account in relation to Quality) Food =3.5, Service=3.5, Ambiance=2.5, Money Worth=4

Price range for two without drinks (incl. local water) in Thai Baht = BBB
(B=below 200, BB=201-500, BBB=501-1,000, BBBB=1,001-2,000, BBBBB=over 2,000)

* Somboon is a cash only eatery (no credit card accepted)

Details: open daily for dinner only 4-11:30pm
Somboon Seafood Restaurant, (branch 1) #895/6 Chula Soi 8, Banthadthong Road; Tel.: 02-216-4203; (branch 2) #169 Surawong Road, Bangrak, Bangkok; Tel.: 02-233-3104; Also branches on Ratchada Pisek Road and Bangna (Sukhumvit 103). Somboon has only 4 branches in Bangkok and no upcountry branch. Beware of scam! http://www.somboonseafood.com/index_en.html
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Je Ngor's Kitchen

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Je Ngor’s Kitchen

If you are a regular in Bangkok, you must have already heard about Je Ngor’s stir-fried crab. If you like crab, whether it is stir-fried black pepper crab, steamed crab, wok-fried curry crab or stir-fried green onion crab, Je Ngor’s has them all. If you are a first time visitor to Bangkok, I recommend you should include Je Ngor’s Kitchen in your itinerary.

With 13 restaurants across Bangkok, Je Ngor’s Kitchen, one of Bangkok's prominent Thai-Chinese seafood restaurants, has become a symbol for affordable seafood dining. Generally when a restaurant opens many branches, odds are that the food at the flagship shop may take a dive. But Je Ngor’s has defied those odds. Although Je Ngor’s Kitchen is tourist friendly, some of Je Ngor’s branches are in the tourist area offering English menu and English spoken waitpersons, but original of Je Ngor’s recipes are spicy, so please tell your waitperson that you want mild heat or no heat at all, otherwise your tongue will be burned.



The most popular dishes in Je Ngor’s are Somtum-Poo-Kai-Dong (Thai spicy papaya salad with preserved mud crab), Boiled Prawn, Deep-fried Minced Seafood Spring-ball, Pad-Pak-Boong-Foi (stir-fried sliced morning glory/water spinach), Stir-fried Crab with Garlic and Black Pepper, Charcoal Grilled Sea Bass with Rocky Sea Salt, Four Color Seafood Hot and Sour Soup, Fried Rice with Chinese Black Olive, and Puak-Hima (deep-fried sweeten snow taro stick). Our great night with great food had all of them in the bill.

Je Ngor’s may not be the best and luxury seafood restaurant in Thailand, but Je Ngor’s shall be one of the easy and friendly seafood restaurants with a good culinary skill. Next time while transit to Bangkok, check it out!

Our Ratings (1 to 5 the higher the better): Je Ngor has [3.6]
(Ratings are based on Food, Service and Ambience, with Price taken into account in relation to Quality) Food =4, Service=3.5, Ambiance=3, Money Worth=4

Price range for two without drinks (incl. local water) in Thai Baht = BBBB
(B=below 200, BB=201-500, BBB=501-1,000, BBBB=1,001-2,000, BBBBB=over 2,000)

Details: open daily lunch 11:30am-2:30pm, dinner 6-10:30pm
Je Ngor's Kitchen Seafood Restaurant, (branch 1) 541/9 Charoen Krung Road Soi 39, Siphaya, Bangkok, Tel.: 02-2358537; (branch 2) 68/2 Sukhumvit Soi 20, Bangkok 10110, Tel.: 02-2588008; (branch 3) 11th Floor, Bangkok Insurance-YWCA Building, 25 South Sathorn Road, Bangkok 10120, Tel.: 02-6773927 http://www.jengor-seafoods.com/
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Likkit Pochana

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Likkit Pochana

Small, non-air conditioning, delicious food, family owned, located in the heart of a community, and no expansion plan is the character of some remarkable family run restaurants in Bangkok. Likkit Pochana is one of them.

Easily be reached from the MBK Centre or the Rama 4 Road, this pochana (restaurant) is in the community of Chula University. Regulars are students in the area and Bangkok white collars, so the price is right, as well as the taste. Yes, if you are looking for authentic Thai household cuisine, this is where you should place a bookmark on it. Make sure you are good for chilies and other ingredients that bring out the pungent of heat. In Thai cuisine, household cuisine + authenticity = extreme spicy.

Of course, we ordered the shop best seller Tomyumgoong (hot and sour prawn soup), as every table did the night I visited. There is no mercy in the degree of spicy, be prepared that your tongue feels the extreme heat. Didn’t you ask for something authentic? That is it. Perfectly balanced tomyum broth enriched by the coral from prawn heads also enhanced by the aroma of galangal, kaffir lime, lemongrass, and of course chilies was truly the refreshing starter of the night.

Yum (Thai spicy salad) is also done well in Likkit Pochana. Yum can be eaten with a glass of beer alone or with rice as a main course. We ordered the Yum Pla Saleek (deep-fried pilot fish spicy salad). Tell them you are foreigners (oh they can figure out by themselves indeed) and request for less chili in the yum. They did for me, and my yum was just mild hot.

Hoy Lai Pad Nam Phrik Phao (stir-fried clam with chili and basil sauce), clam size was big, meat was fresh, tasted naturally sweet with a hint of ocean scent, and the nam phrik phao sauce was aromatic pungent. We also ordered the Pad Pla Tatim (stir-fried fresh water fish) and Pad Tualan Tao (stir-fried sugar pea). Gaeng Som Pla (fish and papaya curry sour soup) with omelet and pla chon fish was delightful.

At Likkit Pochana the order came out quickly, served hot, even when the restaurant was fully packed. Every order had turned out to be a delightful treat, and service was prompt and attentive. The bill, cheaper than burger sets in any Burger King. Oops, no plastic so please bring cash.

Likkit Pochana ****
Chula Soi 20
Pratumwan, Bangkok

Open daily : 6 pm - 10 pm
Pay (food only for two): around THB 500
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Banana House

BANGKOK AMAZING GOURMET
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Banana any size

Established since 1982, Banana House is well known among Silom and Sathorn white collars and clubbers (yes, eat first dance later). In a dentists-occupied office building, Duangthip Building, the minimal decorated restaurant hides somewhere between Silom Soi 4 and Soi Thaniya on the main road of Silom, draws a stable number of Japanese expats and tourist clientele as well.

Although Banana House sits on the tourist stripe of Patong with a decent number of foreign clientele, yet the fare is home style Thai Thai and quite spicy; however, heat can be adjusted to customer's request. I told my waiter not to deduce any heat in my dish, but brought me some icy towels instead. A glass of icy beer may be of helf too!



Western inspired dishes modified to local taste are also on the menu. Such as the cute Khanom krob ob hoy lai (baked baby clam in covered clay pan); it is Thai version of French escargot, simply refreshing as a starter. Followed we sampled the Yum makua yaao (spicy eggplant salad), Phad pak mara (stir-fried bitter gourd), Gaeng som pla chon cha-om-tord (snake-head fish fillet with deep-fried cha-om leaf omelet in tamarind sour and hot soup), Plameuk phad kai kem (stir-fried squid with salty egg yolk), and Pla kapong neung ma-naao (steamed sea bass with chili and lime broth). Taste is authentic but on the salty side.

Service would be on satisfaction gear if the waiter who ushered us to the table wasn't rude, though service was prompt and other wait-staffs were okay. The lady head-of-staff (/owner) is definitely helpful indeed.

Banana House Thai Restaurant ***
2nd Floor, Duangthip Building
68/1 Silom Road
Bangrak, Bangkok 10500
Tel.: 02.234.9967

Open daily : 10 am - 10 pm
Pay (food only for two): around THB 1,000

Thon Krueng

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Thon Krueng

Thon kreun means the royal chef and royal kitchen in the old days.

So a visit to Thon Krueng Thai Restaurant, you enjoy a feast that fits for a king.

Although the restaurant name hints that the chef may receive revival culinary skill from an ancient royal kitchen by heritage, but, it isn’t. Thon Krueng fare is easy and family, taste to youngster and senior people acceptance. In Thon Krueng I rarely see tourists found their way in, perhaps expats yes.

One of my favorite dishes is Gai Yang (grilled marinated chicken) so our meal started with the chicken. The chicken was range fed or gai baan (house chicken) in Thai, unlike farm raise chicken, the gai baan guarantee texture of the meat and yield a rich taste of chicken. In Thon Krueng they always prepare the grilled chicken right. Second dish was Yum Woonsen Talay (spicy seafood salad with glass noodles), a common appetizer among Thai people. Another very common dish on any Thai dining table shall be the Tod Man Pla Krai (deep-fried minced fish cakes), the Thong Krueng version with its dipping from the ‘royal chef’ recipe always make me return for more.

Kai Dtoon (steamed egg custard), that goes well with plain rice, is a simple Thai-Chinese dish but master the steamed egg custard perfectly is somehow with difficulty, probably getting a master degree sounds easier. In Thon Krueng, it was as smooth as silk without any bubbles created, oh marvelous! For fish, usually I like the steamed sea bass with chili and lime sauce; but tonight I had the Grilled Sea Bass with Sea Salt, what else shall I expect more than the fish was fresh, the meat was sweet, and the taste was aromatic. The green, Pad Yod Mara (stir-fried bitter gourd stem) was as good as other dishes.

If you are looking for a Thai restaurant with a comprehensive selection of excellent dishes, authentic taste, reasonable price and don’t mind if the seating is a bit crowded, Thon Krueng shall be included in your next-to-visit dining list.

Thon Krueng Thai Restaurant ****
239 Sukhumvit Soi 55
(Soi Thonglo)
corner Thonglo Soi 13
Wattana, Bangkok 10110
Tel.: 02.391.8703 02.185.2874
Thon Krueng

Open daily: 11am - 10:30 pm
Pay (food only for two): around THB 600

Duc de Praslin

Duc de Praslin Cafe

Our Ratings (1 to 5 the higher the better): Duc de Praslin has [3.9]
(Ratings are based on Food, Service and Ambience, with Price taken into account in relation to Quality) Food =4, Service=3, Ambiance=4, Money Worth=4.5

Price range for two without drinks (incl. local water) in Thai Baht = BB
(B=below 200, BB=201-500, BBB=501-1,000, BBBB=1,001-2,000, BBBBB=over 2,000)

Details: Open daily 9am – 9pm
Duc de Praslin, Ground Floor, Fenix Tower, Sukhumvit Soi 31, Bangkok; Tel.: 02-2583200
www.gallothai.com
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Mayflower

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CNY dinner
The Mayflower
@ Dusit Thani Hotel Bangkok

The Mayflower has been a prominent Chinese restaurant focusing on carefully selected traditional Cantonese fares for decades, as one of the most expensive Chinese restaurants in town with food prepared the way any Hong Kong chef will do, surprisingly the chefs are not even from Hong Kong like other hotel’s Chinese outlets do, they are Thai-Chinese born locally but definitely cook as good as most Hong Kong chefs in Bangkok.

The local high-so(ciety) figures chasing after this renowned restaurants probably because the Mayflower earns the honor to offer its barbequed Peking duck to the Palace on a regular basis. Regular patrons are local politicians and high profile business tycoons, as well as a number of tourists (esp. the Japanese) and Taiwanese expats in Bangkok, just lacking Hong Kong customers.

On the occasion of Chinese Lunar New Year, we chose the Mayflower to celebrate the beginning of the Year of Mickey Mouse with close friends in Bangkok. In Chinese Lunar Calendar, this year falls into the year of Golden Rat. Last year we had suckling pig for the year of the Golden Pig, so this year we should order barbequed rat perhaps. But answer from the waitperson was disappointing, so we went for the Suckling Pig Hong Kong style instead, we ate the skin with condiments, and had the meat stir-fried with black pepper. The pig came out good but not outstanding.

Followed was the must order Roasted Peking Duck, this famed ducky dish was good in preparation and grand in presentation, slices of duck skin were carved thin without any fat left by the waitperson at our table, wrapped in a rice flour mini pancake together with cucumber and spring onion in hoysin sauce, eaten with the help of my two fingers. The skin was crispy with aroma leaking out from my teeth. The remaining meat could be stir-fried or made duck broth but we put the meat and bone in a doggy bag for my congee tomorrow morning.

To clean our palate after these greasy dishes, time for the soup, choices were Braised Bird Nest Soup with Minced Chicken or Braised Shark’s Fin in Supreme Broth. I had the bird nest one.

Our few main dishes to accompany supreme jasmin rice were Baked Duck with Black Moss, Lemon Chicken Fillet, Sweet and Sour Pork Ribs, Stir-fried Lotus Root with Prawn, Stir-fried Asparagus with Shrimp Roe, and the must order Wok-fried Beef Fillet in HK Sauce.

We didn’t forget the fish. The Steamed Live Red Grouper in Warm Soy Sauce came out pretty good, not over cooked (and not under cooked either) as many local restaurants keep repeating this mistake. Since the fish was live to steam, the meat was of course ultra fresh, and it tasted naturally sweet in its full gear.

We didn’t order desserts but the Mayflower prepared a generous portion of fruits plate as a celebrating gesture.

Overall, the meal was good and much better than our gathering dinner held at the Chinese @ the Grand Hyatt Erawan Hotel last year.


The Mayflower Chinese Restaurant ***
Dusit Thani Hotel Bangkok
946 Rama IV Road
Bangrak, Bangkok 10500
Tel.: +66 (0)2.236.9999
Dusit Thani

Open daily: lunch 11:30 am - 2 pm; dinner 6 - 10 pm
Pay (food only for two): expect THB 2,500

Hei Chin Rou

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CNY Eve dinner
Hei Chin Rou @ Amari Watergate

Hei Chin Rou is famous in Japan, branch out to Hong Kong in late 80's and arrived Bangkok in 1995.

Tonight, we eat there with firends from Hong Kong, Beijing, and Sydney. We oredered eight mains and one dessert total to the number of nine. Eight and nine are lucky numbers for the Hong Kong Chinese. Eight pronounce fat in Cantonese meaning wealth, while nine pronounce gul meaning longevity. May prosperity, wealth, longevity and happiness be with us in the Year of Mickey Mouse (rat).

Food is very so-so!



Heichinrou Chinese Restaurant ***
Amari Watergate Hotel
847 Petchburi Road
Pratunam, Bangkok 10400
Tel.: 02.653.9000
Heichinrou

Open daily: Lunch 11:30am - 2:30pm, Dinner 6 - 10:30pm
Pay (food only for two): expect THB 2,500

Sieng Kee

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Sieng Kee Khaotom Pla 祥記

My friends all understand that I avoid dine at roadside or in an ambiance that is old and dirty, except Sieng Kee Khaotom Pla in the Yaowarat area (Bangkok’s Chinatown), I couldn’t avoid. I always go for the scrumptious khaotom neua pla jaramed (broiled rice soup with pomfret fillet).

In Bangkok choices of khaotom (broiled rice soup) are overwhelming, but only Sieng Kee Khaotom standing out strong for over 70 years and its popularity still growing. The eatery is nothing fancy, instead a bit slump, just its excellent quality of pomfret and sea bass rice soup that draws our loyalty for years. During Sieng Kee opening hours the street immediately became an open-air showroom of luxury cars from Benz to Ferrari and the shop became a tycoon and celebrity club. Once I met Thailand liquor tycoon Khun Charoen who owns Beer Chang, Imperial Hotels Group and TCC Capital Land, and his friends. The other time I met GMM (Thailand No. 1 record label and entertainment companies) Chairman Khun Paiboon and his super stars. Just a few to name but there are more to see and to be seen.

If you are not a fish person, don’t go. Because Sieng Kee only offers broiled rice soup with pomfret and sea bass fillet or stomach. Yes, fresh sea bass stomach a real treat to me. The broth was aromatic and the fillet was naturally sweet without any hint of fishy but with a chewy texture. Yummy!

Even without the comfort of air-conditioning and attentive service, a bowl of khao tom (broiled rice soup) or kao lao (soup only) with fillet of pla jaramed (pomfret) or pla kapong (sea bass) cost B250 for small and B300 for large. The price is not easy but the quality worth that price. Oh, cash only.

Our Ratings (1 to 5 the higher the better): Sieng Kee has [3.6]
(Ratings are based on Food, Service and Ambience, with Price taken into account in relation to Quality) Food=5, Service=3, Ambiance=2, Money Worth=4.5)

Price range for two without drinks (incl. local water) in Thai Baht: BBB
(B=below 200, BB=201-500, BBB=501-1,000, BBBB=1,001-2,000, BBBBB=over 2,000)

Best dishes: khaotom neua pla jaramed (broiled rice soup with pomfret fillet)
Wine list: no wine
Best table: outside
Details: Open daily 5-11pm (dinner only)
Sieng Kee Khaotom Pla, 54 Charoenkrung Soi 12, Yaowarat, Bangkok
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Yaowarat hawker food

BANGKOK AMAZING GOURMET
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Cheap Eat

Roadside dining
Yaowarat hawker food


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Chula 20 hawker food

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Cheap Eat

Roadside dining
Suan Luang area (Chula Soi 20) Hawker food

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