Napa

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Charm, on Silom

Napa is a charming two-story house restaurant on Naradhiwas Road in between Surawong and Silom Road, with both al fresco and air-conditioning dining area. Just like its neighbor Take a Seat, Napa also offers tourist-palate-friendly Thai cuisine. Napa even claimed itself a Thai-fusion restaurant. I found, its Thai dishes are quite authentic in taste that may please both local and foreign diners.





Napa Restaurant and Bar ***1/4
6 Naradhiwas-najanagarindra Road
Suriyawong, Bangkok 10500
Tel.: 02.234.8671

Open daily : 5 pm - 11 pm
Pay (food only for two): around THB 600

Take a Seat

BANGKOK AMAZING GOURMET
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Seat, on Silom

Judging from its interior and clientele, Take-a-Seat may easily be mistaken to be a tourist-orientated Thai restaurant, and thus inauthentic in true Thai taste and expensive in price. I was previously misled as well.

In fact, Take-a-Seat serves authentic Thai fare with a modern twist to both tourists and CBD white collars, and the price is surprisingly on the low side compared to other Thai restaurants in downtown Bangkok.


yum talay (spicy seafood salad Thai style) THB 120

stick moo (pork satay on skewers) THB 100;
tord mun pla (deep-fried minced fish mousse) THB 120

hor-mok talay maphrao on (seafood curry souffle in whole coconut) THB 180

phad pak muam-mit (stir-fried vegetables) THB 120;
goong phad nam makham (stir-fried prawns with taramind sauce) THB 150

yum pla kapong tord (deep-fried sea bass fillet in spicy dressing) THB 180

Take a Seat Thai Restaurant ***1/2
38 Naradhiwas-najanagarindra Road
(at Naradhiwas-najanagarindra Soi 2)
Silom, Bangkok 10500
Tel.: 02.634.8964
Take-a-Seat

Open daily : 11 am - 11 pm
Pay (food only for two): around THB 450

Red Lantern

BANGKOK AMAZING GOURMET
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Lantern, red, prosperity

Chinese bistros run by the Mainland Chinese always mislead me to one impression - owners don't care for restaurant hygiene. Luckily there is an exceptional one - Hong Teong Long (Red Lantern) Chinese Restaurant.

Red Lantern is one of the (small) restaurants I always come for authentic Shanghaiese wanton soup (forget about that big chain shamelessly invades to almost every shopping malls with the name "Shanghai" and "xiao-long-pao" as the brand, that chain insults the cuisine of Shanghai and Chinese food), and home-style Chinese provincial delicacies, such as steamed meat bun, stir-fried fish fillet in wine and vinegar sauce and Szechuan minced pork with tofu in chili sauce (ma-po tofu).

A foreign journalist from San Francisco claimed that Red Lantern serves the best xiao-long-pao in town; although I couldn't 100% agree with him (as for me the best one still awarded to Nam-tao-hu Yong Herh) in such aspect, but I agree that Red Lantern does serve very good provincial cuisine in Bangkok.


meat bun / vegetable bun THB 30 each
beef noodle Mainland Chinese style THB 60

arguably best (real) Shanghai wanton in town, THB 50

Sichuan chili live frog leg casserole THB 180
spicy green eggplant with minced pork THB 120

bite-size steamed xiao-long-pao dumplings, THB 60, average

deep-fried live sea bass in sweet and sour sauce THB 350
stir-fried long bean with minced pork THB 120

Hong Teong Long (Red Lantern) CN Restaurant ***3/4
149/16 Surawong Road
at Soi Anglo Plaza
Bangrak, Bangkok 10500
Tel.: 02.238.3379

Open daily : 11 am - 3 am
Pay (food only for two): around THB 400

Hong Kong House

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魚 翅 撈 飯

Not just decent home cooking Thai cuisine is hard to find in Bangkok's C.B.D., so does Chinese Cantonese cuisine! Good Cantonese feast seems only available in 5-star hotels?

Hong Kong Kitchen on Surawong Road is the rescue to the dilemma. This bistro of Chinese Cantonese accent is a mix of modern ambiance and old school dai-pai-dong* flavor. There serves no 5 stars gourmet, but food taste nostalgic and authentic. Take the shark fins soup for instance, it tastes like those I ate in a wedding banquet in my baby days at Ocean Palace or the City Hall in Hong Kong; while the wok-fried jumbo prawn with ginger and scallion just tastes like those dai-pai-dong one. Also the pipar tofu (mash tofu, chopped shrimp and ground pork in paste, deep fried) is a classic dish hardly found in Bangkok.



Hong Kong House ***
84-86 Surawong Road
Bangrak, Bangkok 10500
Tel.: 02.637.1367

Open daily : lunch 11 am - 10 pm
Pay (food only for two): around THB 700



* dai-pai-dong or roadside restaurant is an unique culinary culture in Hong Kong, a collective memory for the Hong Kong people, due to hygiene and political reasons, HKSAR Government ceases issuing new license for dai-pai-dong since 2005.

Coca Suki

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Eat what they serve

I like hot pot, shabu shabu, fondue, and even jim-joom (Issan hot pot); but, I don't applause suki (Thai-Chinese hot pot) as they don't emphasize on the ingredients but only the sauce. That's mean you eat some deeply frozen and bloody dead ultra common seafood or meat and not necessary of top quality, but dip those food alike in a small bowl of well-mixed dipping sauce. Any suki restaurant serves good mixer dipping sauce is called a quality suki restaurant!

Among all suki restaurants in Thailand, the half century old Coca Suki Restaurant perhaps the better one in term of variety and quality of hot pot ingredients. And the bottom line is, Coca waitpersons do not sing and dance (the funny way) in the middle of my meal.






Besides suki, Coca also serves Chinese cuisine.

Coca Suki Restaurant 可口火鍋酒樓 **1/2
Sukhumvit Soi 39
Wattana, Bangkok 10110
Tel.: 02.234.1957
Coca Suki

Open daily : 11 am - 9:30 pm
Pay (food only for two): around THB 1,000

Le Pre' Grill

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Bouillabaisse Come to Silom

From Soi Langsuan to Chongnonsi, Le Pre' Grill has been in the Bangkok food scene for five years. Its pretty French name hints that what kind of cuisine Le Pre' Grill is on offer. Yes, it is about unpretentious French cuisine with a coffee shop touch. Food taste so-so as the price is modest.



Le Pre' Grill French Restaurant ***
2 Narathiswas Road
Surawong, Bangrak
Bangkok 10500
Tel.: 02.266.5899
Le Pre' Grill

Open daily: Lunch 11:30 am - 2:30 pm; Dinner 6 - 11 pm
Pay (food only for two): around THB 3,000

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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Yamagoya Ramen

BANGKOK AMAZING GOURMET
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Yamagoya

Yamagoya (Ramen) comes from Fukuoka, Hyushu, where Yamagoya earns its no.1 title of tonkotsu ramen in Fukuoka. Now in Bangkok, we can treat our taste buds the best Tonkotsu Ramen in town, also. Try it yourself!

Our Ratings (1 to 5 the higher the better): Yamagoya has [4.1]
(Ratings are based on Food, Service and Ambience, with Price taken into account in relation to Quality) Food =4.5, Service=4, Ambiance=3.5, 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: 10:30am – midnight
Yamagoya, Surawang Road, Bangrak, Bangkok 10500; Tel.: 02-6370588 (also branches in Thonglo Soi 11 and Thonglo Soi 13 J-Avenue)
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