Category Archives: Location – Phra Nakhon

Thip Samai (Phra Nakhon – Bangkok) : “Best Pad Thai in Bangkok”

by

11

Thip Samai

Address: Thip Samai, Phra Nakhon, จังหวัด กรุงเทพมหานคร Thailand

Operating hours: Daily 6:00pm to 12:00am

Introduction

A quick Google of ‘Bangkok best Pad Thai’ will return quite some results for ‘Thip Samai’. The location of Thip Samai is rather off from the main shopping district but is it worth the travel for the ‘best Pad Thai in bangkok’ ? This is my second visit to Thip Samai. From the Grand Palace area (specifically from The Deck@ Arun Residence), i took a tuk tuk that took me less than five minutes to reach.

Same as my previous visit, comparing to Sabx2 Wanton Noodle which is mostly filled with tourist, Thip Samai is mostly filled with locals.

Thip Samai basically offers many variations of Pad Thai (glass noodle version, with extra prawn, wrapped in omelet or even a version without the rice noodle). Yes, and one more thing that I like about Thip Samai is for it’s cleanliness of the shop. Eating in a dirty eatery is the last thing to worry about at Thip Samai.

Click here to see my list of consolidated Bangkok Food Itinerary

Pad Thai

I ordered the omelet version and the prawn version. I remembered the prawn version was a little sweet for Singaporean taste the previous time but this time it’s perfect.

At Thip Samai, every plate of Pad Thai is freshly prepared and served piping hot to your table, and it comes comes with a portion of bean sprouts, fresh lime and chives.

Adding the lime, chilli flakes and crushed peanut is a must to bring out the flavour of the noodle. I tend not to judge a food’s taste by Singapore standard, and as we know, Bangkok food tends to be sweeter. So for those who don’t appreciate sweet savory food, you may find this Pad Thai, or any other Thai food in Bangkok, not as appealing to you.

Their Pad Thai is more to a dryer version but the noodle is well-coated with the tamarind & fish sauce and i can taste the sweetness and the fragrance of the Pad Thai with every mouthful. This dish is especially enjoyable with added dried chilli flakes.

I requested for no bean sprout but they totally excluded everything except the noodle, egg and prawn. LOL.

Orange Juice

If it is your first time visiting Thip Samai, you can try their freshly squeezed Orange Juice. What’s so special about this orange juice? They don’t just add pulp into the juice, but chunks of Orange fruit. That is why they specifically instruct that the juice must be finished within the same day.

Braised Pork Bee Hoon

Facing the road, on the left side of Thip Samai lies a roadside stall call “Tee Yen-Ta-4”. This little stall was crowded and filled with patrons which made me really curious about the food that they are selling. On every table, the people are either eating a bowl of Yong Tau Fu Soup or something that looks like Stew Pork Bee Hoon. So i took the plunge and ordered a portion for myself too!

This Bee Hoon tasted really homely, like the kind of Bee Hoon that i had at my Primary School Canteen. The soup is surprisingly good, but some may say probably it’s because of the MSG. The soft-stew pork and the turnip goes pretty well with the soup and bee hoon.

Conclusion

I think it’s not hard to guess my verdict for Thip Samai since this is my return visit to this place. Thip Samai may not easily be the best of the best Pad Thai in Bangkok, since there should be ten over thousands of stalls selling Pad Thai in Bangkok. But when a place sells Pad Thai and just Pad Thai alone, and manage to prosper with almost full house during my both visits even at such an inconvenient location, this says something about the quality.

Moreover, what is a Bangkok trip without trying out their “Bangkok Best Pad Thai”? If i’m coming back to Bangkok in future, i will try to visit this place again.

Directions and Map

I don’t see any MRT or BTS station nearby. For both times, i took a cab down and the cab driver managed to locate this eatery. From google map, apparently it appears that it is within walking distance from The Grand Palace (about 15 minutes) but i never took the walk so if anyone tried walking from The Palace to Thip Samai, feel free to share with me.

Related articles

The Deck @ Arun Residence (Bangkok – Phra Nakhon)

by

6

The Deck @ Arun Residence

Address: The Deck By The River, Maha Rat, Phra Nakhon

Opening hours: Mon-Thu 8.00am to 10.00pm, Fri-Sun 8.00am to 11.00pm

Introduction

As a lover for landscape photography, I will always try to make some time to visit attractions for some shots while I’m overseas. The Deck is situated just directly opposite Wat Arun (Temple of Dawn) across the river, which is within walking distance from The Grand Palace and Wat Pho (Temple of the Reclining Buddha) or Wat Phra Chetuphon. It is the perfect place to take a good shot of Bangkok’s Wat Arun.

While I am expecting a classy and posh restaurant that is within a up-class hotel, i am pleasantly surprised that The Deck is not such a place and i thought this cosy and homely residence/restaurant may just be it’s charm.

Click to see my list of consolidated Bangkok Food Itinerary

The restaurant

The deck is divided into three levels, while level one and two are reserved for seated dining, level three is their bar area. There is a spiral staircase that leads up to level two, and need to climb up a flight of metal steps to reach level three.

The dining area at level one is at the sun deck of the house with only a couple of tables that are well-spaced from each other. Seems pretty romantic at night? However, from the photo, you can see that a boat almost blocked the whole view of Wat Arun.

The dining area in level two is able to accommodate large dining crowd.

I thought the level three area offers a much better view and since my main objective is to shoot instead of eat, i opted for the level three bar.

Within the bar, there are only five or six tables that offers a direct view of Wat Arun and i am glad that I made my way there early at 5.45pm and i manage to secure the last unoccupied table that offers a great view of Wat Arun. The bar offers finger food and drinks. Those who don’t feel like having alcohol may order their coffee/tea or juice instead. Yeap, a bar that offers coffee and tea.

Food & Drinks

As I plan to visit the “Bangkok best phad thai” for dinner, i am giving the main course at The Deck a miss. I ordered the safest food – cheese nachos and sausage. The taste of the nachos actually exceeded my expectation. I was munching on the nachos and i cleared the plate in no time. Love the thin chips coated with warm melted cheese.

And how wrong can sausages go? There are three different kinds of sausage in the platter that tasted like – Chicken cheese, chicken, pork and comes with a side of mashed potato and a portion of mustard. Great for sharing.

By the way, I don’t exactly enjoy their cappuccino as much as I thought I tasted some spices in it and it taste rather weird.

Bangkok’s sun sets at about 6.15pm to 6.30pm and it was a pity that the sun set was blocked by some thick cloud thus unable to catch the yellow egg yolk. Such a waste!

But nevertheless I thought I still managed to capture a rather decent night shot of Wat Arun, i think. LOL. What do you think?

Conclusion

I am someone who can enjoy doing nothing and just find a cosy corner and chill out with friends while enjoying a view and enjoying the river breeze. This place sets a world apart from the up-class rooftop sky bar where visitors need to be in their long pants and flip-flops are a strict no-no, The Deck offers a very homely and casual kind of setting for friends to gather or romantic-seeking lovers to visit to have a good drink and chat.

The only problem with this place is for it’s location as Singaporeans (or any other visitors) very muck like to stay around Pratunam/Asoke/Siam area for it’s shopping convenience. I had to take a cab ride that took me around 20 minutes to reach The Deck @ Arun Residence.

If you are already visiting the Grand Palace, Wat Pho or Wat Arun, why not have a rest at The Deck for a drink before heading back to Hotel.

The sky is already dark and i set off to the nearby “Bangkok Best Phad Thai” for dinner, which will be covered in my upcoming post!

Here’s a shot of the interesting spiral stairs connecting level one to level two:

Directions and Map

As The Deck is not near to any particular MRT or BTS station, i took a cab directly to this place. Note that this place is not along the main road and the cab driver got to turn into a smaller lane to be able to see this place.

Related articles