Update: I have learned that the restarant has moved. Some say Rama III some say Rama IV, I still have no idea where. If you know, ping me. Thanks!
Now, Silom Road in Bangkok is not well known to have good Thai restaurants. Most of the Thai cafes and even restaurant have adjusted their food taste to cater to the mainly white tourists visiting there, which tastes like sweet crap. One of my criteria to even enter a restaurant is whether its full of foreigners or gay men or if its mostly locals. I am digressing…
Anyway, Suntawa restaurant is a rare gem fine along Silom road. Actually another good restaurant is Banana Leaf at the basement of Silom Complex. According to San, it is a pretty old restaurant, at least 20+ years. you can even see that the restaurant’s decor is still the same since its open.
Now, its pretty hard to notice the restaurant, even if you walked pass it. Also the name is not in English, so you have to learn to recognize the sign board in the picture above!
To get to Suntawa: From the Sala Daeng BTS, follow the track towards Chong Nonsi Station, keeping on the left side of Silom Road. When you reach Soi Piphat, which is where the Bangkok Bank building is, turn left into the soi and look out for the restaurant on the right side after about 100 or 200 meters. Here is the location from google map (its around the center of the map)
Now the crazy thing about Suntawa is that they open and close as they please. Even though it does state that they are opened on Monday to Saturday, from 11 am to 8 pm (or so), if the night or day is quiet, they will close for the night. The other day we tried to make a reservation on a Saturday night and they told us that they will be closed because of lack of customers for that day! The other quirky think about the restaurant is that most of its customers are well-dressed elderly ladies with old hairdos. We were there for lunch one of those days and other than us and another table of office workers, all other tables are mostly elderly ladies.
All that aside, I must say that most of us agreed that the food was great. Okay, let’s be honest, there are hits and misses in this restaurant just like any other great restaurants out there, but the hits really makes you want go back again.
The menu looks really faded ancient. Its the only Thai restaurant I know so far the serves minestrone soup and steak!
The decor has probably not changed too much over the year.
Tom Kha Gai. This is one of those classic Thai dishes, which many restaurants and cafes failed to deliver. In Suntawa, this is simply lovely till the last drop! The soup was fully infused with herb and the fragrant coconut milk. The soup has also the right level of sweetness from palm sugar and sharply sour enough to give your appetite an uplift.
Stir fried Kailan with salted fish. I liked that they put a lot of salted fish into this dish. The salted fish was not over salty, so I could eat the pieces by themselves. The kailan was nicely stirred fry and infused with the salted fish taste and fragrance.
Dried sweet curry with pork (Panang Moo). The curry was sweet and spicy and has a rich flavor. Together with the tenderly stirred fried pork, this makes one of my favorite dishes.
Ped Suntawa or Crispy fried minced Duck. A speciality in Suntawa, you hardly can find this dish anywhere else. Its crisply fried on the outside and has a nice moist duck meat flavor on the inside. It comes with a compliment of the deep fried kailan leaves, added both texture and taste to this dish when eaten together.
Smoked Eggplant salad. Both me and San love this dish. However, I must warn that its can be quite spicy. The eggplant has a nice smoky flavor and is accompanied with a spicy yet full flavor salad dressing. A must have salad on my book.
Fried Prawn Pancake (Goong Phra Beung). This is probably the only dish that I didn’t really like. It was a bit too oily and because it so thin, I cannot really taste the prawn meat in-between. This probably makes a good snack for noisy children to keep them still.
Satisfied customers (not for sale and not on menu!)
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