Somtamnua

One of my favourite restaurants in Bangkok is the Somtamnua which is by pure fate that I stumbled upon during my previous business trips. I used to go to the outlet on Siam Center’s top floor but the outlet has closed so I visited their first original outlet at Siam Square. In operation since 2003, the Siam Square outlet is equally popular with both locals and tourists and you have to be prepared to queue up for a table

To avoid the crowd, we had a super late lunch and visited around 3pm which is why the waiting bench outside is very empty. During peak periods, the benches are packed with customers

Even during off-peak hours, you can see that the restaurant is almost full and we waited for 5 mins for our table to be prepared. The turnover is very high as you see tables being cleared and new customers entering almost immediately. The outlet underwent a renovation as I remembered visiting 5 years ago and the furnishing was a lot more traditionally Thai with wooden benches and a darker atmosphere. The new interior is very bright and cheerful with the addition of colourful wall decorations and paintings and more sleek and modern tables and chairs to fully utilise the space to house more customers

The menu also underwent a revamp and the layout was slightly different. I think they also dropped some dishes and included some new ones but the hot favourites are still shown under the signature dishes

If you want to know the single best dish from this restaurant, it has to be the signature fried chicken wings with crispy garlic. There are 2 sizes; a small serving comes with 4 wings and a big serving with 8 wings. The wings are served cut up so you get quite a substantial number of mid joints and drumettes. The wings have a golden ratio of batter to wings as they use a very light batter that coats the wing nicely without a thick crust. The wings are crispy in their own skin with a slight crispy batter and the meat is juicy and flavourful. The highlight of their wings is definitely the crispy garlic and spring onions which adds an additional layer of crunch and punch to the wings

Another item I would highly recommend is the sweet corn fritters which took quite a while to be served. The corn is mixed with a savoury batter and deep-fried till golden brown and served with a sweet Thai chilli dip. The corn fritters are lightly salted and have the perfect crisp from the batter and each corn niblet was bursting with sweet juices. The combination of the sweet and savoury flavours was extremely addictive

Another recommended dish is the grilled pork jowl which is one of their signature dishes. Years back when I first tasted this, it was quite out of the world as pork jowl was not a common part of the pig that we would see on the menu. The meat was succulent and tender with the right amount of fats to meat ratio. Back to today, we eat pork jowl quite often in Korean BBQ and Haidilao so while the pork is pretty must the same good quality cut, what makes the dish at Somtam good is actually the chilli that comes with the grilled pork. The chilli looks pretty harmful but packed a powerful punch. It has an earthy deep flavour that complements the pork very well

Last but not least, we had the som tom which is the papaya salad. As this dish came extremely late, I forgot to take a photo of this and had to find one on Google. We had the version which came with pork rinds. As the restaurant is famous for Somtam – papaya salad, there are various versions of the salad; fermented crab, pork rind, salted eggs and also green mango. The salad was appetizing and did not disappoint with its authentic flavours. The sour tangy flavours coupled with the spicy chillis and savoury fish sauce were extremely refreshing in the hot weather. The salad can be pretty spicy so I always opt for the less spicy versions

In terms of beverages, there were many selections from lime juice to coconut water for you to quench your thirst from either the sweltering weather or the spicy attack from the food. I ordered the lime juice and it was very sour and refreshing and not over diluted

Overall, Somtam Nua is like my comfort food whenever I visit Bangkok and I do think they did a great job with their dishes, especially the signature ones. Although some dishes like the Tom Yam Goong were quite general, it was still a good soup

Address: 392, 12-14 Rama I Rd, Khwaeng Pathum Wan, Pathum Wan, Bangkok 10330, Thailand

Operating hours: 11 am to 9 pm