Fans of the old Hualamphong Food Station in Sukhumvit will be happy to know that the restaurant has re-emerged (although they might not be so happy to hear where: way across town on Kaset-Nawamin Road). The new restaurant is huge, consisting of three traditional houses decorated in Northern style. Stepping into Hualamphong, we suddenly felt like we were out in the countryside. Yi peng lamps and thungs (Northernstyle flags) billow around the parking lot and hang from the ceilings inside. Big trees surround the old wooden houses, which are furnished with wooden tables and chairs. It was Saturday evening and tables on the ground floor were already taken. We sat upstairs, where you can feel vibrations whenever someone walks up or down the stairs. If that makes you nervous, be sure to reserve a table downstairs. The restaurant’s concept is a blend of different styles of food (and décor) meeting in one place, just like at the train station. The restaurant has two kinds of seats, kantok and regular. The menu has a very long list of dishes, but no recommendations, so we asked a waiter in a mor hom shirt for his suggestions. We ended up with pla buek pad cha (stirfried giant Mekong catfish with curry), tod man pla tong (fried ground fishcakes), soup nomai (bamboo shoot salad), larb pedthed (spicy minced duck) and kaichiaw kai moddaeng (omelet with ant eggs). We also ordered cha yen (iced tea) and kafae yen (iced coffee). The kafae yen got two thumbs up since the coffee wasn’t overpowered by sweetness. None of the dishes were served in any special manner. In fact, they all looked as simple as the food we could prepare at home. The tod man comes without a sauce, and when we asked for it, a waiter said the chef mixes the sauce in. That bit of information made sense as we all took bites. The slightly oily tod man was tasty and quickly disappeared. Soup nomai was also flavorful, but the bamboo was a bit hard. Pla buek pad cha was the spiciest dish, with soft and delectable fish. The kaichiaw was a little oily and salty but fine when eaten with larb pedthed. Sadly, the sticky rice filled us up, and we couldn’t have dessert. But we stuck around to watch the traditional Northern dance performance, which starts at 8pm every day. Hualampong isn’t perfect, but we enjoyed feeling like we were lounging in the countryside without ever leaving the city. So, we give it one star for the upcountry ambiance, one star for its kafae yen and some tasty dishes and the last star for the waiters who climbed the stairs hundreds of times to serve us enthusiastically.
