Sep 09, 2010
|Located conveniently halfway between Silom and Sathorn Roads, and just off the pedestrian pandemonium and street stall insanity of Soi Convent, Soi Piphat 2 has a small handful of eateries known to loyal connoisseurs, many of which require a call ahead to ensure you get your lunch the way you want it. Here, we round up our favorites.
Sri Samona Leud Rod
1/2 Soi Piphat 2, 02-238-1201. Open Mon-Sat 6am-4pm
As you enter the soi from Convent, skip past the dilapidated restaurant with the big fried foods display outside, in favor of another little run-down place beside it. Situated on the left hand side of the soi, it’s usually bursting with people around lunchtime. While they do some standard yams and tams (B30-40) here, nothing should distract you from their highlight: kai ob and moo ob, which you can get plain on rice, with or without a sticky and deliciously garlicky sauce, or as a topping to your kway teo nam sai (B40) which they make generously here, with nice chunks of radish. Their look chin, too, are arguably some of the best around, very peppery and without that excessive floury taste that some industrially-manufactured ones can have. An added bonus of the location is the bizzare vibe created by the Catholic iconography that adorns the back wall of this tiny little shop.
Khao Man Kai
081-403-3527. Open Mon-Fri 10am-1:30pm
Keep walking into the soi, past Eat Me restaurant, and on the left-hand side you’ll find this nondescript little cart in front of a long, indoor room cluttered with tables and chairs. The place isn’t much to look at, and they only sell the one dish, but their khao man kai is solid and reliable and is usually sold out before 1:30pm. We’re fans of their gingery chili sauce, and if you like to get your khao man kai with some fried chicken, then theirs is very crispy, not at all oily and balances the boiled chicken very nicely. B30 for regular, B40 for special (it’s just a bigger plate with more rice, though not always with more chicken).
Som Tam Jay So
146/1 Soi Phiphat 2, 085-999-4225. Open Mon-Sat 10am-5pm
Across the street from here, Jay So may look like your average street side Isaan joint with its prerequisite som tam mortar and pestle station out front, but we can’t help but be impressed by their large furnace-like barbeque set up on the right-hand wall of the shop. Comprised of five clay burners sat under two layers of wire shelves, all enveloped by a steel closet, this baby packs some heat. Cooking away on these, you find roast chicken, pork and whole skewered catfish, glistening in their juices. We especially like their pla dook yang (B40), which is stuffed in the neck with lemongrass and herbs and is crispy on the outside and moist on the inside, and the som tam thai poo (B45) which has generous portions of crab. The team running the place are also fun to chat with when they aren’t rushed off their feet. And if you hope to have grilled chicken, call ahead and show up before 12:30pm, or you’ll go hungry.
Tian Sin
086-984-1621. Open Mon-Fri 6:30am-1:30pm
Turn right after Jay So onto a little alley, at the end of which you’ll find an old house whose living room and the sidewalk outside serve as a rare little vegetarian khao kaeng shop that’s run by two adorable sisters. It’s almost always packed, in the mornings with parents from nearby St. Joseph’s School and in the afternoons with staff from BNH Hospital and nearby offices. The rice is red and the dishes are spicy and varied, ranging from tofu laab and beancurd sheets wrapped in seaweed to traditional red curries and stir-fries (B30-40, depending on how many curries you order). They also do daily specials, such as delicious kway teo lod on Mondays, kanom jeen on Wednesdays and boat noodles on Fridays.