Pad Thai at Thip Samai, Bangkok

Rating: 2 stars (out of 5)
Hours: 5:00pm - 2:00am
Price Range: B60-B300
Location: Thip Samai PadThai Restaurant, 313 315 Maha Chai Rd, Khwaeng Samran Rat, Khet Phra Nakhon, Krung Thep Maha Nakhon 10200, Bangkok, Thailand

Thip Samai Restaurant
At least on the internet, the runaway pad thai bestseller is Thip Samai Restaurant. One site even stated that 9 out of 10 locals will mention Thip Samai as the pad thai place of choice. One site described it as 'legendary' while another claimed that it 'should be on everyone's list of the best local restaurants'. There was simply too much hype riding on this pad thai place.

Birthday Treat
It was my birthday and I had been craving for pad thai the last couple of days. There is none in my neighborhood so a trip to Thip Samai was in order. I planned my bus route for this fabled pad thai place - I just love the Bangkok Via Bus app, Google Maps and Maps.Me for my bus travels. Without them, I would have to be reliant on the more expensive BTS trains.

Exploring the Neighborhood
I didn't know they open at 5. I arrived 4pm and had to wait for an hour. I explored a little bit of the neighborhood in the meantime. Just a few steps away from Thip Samai is another famous restaurant, Raan Jay Fai. They serve crab omelette at B1,500 a pop and there's even a 2-hour waiting time! It's insane in this area. Because of this pricing, everything in the immediate area is also slightly more expensive compared to the rest of Bangkok.

The Queue
Around 4:30pm, a line started to form. I was within the first 10 people. The organization was spot-on! They had a maitre d' who showed us to our seats - one table per group, even if you are a 1-person group. I met a Korean tourist while lining up, Harim and we took a table together, but we were separated into 2 tables because we wanted separate bills. The restaurant extended deeper into to the rear of the shophouse. It was comfortably air-conditioned with lots of uniformed staff who knew what they were doing. The process was like a well-oiled machinery. All tables immediately got full before the first dish was served. The line outside got longer. The menu consisted of several types of pad thai. I simply ordered the cheapest on the menu - B60. It is my position that a restaurant's food quality should be measured by the cheapest on it's menu. If they can do that well, then there won't be any problem with the pricier items. I would have ordered the orange juice, but at B160, I declined.

Outdoor Kitchen
It wasn't just an open kitchen, it was a fully open alfresco kitchen out on the forefront of the restaurant in full view of the public. Yes, it was brilliant in bringing eye-candy factor to the spectacle with all the flame flaring up from the heated woks. I cannot imagine a more inviting way to lure dinner guests in. But they didn't really rely on walk-ins. People came from all over Bangkok to line-up and spend big on their pad thai.

busy bodies preparing pad thai at Thip Samai

Chow Time
I was disappointed when my dish finally came. The serving was so small. It looked like an appetizer pad thai instead of a meal. Compared to the usual pad thai, this one looked a little pale. I was looking at the other pad thais ordered by the adjacent tables. Some pad thais were wrapped in thin egg omelette and others were marginally more, often with a giant jumbo prawn on top - that must be the B300 pad thai on the menu. My order had a few ingredients and a small shrimp but that didn't matter. I was after the taste. So, how was it?

Verdict
Verdict...hmmm...let me put it this way. If I had ordered that same dish for B35 along an obscure street as a nondescript street pad thai, it would not wow me. In fact, it would not even get my attention. I'm not saying it's bad - no, it's not bad, but neither can I say it's good. It was as average as average gets. If it were an obscure street pad thai at B35, I would give it 3 stars (out of 5). However, since I paid B70 for it (the menu said B60 but I didn't bother to ask why B10 more since none could speak English), given its small portion and the wait, I would have to give it lower than 3 - thus the 2 stars. Curious if it was just me, I asked Harim - she ordered 2 dishes and her pad thai had the big shrimp on top. She said that despite 2 dishes, it didn't really fill her up. And taste? She said so-so. I'm no pad thai expert, but the best one I've had so far was actually in Battambang, Cambodia. To summarize, Thip Samai did not live up to the hype. It's was not worth the trip, not worth the lining up and not worth the money.

I noticed that in Bangkok, when a restaurant gets famous, the price is jacked-up. Ok, understandable. But just in contrast, when I was in Penang, Malaysia, there were so many fabled restaurants some still on push carts where people took long lines - the prices remained competitive and the taste really lived-up to its hype. I would have to say that on a food scale, my top 3 cities are Bangkok, Ho Chi Minh City and Penang with Penang keeping the crown.

--- TheLoneRider
YOGA by Gigit | Learn English | Travel like a Nomad | Donation Bank

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