55 Pochana — Restaurant in Khlong Tan Nuea Subdistrict

This is a place of nostalgia for me. When I first moved to Thailand to work at the Bangkok Post, I lived in a condo around the corner. This cluster of restaurants on Soi 55 served up my regular lunch and dinner spots, especially after the street food vendors were moved off Soi 59 — where I first fell in love with Issan food.

55th Pochana became my perennial Friday night spot, pregaming for the now defunct Nothing But the Blues once in Thong Lor, or the also defunct Check Inn 99. I come here to remember a version of life once mine.

Sweat soaked, soaking up smog, watching people, drinking big bottles of Heineken on wobbly metal tables, admiring the hardworking staff, and buzzing with the electricity of weekend’s eve, this always felt like a special corner of the Sukhumvit experience.

The restaurant doesn’t seem to belong to any particular clientele — local, expat or tourist. That is part of its charm.

I often returned to the well of fried duck and basil, though I’ve never picked wrong when sampling their other Chinese-Thai fare.

I often surprised guests whom I brought here. So (relatively cheap). So good.

If you share my sense of aesthetic, a bit of grit and light filtered through booze; standing still as the world washes by, this is a wonderful place to spend the witching hour of the...

When we first passed the place at night it was so full that we needed to come back and try it. Back on Sunday evening, it was much less crowded than the first time. We ordered chicken with cashew nut, the shrimp salad and egg fried rice. The chicken was good, but too sweet and very few cashew nuts. The shrimp salad and the fried rice both were good as well. Considering the price, I think the value is not very good. Portions were small and the food was more expensive than at a random restaurant around the corner. We paid more than 400 for food you would pay at least 30% less elsewhere. Maybe it is due to the location at Sukhumvit and the Japanese area. Even though it was quite empty, the service was very slow and we waited almost 10 minutes for the bill. It may be the perfect stop for a late night eat when everything else is closed, but at normal hours I would prefer...

The crab omelette can skip order as I cannot even find any chunks of crab meat, only tiny streds 2-3 here n there (no wonder the locals order oyster omelette cos across the table I can see quite many oysters). Ordered the vermicelli with the morning glory veg, its fried with ham, prawns and cuttlefish - v nice, give it a try. Do try the other stir fry veg that is label below the chives dish, I dun rmb wat is the veg name but initially ordered cos we thot it looks like kang kong, but glad we ordered this instead has a nice crunch to it as well. The above dishes are a tad saltish, either eat with rice or wash it down with beer. Steam sea bass with lime & chilli was fresh, but not really consider cheap as it cost half of the total meal including 1 bottle of Singha, and dun order Singha it's so gassy that I felt bloated b4 I could...