Tang Jai Yoo Restaurant — Restaurant in Samphanthawong Subdistrict

After a long drive to Bangkok, I decided to try this restaurant for the first time. It is often recommended as a must-visit for traditional Chinese cuisine in Bangkok. The restaurant is small and old, and we had to wait for a table as it was very busy during dinner time. Fortunately, the staff arranged for our group of 16 to sit together after initially being seated separately. The waitress was great and attentive.

However, the food was somewhat disappointing. The fried oyster with eggs lacked umami and tasted as if the oyster was added after the egg was cooked. I had to add my own fish sauce for flavor. The signature grilled suckling pig had a less crispy, bland skin, which is unacceptable for this dish. The braised shark fin soup was also disappointing; it seemed the shark fin was cooked separately and added to a clear soup at the last minute, rather than being properly braised with the chicken stock.

The fried mantis prawn with salt and pepper was decent, but the steamed giant grouper was bland, and I had to add some claypot vegetable broth to improve its taste. The stewed egg noodles with duck webs were unimpressive, tasting bland and lacking effort. The crab braised glass noodles, expected to be a highlight, fell short as the noodles didn’t absorb the crab's umami flavor and lacked black pepper.

However, the fried vegetables were the highlight of the night, perfectly cooked to the right crunchiness with a very umami taste, likely due to some sort of seafood sauce. I didn’t try the fried taro with sugar-coated dessert, so I have no comments on it. Lastly, remember to bring cash, especially if you are a foreigner, as no credit cards...

Mixed experience, quite confusing, proceed with caution.

Tang Jai Yoo is a restaurant I will 100% visit whenever I’m in Bangkok, food is good, service is friendly and overall good experience. Been here about 4-5 times in total since 2022.

I went twice during my 5 day trip but the second visit was a HORRIBLE experience. Sat down, no small dish (peanut and preserved vegetable) - that’s fine, not fussy about it. Ordered the usual oysters, crab fried rice, prawn in vermicelli, Tom yum soup for 4, not all dishes were medium, mostly were small. Ignored us the whole time, reluctant to give tea refills, also rejected our request for the post meal Chinese tea and yam. FYI - not my first time there LOL but I brought some new friends to this place because I genuinely wanted them to enjoy it. Total bill came up to about 2500B, my prior visit was around 1500B, ordered the same dishes, tea was promptly refilled (without asking) and was an overall pleasant experience.

Paid the bill and didn’t release we gave extra 20B, the lady literally looked at us, laughed and put the extra 20B in her pocket and walked away - not that 20B matters but her actions and attitude was very questionable, very aggressive to us too. Saw her waving her hand no at us when I asked another pleasant lady about the Chinese tea and sugar coated yam.

It’s not a bad business, the food is good, I will still come back but the morality and ethics of the staff is questionable. Next time just get the stir fried oyster and crab fried rice, eat and go.

Understand that I’m a tourist, but still not a way of treating...

Came with my family due to good reviews and recommendations from friends but all I had experienced was a nightmare. I visited the restaurant on the 6/10/2023 around noon.

Ordered a whole suckling pig, skin was rather tasteless but decided that it was ok, there after the dish was prepared for a second course which was fried with garlic. To my surprise, there was 3 ears and 2 tails for a pig I ordered. The restaurant is not honest and is serving leftovers or mixing other parts of pig which were not fresh or hygienic.

Given that each pig was 2500 baht, they are shortchanging guests, serving unhygienic food as well. We were using our own chopsticks which we had been using to eat to serve the skin of the suckling pig and yet the chef came and told us that she mixed another table’s pig and cooked it together. Ridiculous.

When we informed the waitresses that there were 3 ears and 2 pig tail in our dish, they laughed and mocked us in Thai which I could not understand what they were saying but it just seemed like my family was the joke and everyone was laughing at us. I would like to seek help on reporting them to any authorities in Thailand if anyone could assist and share how we can bring this up. I am travelling and it might be once in my life that I try this, but I hope other tourists would not fall for their dishonest and unhygienic practices.

I hope my elderly parents do not fall ill from this meal and no one else should go through this as well. Very dissatisfied and I told the manager that I will not be paying for...