Raan Jay Fai — Restaurant in Samran Rat Subdistrict

TONIGHT, I HAD THE MOST WONDERFUL DINING EXPERIENCE OF MY LIFE AT RAAN JAY FAI! 👍👍👍👍👍

Madam Jay Fai is a masterclass in her own right for every dish that she personally cooks atop charcoaled flames, and the undying passion that she exuberates and seeped into her work---all translated into the delicious dishes that are presented to you at the table.

If you are looking for Thai street food loaded with MSG, salt and sugar, and chillies, don't come to RJF. You will be moaning and complaining all the way. 😂

Patience is a virtue.  Queue and wait your turn to receive goodness, and you will be rewarded. Humility is a virtue.  Be kind and patient, and you will be rewarded with kindness and attentiveness in return.

All dishes that I ordered came one after the other, with irregular intermittency. There is only one master chef Madam Jay Fai. 😁

THE CRAB OMELETTE ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️

After an hour-plus of queuing, with the sky threatening to break, I was seated.  And, after another 40mins, the ever famous Crab Omelette arrived---loaded with what seemed to be the Sri Lankan Mud Crab that Singapore uses for our Singapore Chilli Crab and others. Not oily despite it being deep fried, it was perfectly cooked and arrived on the table piping hot!  I enjoyed every bite of it.

Whoever said that this 1,500 Baht crab omelette of such good quality is average has either never had one, or had one that was densely doused in MSG.

CRAB FRIED RICE ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️

For me, this was one of the better crab fried rice I've ever had in Thailand, with a subtle hint of "wok hei" (smokiness from or the breath of the wok) just enough to have the smoky aroma tickle my nose, and the taste of the sea nestled on my tongue with every bite. Again, it arrived on my table hot, perfectly cooked, and loaded with chunks of fresh crab.

As the Thai's do, I dropped some Prik Nam Pla (fresh cut chilli padi with fish sauce) onto the crab fried rice. I was sent to heaven.

DRUNKEN NOODLES ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️

Similar to Hong Kong, Malaysia and Singapore's stir-fried dry "Hor Fun" (wide rice noodles), Madam Jay Fai's Drunken Noodles transported me back to my childhood days, when my late Grandma used to make it for me. Again, piping hot, slightly spicy and well, deeply satisfying.

And, each prawn on the plate is huge, fresh and crisp to the bite. The "Kai Lan" was green and fresh, and the large red chillies kept its citrusy capsaicin taste without blowing my head off.

My first tears of happiness arrived.

TOM YUM SOUP ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️

Madam Jay Fai's Tom Yum soup is not your typical Tom Yum soup sold out there that's saturated with either coconut or evaporated milk, or a combination of both.

A good punch of chilli spiciness, pungent of lemongrass, galangal, kaffir lime leaves and others, just the right level of tartness and saltiness from the quintessential fish sauce for almost all Thai savoury dishes.

SEAFOOD RAD NA ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️

At first taste, the Thai-ness was missing. I would have said I was sorely disappointed thinking that Madam Jay Fai had missed adding the quintessential fermented yellow beans into it that makes this the Thai Rad Na, but wait a minute, this is a Chinese-one because Madam Jay Fai is Teochew, and you know what, this is THE BEST RAD NA I HAVE EVER HAD IN MY LIFE. Madam Jay Fai's Rad Na brought the second wave of happy tears to my eyes.

My bill was approx 4,500 Baht (SGD 180), with a small Singha Beer, Coke and 2 buckets of ice.  Although on the higher side, the 4,500 Baht price tag that I had paid was reasonably fair. If I was in Singapore, the Singapore Chilli Crab alone would have easily cost more than SGD 200 for a crab.  Plus, the food came from a 1 Michelin starred chef!

I sincerely thank Madam Jay Fai for the wonderful meal that she had cooked for me, and the nostalgia and happiness that she had brought to me this evening to a level that I had not experienced for a very long time.

And, to Madam Jay Fai's team, a huge thank you as well, for attending to me and making feel more than just a standard paying customer...

I would encourage you to convert the THB price of any of her dishes to your local currency and ask yourself if you can dine at a Michelin star chef's kitchen in your country for that price. More often than not, probably can't.

My experience with the service and staff was seamless and yes everyone should factor in and be prepared for a wait time, because they don't take reservations, since it's one woman cooking!

The staff were perfectly and appropriately polite. They had a system of queuing up clients that works for them. The system may not be the most efficient but definitely gets the job done. I also noticed so many different notices for fairly obvious things - "please pay in cash only (Thai THB)", "please remember your queue number", "if you've missed your queue number re-join the waitlist". But the most surprising notice I read was "no disrespect towards the staff or chef would be tolerated".

These notices are telling of how many bad experiences the staff have probably had in the past. And just as I wondered that, one customer who finished her meal, realised she hadn't got enough Thai THB to pay for her meal so asked if she could withdraw from a nearby ATM. She returned very flustered and said she couldn't get any THB and so they are going to have to accept her payment in a foreign currency. The front desk manager clearly explained to her that they don't accept foreign currency, she literally just thew the money on the counter and walked away fast enough for either of them to chase her down with her foreign currency. I won't mention the nationality or currency, but it's probably these kind of racist behaviours knowing they can get away with it in a small establishment in Phra Nakhon that have resulted in the many signs and rules they have put up. I would love to see that woman try to pull something like that at any other Michelin star Chef's restaurant.

Reasons I decided to dine here:

At the time of writing this, Chef Jay Fai is 80 years old and cooks all day, every day. She is the one preparing every single meal. Ingredients are prepped and condiment ordered and dishes are washed for her and plating is done up - but it's Chef Jay Fai at the frontline, one with two either woks or pots, breathing in wok hay and cooking oil for hours together. Does she need to be cooking anymore, I don't think so, and definitely not through the day and not each meal. She is passionate about it. Therefore this food is more alchemy and art than nourishment. She could have cooked inside a kitchen with shut doors and had others cook it up, but she's out here with two barricades worth of distance between unassuming tourists videoing and photographing her. I waited 2 hours in the queue, and yes my feet hurt, but I didn't get bored because I watched Chef Jay Fai cook all the time I waited. How many people can say they WATCHED a Michelin star chef cook? This level of transparency, I'm yet to come across. And remember for as long as any single customer is still standing in line, this woman is still standing by the got woks!

Bangkok is the hub for seafood and all those years back Chef Jay Fai made the link between Street food's top hits with the best season food. I decided only to eat seafood while in Bangkok.

Jay Fai's is an all-woman run establishment, if that's something you consider important to support.

Jay Fai's employs elderly. Plenty of septogenarians besides Chef herself being an Octogenarian. Again, if that's something you consider important.

Jay Fai started as a street food chef and continues to be one. If that's something you consider important to support

Yes, she's achieved one Michelin Star. One more than most of us can claim.

Top tip: start your day at Jay Fai's and plan your day around this meal, don't try to fit it in between other activities. Get...

Let me preface this review by saying that we used a queuing service so we didn't have to wait the typical 3-4 hours that other reviewers had to wait. Nevertheless, we still had to wait an hour for our food to be prepared.

Many reviewers have spoke about the:

A) long wait times, B) the spiciness of the food, and C) the poor service.

Many of the same reviews also do not respect the "no photos" sign and take pictures of the chef.

These complaints can be all explained away by using a bit of common sense:

A) it's ONE lady (Jay Fai) doing ALL of the cooking for 10+ tables on ONE wok. Many tables also order more than 4 dishes. It's a given that it'll be a long wait. Jay Fai earned her Michelin star by doing all of the cooking - while she has a prep team, there's a reason why people queue up so long - to eat HER food made by HER.

Let me be unequivocally transparent here: it is one woman cooking food for a maximum of 60+ patrons at a time on ONE wok. Don't expect fast food serving times here.

B) it's a THAI restaurant. If you're not prepared to eat spicy Michelin star food, why are you here? It's also not within Thai culture to request for your dish to be made specially different. Show respect for the culture and the food or don't eat here and complain.

C) reviews complaining about poor service do not take the human element into account. This place opens for service at 8AM but prep work begins much earlier.

Wait staff also have to deal with rude, impatient tourists who: do not understand that there is a queue are frustrated with the long wait times have unattainable expectations after waiting 4-5+ hours for food take photos when they're specifically disallowed expect perfect English/Chinese/Hindu/Korean

Some reviewers even talk about the lack of AC. Seriously? I'll hate to imagine what the rest of Bangkok and Thailand will do to your Western sensibilities.

Now, with that being prefaced, let's get to the food.

The quality of the ingredients are superb. Jay Fai is the epitome of simple ingredients cooked in a simple way, but the way the food is prepared is worth more than the sum of its parts.

The wok is cast over a charcoal burning fire through which the chef herself must blow air into to keep the temperature blazing. This is why she wears her famous ski goggles - the embers can literally reach up to 500 degrees celsius. A slight smoky and charcoal taste is imbued into the food as a result, creating a delicate smoky aroma that can't be missed.

Here's a breakdown of the individual food items that we've ordered:

Crab Omelette: crispy with huge chunks of crab. Contrast between the crispy egg and the delicate crab is immaculate.

Seafood Tom Yum: sour, tangy, and extremely spicy. Packed with shrimp, squid, galangal, lime leaves, and a host of other Thai herbs. Large bowl. Best eaten with rice.

Pad Pong Kari (stir fried yellow curry): Large shrimps stir fried with eggs, green onions, and chilli's. Extremely moist and fluffy eggs. Subtly sweet and extremely savoury.

Thai Fried Rice: Packed with crab chunks. Simply savory and delicious.

So, is Jay Fai worth the visit?

Yes, but temper your expectations.

Don't enter the establishment with expectations exceeding the moon and you'll leave more than satisfied. If possible, pay the 600-1000 THB for a queue service so you can skip the line. You'll have a much better time.

And please, show some respect by not taking photos of the chef or her kitchen. There are signs...