Samrub Samrub Thai — Restaurant in Si Lom Subdistrict

A short disclaimer, that I was not a fan of nahm nor long chim. I did enjoy my meal at Vilas. I personally felt that recipes that were ancient and were lost disappeared for a reason.

Overall, it was a decently executed meal with good strong complex Thai flavours. But dishes were probably old recipes and very rare now. Rather obvious difference compared to the other modern Thai places I have dined at recently.

Service was casual and friendly, just like the restaurant. The rowdy atmosphere helped. English was good.

Best dish I really enjoyed was the oyster. Topped with a plethora of ingredients like young green mango with give it its sharp acidity, fragrant dried shrimps and fried shallots, chili jam, and a whole of other herbs, simply a flavour explosion in my mouth.

Roasted pork had its fat rendered down and did not feel oily at all. A little boring with the peppercorn relish and pickled peppercorn. I felt that it lacked a crispy texture, and a fragrant component.

I didn’t understand the dried octopus, soaked and rehydrated, grilled and served with the coconut based sauce. It didn’t have the unique fragrance from grilled dried octopus, and had a slight crunch which felt like chicken tendons. Sauce could match anything else and it’ll be great too.

The cured fish salad was punchy but it felt like it needed an accompanying as the cure was a little too punchy. I felt that as a big fish, the meat tendons were tough and it could be better fabricated so each bite is bite size and easier on the jaw.

Coconut relish with banana prawns was okay, but the prawns were totally overcooked. And one pinky sized prawn per person was a little sad.

Crab soup probably summed up why I am not a fan of such “lost recipe” flavours. It was sufficiently sour, but lacked a balance with maybe a touch of sweetness and more salinity. Modern dishes aim to be perfectly balanced. Crab meat was really fresh though.

Gaeng som beef was another weird dish to me. I’m a huge fan of gaeng som and i didn’t like this version. A sweetness was lacking. Beef quality was really good too. I loved it that they served with the chewy parts. I’m not sure if they used Thai beef, but if they did, they have extremely good sourcing. Texture was like an Australian wagyu.

Squid with pineapple was well cooked. Pineapple was really sweet. Tumeric fish was overcooked and a little under seasoned from the herbs. Likely they salt and cure it to marinate, but I only taste salt in the meat. Tumeric flavour was only in the exterior coating.

Desserts were normal. And the service crew did not engage me on my dining experience. Objectively I would give it a 4 stars but I won’t be back simply because I’m not a fan of this cuisine. And while the squid and beef were perfectly handled, the prawn and fish...

Simply excellent food which is Unmistakably and proudly Thai. Accomplished head chef Prin Polsuk and wife Mint have a unique approach which is to study historic recipe books and then bring these traditional dishes to the table of their discrete and highly regarded downtown eatery.

The set menu changes every 2 months and we happened to dine on day 2 of the latest menu inspired by a recent trip made by the whole team to Satun and Koh Lipe on the Andaman coast. Prin and Mint are very warm hosts and we enjoyed chatting to them about their fact finding trip, being more than happy sharing photos and showing us the actual recipes and unusual ingredients used.

The best seats in the house are certainly the ones on the LHS of the communal table where you are so close to the cooking action you may be forgiven for thinking you are part of Chef Prin’s industrious and professional young team adorned in company tee shirts and baseball caps. More private/romantic tables, away from the cooking action are located further along.

A very well balanced and structured multi-course menu will unfold in front of your eyes, some individual dishes and some being shared with your dining partner. Quality and presentation is commensurate with Chef Prin’s pedigree of working in some of Thailands top restaurants such as Nahm, whilst tastes are unmistakably and proudly Thai (very often lost in high-end fine dining establishments). With no-holds-barred spice levels which will leave some Farang diners hot under the collar. But this is a small price to pay for what is surely some of the best truly Thai food presently available… Order a nice bottle of wine, sit back and enjoy! Wonderful starters include barbecued-to-perfection skewers of duck breast with Pha-Naeng curry a kind of take on satay and deep fried Horse Mackerel stuffed with red crab curry resembling something in between fish cake and Haw Mok - simply delicious. The medley of mains is equally inspired - mussel salad with green feather algae and cashew nut dressing, then stir fried relish with skipjack tuna and cuttlefish served with local vegetables cooked in coconut milk including the Southern Thai favourite of bitter beans. Next up an amazing grillled pork neck and then a timely cleansing yet delicious fisherman’s soup before finishing with a couple of knock-out dishes - Tiger prawn curry with sour soap and Vietnamese mint followed by braised oxtail and ox cheek in five spiced (palo) sauce with the quirky Andaman addition of coconut milk.

Sadly the meal came to an end and we had to leave before the next sitting but promising ourselves we would be booking in for the first day of the next...

🗒️ nov- dec 2023 concrete jungle food

We came to samrub all ready to fall in love the food - especially after reading stellar reviews both online and from famous food critics. Having had the privilege of visiting several truly brilliant michelin-starred restaurants in a few cities between the few of us, we were even more delighted to hear that the chef had received his just a week ago.

Unfortunately our experience was less than ideal. In fact it was truly quite a struggle, and for the following reasons:

Let me preface by saying that I love spicy food. But the spices in every single dish was tongue-numbing - we went through the experience downing our expensive still water (which they too did not have the courtesy of letting us know whenever they opened a new bottle).

Flavour matching wise - it felt like each dish was attacking my senses. The herbs were very intense, and not in a way that was pleasant at all. Think black pepper, white pepper, mint, lemongrass, smokiness.

Odd sharing plate format - 2 sharing plates for 3 diners made it very awkward for the person in the middle, having to scoop 1/3 from both plates.. I understand the communal dining concept, but this was just very unnecessarily cumbersome.

Perhaps a small matter, but the cutlery and tableware were not refreshed after every course. I guess, if you are paying michelin prices, that’s a basic expectation.

Perhaps the chefs were having an off day. Perhaps the food was just not to our personal preference. I thought long and hard about these things, and while they could be true to a small degree - the chefs did mention that the menu this round was inspired by the jungles of Laos and North Vietnam, and were therefore spicier/ bolder in flavour - it is fair to say that there were some serious structural flaws in the food served.

🥘 Food- specific Commentary The beef slices were chewy and drenched in an extremely peppery sauce, the eel was tasteless and hard to swallow, bitter raw veggie with a super spicy sambal (?), the hot and sour soup which was one-dimensional… I would take any Chinese restaurant chain’s version over what we were served.

The bamboo fish meat tasted funky. I would take a regular cheap pork meat ball over this any day.

The wagyu skewers (which were add-ons) while delicious, were yet again, a tad overcooked.

Bee larvae tasted odd as well, serving it bland, to be dipped in some chilli I’m mixing up was really not a good introduction to insect cuisine.

Dessert was good.

Overall, I found the service to be thoughtful, but also they seemed to have a little attitude as well? Atmosphere was cosy, and...