Isan Rod Ded — Restaurant in Thanon Phaya Thai Subdistrict

Ate here recently for a late weekday dinner. Was starving so did not take any photos. When i entered, I was led to a 2 seater deep inside the restaurant. The staff did not let me choose seats even though i saw others choose their own seats. I was given a Thai menu at first, which I thought was OK as i could use Google translate and then point or speak when ordering (i can speak basic Thai). They gave me a paper and pencil and later i realised they only accept orders written on paper, not verbally. I had already decided what to order when the young female staff realised i couldn't write Thai and handed me an English menu. I checked the items i wanted to order again and realised there was a price discrepancy.

I went ahead to order as it wasn't a huge difference. The English menu has numbered dishes so that's what you write on paper instead of the Thai dish names. Got the boiled shrimp papaya salad and fried chicken wings (small) with rice. The salad cost the same between the 2 menus but the chicken wings cost 10 baht more on the English menu (80 instead of 70 baht).

I'm not sure what else they charge more on the English menu as that's all I ordered.

There's 2 bottles of water on each table which is chargeable but I didn't drink it. They also served each table a bucket of ice cubes and a small basket of raw vegetables but I didn't get either. Not sure why- was it because I was a solo diner or because I was a foreigner? Anyway I didn't ask for it as i didn't need them. Not sure if the raw vegetables were complimentary or chargeable.

The food took awhile to come. Service was consistently mediocre. No greetings or smiles or anything and it was the same for all customers. The wait staff were all very young and looked unhappy.. the papaya salad was good and had 5 shrimp. I liked that it was not too spicy and just right for me.

The fried chicken wings looked very different from the pictures. What came was around 7 small bite sized pieces of bones with very little meat on them. Still they was piping hot, crispy and delicious, whether eaten plain or dipped in the sweet chilli sauce.

It was pretty crowded when I was there- mostly Thais and 1-2 tables of tourists. I wonder if the tourists know that they pay more than locals for the same food. Anyway good to know. I'm undecided whether to...

If you're a foreigner and want to taste real isaan food, then don't come here. I think when they see a foreigner they change all their recipes.

I ordered laab gai and Som Tam Thua. They asked if I can eat spicy food (in thai), I said yes (in thai). Unfortunately the Som Tam not only had no chilli, it had no fermented fish sauce and it was sweet! This isn't Som Tam at all.

The Laab also came with minimal chilli but I sent it back and they added more, after that it actually tasted like laab so at least I got something good out of this restaurant.

Another thing I noticed is that they did not provide me with the complimentary vegetables that all the other customers got. I had to ask for them. I didn't like this and I felt like they were treating me...

We ordered 3 menus on Oct 4, 2023: Fried Chicken (9/10) this is very delicious. Juicy chicken meat and the flavor very rich. Very crispy too. This is a must try! But we did need to wait about 15-20mins to have this menu ready.

Duck Beak Fried (7.5/10) Wanted to try the regular Fried duck but they dont have. The taste is the same like fried chicken, but because of the anatomy of the beak, the "meaty" part is very few. So a bit effort to eat.

Papaya salad with shrimp (no rating 🤣) I cant comment much. But i would not recommend to order this menu. The taste could be much much better. I couldnt taste savoury / other taste. It really can be much much better for my taste ✌️

These 3 menus + rice + water = 325 Baht.

I think it's a bit...