SOMA Bangkok — Restaurant in Wang Mai Subdistrict

I was taken here by someone special for my last meal in Thailand, and it was a truly the best way to end my holiday. I have honestly been thinking about some of the dishes ever since.

The menu is designed in such a way that it channels you into making a good selection and there is scope to enjoy all the distinct flavour profiles across the different sections. There were lots of ingredients I didn’t know, but the person I was with is a chef and knows a lot about SE Asian herbs and Thai language, and he loved them. We had a fabulous fermented pork salad (pictured) with leaves and crispy things, we had a scallop set custard (pictured) which was a carnival of flavours, we had a huge river prawn with the most fragrant salad. For me the highlights were the beef cheek massaman (such a depth of flavour, and somehow for something so brown it looked gorgeous and glossy on the plate); a Smokey soup, the name of which escapes me but which had beautiful tender tranches of ray or similar in there; and the bitter orange granita, a super refreshing end to the meal. One thing I would also give credit for is that everything was great to share. There were equal amounts of everything- often chefs like to arrange things in odd numbers, they say it looks better, but it’s annoying to share that way. We didn’t have that issue; whether deliberate or not.

Service was perfect: our servers were not overbearing but always attentive, for example, I’m a very clumsy person and I kept dropping my serviette so the lovely waiter brought me a whole box of them and put them down next to me without saying anything. What a loving gesture. Someone klonked over a whole bottle of wine on a neighbouring table and the staff handled it with grace.

The reason I knocked a star for atmosphere isn’t really the restaurant’s fault, I just find those big buildings, like the one it’s housed in, quite scary and soulless. The restaurant itself is sleek, its huge artworks work fabulously in the space, and the bowls, plates and little dishes in which things are served are beautiful...

I am at a loss for words to describe the sublime experience I had at SOMA. The food was outstanding, every dish a hit out of the park. The dishes were familiar in the sense that you knew you were looking at on the table was Thai food. But the flavors were so different, punchy & mind blowing. The soup of minced pork with cowslip flowers was my top choice, until I had the Ko Lae chicken which was like a satay & a chicken tikka had a love child with a little bit of chaat flavors thrown on. I so fell in love with the thing that I refused to share it with my fellow diners. And when I thought I had seen the best of the dinner, the tomato curry of fermented pork arrived. This was a kind of massaman curry but then it was not. I have no words to describe it. The stir fried chaiyote with snap peas - such a simple dish and yet so surprising. My friend and I were literally licking the plate clean. There was also the salad of rice patties with sour pork & beetle leaves. Once again, this looked like a miang but was so much more. After eating all this, we got tempted to order the longan mochi ice-cream and I am so glad that we did. It seemed like such a simple dish but the assembly of the ice cream, the longan, the thick caramel and crispy rice puffs, all created an orchestra in the mouth and left us oohing and aahing. In the words of the immortal Antoine Ego (Ratatouille) "I'll be visiting SOMA again, hungry for...

Went here for my birthday. Unfortunately, I wasn’t quite happy with the food portions and service.

Let me start with the food — there were some exceptional dishes, like the crispy pork and the fish tartare with rice crackers. However, the rest fell short of expectations. The portion sizes didn’t match the price at all; one serving wasn’t even enough to make you feel full. The minced beef kaprao was also very salty. I didn’t ask for a replacement, but the team insisted on replacing it — thank you for that gesture.

As for the service, it was average. The staff were accommodating and attentive to our needs, but there were a few miscommunications. One server suggested their tomato-based curry, which I agreed to order, but it seems it wasn’t included in our ticket — causing the dish to arrive late. Unfortunately, we didn’t hear any apology from their end for the inconvenience and the team’s small shortcomings.

They did, however, offer complimentary ice cream at the end of our meal, which was a nice gesture — thank you for that.

Overall, I see a lot of potential in this restaurant. I wouldn’t say it’s bad at all, but it definitely needs improvement. I’ve heard many good things about Chef chalee, and perhaps this is the right time for him to revisit and recalibrate this restaurant. It’s new, and I understand there are still...