Somboon Thai Shop — Restaurant in Exeter

Interesting concept of Thai grocery shop + casual noodle restaurant. They only do noodles (all £8.95) and they do them very well. I'm not familiar with Thai noodle soups but have tried the beef, chicken, and chicken + pork and all have been very good. Each comes with its own tasty broth base, your choice of two types of noodles, and some veg. Flavours are nuanced, full, and authentically Southeast Asian. This is not (thank goodness) your typical bland and dumbed down version of generic "oriental noodle soup" that is, sadly, the standard in the city. Portions are good, friendly and helpful service, and clean premises.

There is a huge void of local, super casual restaurants that have very good food Exeter and very happy to see this place open. The fact that it's only been a week since they started serving food and they are already so busy is testament to the fact that more of these types of eateries are sorely lacking.

Update: Agree with the other reviewer that a downside is the handling of orders at busy times. An indication of how long the wait might be and perhaps better organization would go a long way in making the experience smoother...

This restaurant has a lot of Chinese customers for a good reason. It's so hard to find a bowl of good, authentic Asian noodle soup in this country (emphasis on authentic). I go here every time when I travel to Exeter and they never disappoint.

The beef noodle soup is amazing. The portion of noodles is just right, and the beef balls are flavourful, tenderly chewy (彈牙 in Cantonese) and not mushy. (I'm from Hong Kong and I know what good meatballs taste like, so trust me 😉) The broth is slightly sweet. Add some chili flakes in it, and it's perfect.

I also like to order cha yen (Thai iced milk tea) with my noodles. It's very creamy and tasty. Perfect during a hot day... Even though it's barely hot in the UK during summer lol.

One thing to note - it can get very busy during lunch time so you might have to wait 20...

I had a frustrating and confusing experience here recently. They don’t have a proper queuing system, so I had to pay before finding a table, but there might be no more empty table after you queue and pay. This time I secured a table first before queuing for order, but then the staff member asked me to give up my table for another customer, leaving me no table to dine in.

It would be better if they let customers secure a table first and then order and pay. Additionally, there was no waiting area or guidance to seating, resulting in chaos as people searched for available seats. The restaurant should establish a procedure to guide customers to their tables for a...