COCONUTS CRITIC’S TABLE — “They’ve turned it up to 11 on the hob of deliciousness.” Silly words, but they came out of my mouth involuntarily during a meal at Khua Kling Phak Sot, a superlative Southern Thai restaurant that, thank Buddha, now has two branches in Bangkok. I love the restaurant on Phahonyothin 8 so much I almost held myself back from writing about it. As things stand, I can always get a seat. But the family who own the place deserve to reap rewards for doing the tastebuds of Bangkok a service, so here you are.
The weird truth about Thai restaurants in this city is that they rarely seem to do everything well. A certain place may do amazing som tam but pedestrian kai yang. Another place doors away might nail the grilled chicken but have no idea what to do with a shredded papaya. Eating well in Bangkok isn’t just about knowing names of restaurants. It’s about knowing what to order and where. It will be interesting to see which Thai restaurants make it into the Michelin Guide when it finally hits the Thai capital next year. To achieve even one star the food must be prepared to a “consistently high standard”. Some of the city’s eateries will need to up their game – and maybe get the decorators in.
Khua Kling Phak Sot seems to buck this trend. If I’m not mistaken – and I admit I haven’t tried all the dishes on the menu – every morsel that leaves this restaurant’s kitchen is superb, and demonstrates an unyielding commitment to deliciousness. The flavours are unashamedly bold, the spice levels are incendiary, and, Lord, I’d sell my soul for a plate of their sator phat kapi kung (stink beans fried in shrimp paste with shrimp).
Owned by a Sino-Thai family from Chumporn, the Thong Lor branch has been wowing diners for a while now. This year a second branch opened to serve the office crowds that flood onto Phahonyothin Road each weekday lunchtime. The restaurant is a neat but sparsely decorated box of a room on Soi 8. The walls are adorned only with prints of Klimt – good taste more than replicated on the plate.
Some of these dishes force me to shake my head in dismay at my helplessness in their thrall. The shrimp paste in the aforementioned sator phad kapi kung assaults you with umami, the stink beans bring a sulphurous crunch. The fat shrimp are of a quality that puts most other Thai restaurants to shame. For good measure, there’s an unctuous injection of ground pork. Why? Because, deliciousness.
The kaeng lueang pla is just as good: a sour soup, all tamarind and fire, containing its own cooling antidote in the form of fat chunks of seabass and crunchy slices of coconut flesh. And then there’s the crab dishes. Oh, the crab dishes. They aren’t cheap, coming in at THB380 or thereabouts. But when they arrive and you see the huge, lightly browned chunks of crab flesh piled on the plate, doubts evaporate.
The balance of the seasoning in these dishes never seems to stray from the sweet spot. You can tell whoever came up with the recipes has an almost psychotic obsession with maximising flavour. Strangely enough, the restaurant’s signature dish, khua kling mu (minced pork fried in curry paste), is one of the weakest in the field, though that’s only because the dish itself, however well cooked, couldn’t hold a candle to the more complex pleasures above. I could go on, but I fear I’m gushing. Make your way there, but please: spare me a seat.
FIND IT:
Tel: 081-811-5458
Khua Kling Phak Sot
Phahonyothin Soi 8
Bangkok
