On our last night in Bangkok, we opted for a quiet and relaxing sit-down meal in one of our all-time favourite restaurants, Ban Khun Mae. After a week’s worth of street food overload, we just had to have something different. ?
Ban Khun Mae is located in Siam Square, just across the road from Som Tam Nua. You can easily walk to Ban Khun Mae from the nearest BTS station, Siam.
When we arrived, we were ushered to the second level where there was a live traditional musical instrument (some sort of a zither) performance at the dining area. This performance is available everyday from 7pm to 9pm.
Ban Khun Mae serves up mainstream Thai cuisine which is similar to what you can get from Nakhon Kitchen in Singapore.
We started the meal with a Thai Spicy Papaya Salad (100 baht). I actually liked this version better than the one from Som Tam Nua as the sauce was nicely balanced without being overly spicy. The shredded papaya had a lovely crunch when chewed.
The Shrimp Cakes (190 baht) were absolutely delicious. The prawn filling was fresh-tasting, naturally sweet and rather crunchy. They were beautifully fried to a nice crisp and crunch on the outside and weren’t greasy at all.
Their Tom Yum Kung (200 baht) was way more flavoursome than the regular clear Tom Yum Soup. It had a lot more body and depth and was really robust tasting.
In fact, I could taste prawn head juices and prawn shell fragrance in the soup itself. Nicely executed. Probably one of the best Tom Yum Kung I ever had. There were plenty of ingredients in the soup – crunchy, fresh prawns and juicy straw mushrooms. Overall, it was on the spicy side but the more I drank the soup, the more I wanted it. Yes, it was that moreish.
The Deep Fried Grouper with Chilli Sauce (340 baht) looked so darn good when it was served up.
Very crispy exterior. We could just devour the whole fish, fins and all.
For those of you who can’t take spicy food, you might want to request for less chilli or for the sauce to be served separately. That deadly chilli sauce was so hot that it immediately cleared my sinuses. Despite the mouth-burning effect, I still liked the dish a lot because there was an intense basil flavour that stood out in the sauce. It wasn’t just spicy, it was fragrant and delicious.
Fish was very fresh. Size was good for sharing between 2-4 persons.
We had 3 steamed white rice and a pot of hot tea to share. In total, we paid just over 1,000 baht for the meal which was inclusive of tax and service charge. Not the cheapest meal by local standard but definitely worth the value.
We loved the laid back atmosphere of the restaurant with a clean, comfortable and air-conditioned environment. And the live entertainment gave a nice cultural touch too. Service was impeccable. Staff were polite.
Highly recommended.