Taken for a ride on a tuktuk

from inside the tuktuk

Ahh the Thais, they're quite the colorful characters. We met all sorts. Though I did not feel from them the genuine warmth that exuded from the Hanoi locals, they were mostly a nice enough bunch peppered with the occasional crude dude.

Such as the taxi driver who wouldn't take us up the driveway of our hotel, shooing us all off with both hands when we refused to budge. Adamant, I reminded him that we were paying him x amount of money (his was the only taxi we allowed ourselves to ride unmetered) so the least he could do was take us up to the lobby instead of leaving us at the curb. He responded to this with a loud demonic laugh "mwahahaha...EJECT!!!" as he jabbed at an invisible button on his dashboard. I stared at him incredulous from my position at shotgun. Is he doing what I think he's doing? His eyes then grew wide and he shouted with all the force he could muster "BOOM!!!", accompanying this imaginary explosion with his arms. Holymotherof! He is! The nerrrrve! :-O We were so shocked, we stormed out of his cab and for dramatic effect, I slammed the door. As we walked up the steep driveway, we burst into fits of uncontrollable laughter. We had been launched from a taxi!

While that turned out to be funny in retrospect, this one wasn't. We wanted to go to Somboon Seafood restaurant and we decided to take a tuktuk for the sake of the experience. Because there were six of us and only about 3 fit comfortable in each, we hailed 2 of them. I told the first driver where we wanted to go and even showed the Thai name of the restaurant and it's address. He knew the place, he said, but didn't we want to go to a nearer branch? I insisted on the one at Surawong because it was near Patpong which we planned to walk to after dinner. After arguing with him, he finally agreed to take us there. I climbed into the second tuktuk and told the driver to follow the first. Riding the tuktuk is actually really fun and it brought back memories of my pedicab riding days in Dumaguete.

About 5 minutes later, the first driver stops his tuktuk in the middle of the road and walks over to us, again insisting to take us to the nearer one. At this point, I am starting to get annoyed and I threaten to abandonthe tuktuks for a taxi if he doesn't take us where we want to go. He mumbles something incoherent and climbs back on his seat and we continue on. We arrive at the restaurant and before I could even step out of the tuktuk, a menu was shoved into my hands by a waiter. Okayyyy, a little too eager are we?

The guidebook described Somboon as a bright and modern restaurant and there was nothing modern about this one. The sign above read Somboondee. Grrrrrrrr. Ok it takes a lot to get me mad, but oooohhhh was I pissed off. They deliberately ignored our instructions and took us for fools by bringing us to this impostor of a place. Turns out, these drivers get a cut when they take unknowing tourists there. Madre mia.

fried crab with black pepper

There was an angry exchange of words between me and the waiter/manager and between me and the tuktuk drivers. We paid the tuktuk drivers half of the agreed amount and told them they should be thankful we were paying them anything at all. Undaunted, we walked out of there determined to find someone who would take us to the real thing.

Thankfully, the first taxi that pulled up alongside us did. All six of us squeezed in and we vented our frustration all the way to our destination. I knew immediately we were at the right place when we arrived. The big glass windows of Somboon offered us a of the bright and clean interiors and no one was dragging us in by our hair.

curried crab - their signature dish

Boy, can I just say the food in Somboon was worth fighting for! No wonder every single person I asked recommendations from listed this. It's become such an institution in Bangkok and is so sought-after that they've created a knock-off version.

They gave us picture menus which facilitated the ordering process. We tried not to overdo it, but everything looked and sounded so good. Within minutes our table was crowded with plates of super fresh and gorgeous-looking seafood. A cart was wheeled up to our table and here they set up a mini bar for our drinks and ice. The waitstaff was very friendly and accomodating. It was already 10:00 and yet the place still had a good crowd.

My favorite: the deep fried fish in sweetened fish sauce

Somboon is a no-frills Chinese-Thai seafood restaurant. Your first sign that there will be Chinese flavors are the chopsticks on the table because the Thais do not use chopsticks. I will not even attempt to describe the food because I couldn't do it justice. Even the pictures (only the steamed prawns with garlic is not pictured) fail to capture the freshness and scrumptiousness of these gifts from the sea. Everything was superb! And from the mouthful mmmms and ohmygods from around the table, it was obvious everyone agreed.

But my most favorite of all was the fried fish! It was crispy on the outside and super soft and juicy on the inside. The sauce with which it was glazed and on which it lay was sweetened fish sauce or naam pla. It was just the most delightful sauce and I couldn't get enough of it. Good thing this dish came last because as soon as I tried it, I practically forgot about the other food.

Oyster Omelette

morning glory

It was unanimous that this was the best meal we had in Bangkok!

Somboon Seafood

<-- look for this sign!

Take note of the Fake Somboon Scam warning in the restaurant's website.