The crowd at T & K Seafood in Bangkok's Chinatown scares me - I am not kidding. I've been here at least three, if not four times, and the experience is always the same. The crowd is crazy, the food is not particularly memorable not bad, the price isn't really cheap, staff are friendly (they try their best) but service is hurried because of the crush, yet somehow we kept going back if we are in Yaowarat during dinner time. I don't really get it 🤔 😬
Finding T & K is easy as it is on the main Yaowarat strip but making your way to the restaurant requires bashing through thick crowds on both sides of the grid locked main street and all the equally car chocked side streets.
What is it that brings everyone here night after night?
I wonder.
When you are here, quickly join the queue to get a table number and put in your orders with the staff (who will show you their menu book).
Inside, it is all traditional Thai dishes. Steamed, grilled, boiled, stir fried, fish, crab, prawn, lobster, squid, oyster, clam, rice, noodles, tom yum, vegetables, salads. It's the full range that compares well with any similar type Thailand restaurant in Bangkok.
There's al fresco seating and also indoors air conditioned seating. Outdoors, you will be eating with crowds milling around you and rumbling standstill traffic (taxis, tuk tuk, buses) inching past you while you eat.
Video shot by Prace, Nathan Chang
Indoors, you will be cramped together in small tight, odd shaped spaces on four (yes 4) levels accessed by narrow steep stairs.
Level 2 seemed like a faux floor. It has low ceiling and you have to sit on the floor with low tables and your shoes off.
Once seated, food is served very quickly. Surprisingly quickly. They have a well organised, well oiled system from reception to cooking, serving, collecting payment. The place looked chaotic but it is actually very efficient and well run.
This was what we had during our most recent visit. We didn't order too many dishes as T & K was just one stop of a whole day of eating 🤣
This crab in savoury spicy sauce was nice. Meat was firm and sweet. They had only "large" crabs at B850 each but they looked no more than 400 grams in weight. We double checked with the staff and was assured that this was the correct "big" crab.
Spicy squid. The squid was fresh and cooked with various spicy herbs, garlic, ginger, lime and chilis. Very spicy hot. Appetising and whets the appetite.
Salt baked seabass. The fresh fish stuffed with lemongrass and pandan leaves was heavily rubbed with salt, wrapped in foil and grilled over charcoal.
I like this fish (though some of us felt it was slightly too salty but not to me 😬 ). Meaty, juicy, the salt drove away any earthiness from the sea bass.
Very spicy with lemongrass, chili, lime leaves, ginger, garlic, etc. Everything in the pot is fresh - prawn, squid, fish, mushroom, etc. I always prefer "white or clear" tom yum over red.
Crab fried rice was quite nice. Fluffy, a bit of wok hei, fresh crab meat. Not greasy.
Come back to this madness again?
Never say never.
This place is like some kind of magnet. I don't know why.
Perhaps it's like a roller coaster ride. The initial shock of the crowd, thoughts of giving up, the euphoria of snagging a table against all odds, the relief of escape from the heat, humidity and road grime outside, dishes served at the rapid fire rate, the feasting in a claustrophobic, albeit air conditioned space, the relief that we are out once again in the throbbing streets of Bangkok Chinatown. The smugness from bagging another Bangkok dining experience (I hesitate to say hyperlocal as T & K is a sort of tourist trap hotspot), to add to our collection of foodie battle scars and war stories 😬
What's your T & K experience?
T & K's red shirt rivals just across the road known as Lek & Rut Seafood. I've yet to try this. Do you know what's Lek & Rut like?
I also have no idea what the fuss is with the green shirts! Ate there once and was as chaotic as you mentioned, food was also quite "normal". Conversely I have been to the red shirt many times! Love the food and the fact we have sufficient leg and table space to eat our food at our own pace. Please order their guava juice too!
ReplyDeleteHow are the prices at red shirt comparing to green place ?
ReplyDelete