ramen express seafood, bangkok

okay-ish thai food near central world in bangkok – good in a pinch but many better options exist. this was the first place we ate at in bangkok – and it wasn’t a great introduction to the city, but it was 9pm, we had touched down just two hours ago, and everything else was closed.

this place stood out with its bright lights and rather convenient location opposite the hotel; the food was alright, really – but it tells you alot when everyone else in the store was clearly not bangkokiann: the prices are inflated, the food a bit too oily and salty. I think its biggest merit is staying open long past its neighbors.

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touristy places fall into two categories, to my mind – the first a sycophantic submissive pandering to your (supposed) uninformed tastes, the second a slightly hostile environ where the servers know the food’s only good for tourists, and that annoys them. this place falls in the second category.

you get a slightly corner-frayed, shabby menu which confusingly has “ramen express” printed on the front, pictures and english inside. this japanese connection is both strange and perturbing – there are images of japan all over the walls – I suspect these are the remnants of a previous restaurant on the same site.

seafood was charged rather expensively, so we stuck with thai staples – it was late and we weren’t looking for anything fancy:egg fried rice, a plate of sauteed mixed vegetables and some basil w’ minced pork.

the egg fried rice was rather superbly done actually. it’s slightly on the greasy side – a little shiny – but the grains were separate, it was a beautiful yellow color with well-dispersed egg, and well-seasoned. the basil pork is usually a favorite with us – but it was a tad too oily and fatty, and rather salty.

as were the vegetables, in fact – but you’ve got to give it to the thais for knowing how to cook al-dente greens.

I’ve got to say, I started out with a less positive outtake, but that fried rice really was quite decent. this place really is no-frills, and while not expensive for us per se, there are in general better places to grab your grub.

good in a pinch, really.

Ramen Express Seafood
along Thanon Phetchaburi, on the same side as the Platinum Shopping Mall, and directly across the road from the Shibuya 19 Shopping Mall
Bangkok, Thailand
$$.5: two dishes + one fried rice = 15-20 singapore dollars