Do you like seafood?
If the answer is yes, you have probably known that seafood in Thailand is one of the best in the world, the fresh ingredients combined with exquisite seasonings and styles of cooking have never failed to impress us!
This time, we are sharing a great seafood restaurant called Kungpao Onnuch 37 located in On Nut area, because apparently my in-laws consider this restaurant very good. Although they had never tried dining at this outlet yet, they tried the old outlet in Soi 30, which later moved to Soi 37. FYI, this soi (street alley) of On Nut is known as the longest soi in Bangkok and the traffic can be really bad (most all the time) so I was really thankful that my father-in-law was willing to drive us there. <3
If you have been reading this blog, you know that I don’t usually blog about my eating experience in the same day after I visit an eatery or restaurant. But today is an exception because I was truly impressed with the food I ate this afternoon so I wanted to share about this place as soon as possible. 😉
To find Kungpao Onnuch 37 is actually quite easy because you just look at the soi numbers until you find soi 37, the restaurant is located by your left if you come from Sukhumvit road. If you come from Srinakarin road, this will be on your right. I heard that this new outlet is just half size of the previous one in Soi 30, but it’s still considered big and spacious. Parking area is available just across the restaurant, which is very convenient.
The place itself is semi open space with lots of fans installed, so surprisingly I didn’t feel hot at all. The weather is extremely hot and humid here in Bangkok (even hotter and sunnier than Jakarta) but I still felt very comfortable here.
The restaurant opens daily from 4PM and we went here early today because we wanted to avoid the massive crowds during dinner time. Luckily it had just opened and we could place our order right away.
The menu is really great because it covers a lot of things, any kind of seafood with various styles of cooking, Thai popular dishes like som tum (papaya salad), rice dishes and many more. What I like about these places is that they put both Thai and English names of dishes on the menu, although your receipts are definitely written in Thai. XD
Just like other typical restaurants in Thailand, there is a cart put beside our table where they put the bottled water, ice and other stuffs like tissue box etc.
Cute glasses with their logo on them, cute!
… and baskets like these for “waste” like bones, etc. Convenient.
Rice THB 60
Believe it or not, here they use the beautiful Thai Jasmine rice. Trust me, one plate is never enough!
Aor Suan (ออส่วน) THB 140
If you have ever tried Hoi Tod (deep-fried oysters) in Bangkok, this one is actually quite similar, although this one uses mussels instead of oysters. The mussels were really big and the egg was fragrant and tasty. Compared to oysters, mussels are less tasty but don’t worry, because it tasted perfect with the additional chili sauce provided.
Poo Nim Pad Pong Curry (ปูนิ่มผัดผงกะหรี่) THB 200
A very popular Thai seafood dish involving soft-shell crab and curry. Damn, that was YUM!! The combination of all flavors were really great, it looked like there are so many things going on in there, but seriously, this was heaven on a plate. I usually don’t really like this dish because of the sweetness, but this one had amazing balance that I could have never imagined before. MUST TRY.
Pla Kapong Tod Rad Nam Pla (ปลากระพงทอดราดน้ำปลา) THB 280
Again, one of the best-selling dishes of all time, this deep-fried sea bass is cooked with fish sauce and definitely is included in everyone’s orders when they come to this restaurant. Curious? Me too!
Look at the beautiful fish! Even from the crispy skin, I knew it would be great. The fish size was average, but it was full of meat. Although this dish looked so simple, it also looked so mouth-watering and tasted fantastic. Amazing to see what a simple thing like fish sauce can do!
Tom Yum Talay (ต้มยำทะเล) THB 250
While we were still in seafood heaven, my mother-in-law ordered this Mixed Seafood Tom Yum for us and YES, unlike what I usually eat in Jakarta, this one is authentic and satisfying. Like, finally!
Must say I was totally blown away by this tom yum, great presentation (with the fire included), generous amount of fresh seafood, and absolutely mind-blowing soup to conclude it all. The lime was extremely strong in this one, and the soup was super duper sour, hot and spicy, with great aromatic taste. I admit it made me cringe after sipping my soup a couple of times. BUT! Doesn’t mean I am complaining since I really, really fell in love deeply to this dish.
Crabs are waiting to be cooked. Maybe next time we’ll try these!
Kungpao itself actually means “Grilled Prawns” and yes, you guessed it right, this restaurant’s main specialty is actually their grilled prawns. Better yet, they use river prawns, which according to my mom-in-law, are very expensive in Thailand. I was told that one piece of river prawn can cost around THB 500 (IDR 200,000), wow, they surely are pricey!
When we came though, the waiter told us that their kungpao stock has gone and they were waiting for the new batch to come. Luckily, when we were eating, a truck delivering this most-wanted prawns came, so, YAYNESS!!
Kung Pao (กุ้งเผา) THB 380 (1/2 kg)
Since there were just 4 of us, we only ordered 1/2 kg which was already more than enough for us (who were already very full of all the dishes above!). There were 8 pieces of prawns on the plate, not bad for 500 grams.
The prawns were exceptionally fresh (hello? where else can we eat the prawns after witnessing its live delivery, LOL!), sizes were big and most importantly, they tasted naturally sweet and very crunchy! Oh God. I must tell you that I am not a fan of prawns and their friends (shrimps etc) and I rarely want to get my hands dirty only to eat prawns. This time, I didn’t care anymore and just dig in using my hands, so it must mean something REALLY special, right? XD
You know, it’s been a while since the last time I really enjoyed EVERY SINGLE dishes on my table when I go to restaurants. Even now when I am writing this post, it brings a smile to my face and I still can remember how each dish tasted and can’t wait to go back there. Like, seriously. I am not exaggerating but this is seriously one of the best seafood restaurant I have ever visited in my life, and you don’t wanna know how many I have visited during these 30+ years.
Thanking my in-laws for bringing us here and introducing such a great place to us, if not for them, I don’t think we can know about this place because not many english written websites covering about it. Anyway, if you are in Bangkok, we urge you to try this, ciao!
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Currency Rate: THB 1 = +/- IDR 400 = +/- USD 0.028
*The Food Escape team are not paid whatsoever for writing this post.
** This review is written based on our visit on 19 January 2016.
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KUNGPAO ONNUCH 37
1851 Onnuch (On Nut) 37 Rd.
Suanluang, Bangkok 10250
THAILAND
Ph. +66 2 3484816, 3484853
Nearest Stations:
BTS On Nut or Prakanong
Opening Hours:
Mon-Sun 16.00 – 23.00
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