Looking For Laksa

[Groongthep]

I have looked all over Bangkok and cannot find anywhere that serves laksa, the Singaporean (or maybe Malaysian?) style rice noodle soup with prawns and yellow curry broth. I have PMed another Thai Visa poster who works in both Bangkok and Singapore and asked him and he told me he once saw a place in the food court on the 5th floor at MBK called Singapore Delights which may have it. I went there yesterday and couldn't find it. Mah Boon Krong is a big place though, so it may have been there and I just didn't come across it. I have described laksa to some Thai friends of mine and they mostly tend to get it confused with Kao Soy which is somewhat similar but not the same. Kao Soy is thicker and uses egg noodles and chicken, not rice noodles and prawns. Anyone out there know a place in Bangkok that has real laksa?

[maxjay]

There used to be a stall at the old food court in The Royal Garden Shopping Center in Pattaya. It was called Noodle Planet.

They had it there. When I would order it, I would ask for "ba mee Malaysia".

So, you might try asking at places for "ba mee Malaysia".

[Groongthep]

There used to be a stall at the old food court in The Royal Garden Shopping Center in Pattaya. It was called Noodle Planet.

They had it there. When I would order it, I would ask for "ba mee Malaysia".

So, you might try asking at places for "ba mee Malaysia".

Thanks maxjay, but because ba mee or บะหมี่ refers to egg noodles like you get with red pork or roast duck I'm afraid that most vendors would assume I am looking for something more like Kao Soy. Laksa is more soupy and made with rice noodles (guay-dtiow or ก๋วยเตี๋ยว). I was once at a Pan Pacific restaurant (one that specializes in foods from various different asian countries) in Seattle that served laksa. I asked a Thai waiter there what laksa would be called in Thailand and after pondering for a moment he told me it would probably be refered to as guay-dtiow kaek or ก๋วยเตี๋ยว แขก. The few times I have asked about gweatiow kaek in Thailand all I got was puzzled looks. I'll give ba mee Malaysia a try and see what I get. Thanks.

[percy2]

You can get it at the chain of restaurants "secret recipe" http://www.secretrecipe.co.th/

There is also a stall at Bon Marche (Pracha Chuan area) that sells it.

Cheers

[percy2]

And famously of course at the Landmark Hotel!!!!!!!!!!!!

Cheers

[Groongthep]

And famously of course at the Landmark Hotel!!!!!!!!!!!!

Cheers

Thanks percy2. I'll check it out tomorrow.

[skippybangkok]

At the start of Suk Soi 26, they have a new place called Kopi Tiam which imports alot of stuff from Malaysia.

Simple setting, but the food is not bad.

[lomatopo]

Also available at the Central Chitlom Foodloft, from one of the counters. Not as good as Marine Parade Laksa but pretty good. Sometimes you can find Tom Yung Goong made with rice noodles, also a decent substitute.

[lomatopo]

Found a picture I took at Marine Parade Laksa (Singapore)...

[percy2]

Found a picture I took at Marine Parade Laksa (Singapore)...

The best one I ever had was opposite the rear entrance of the Paramount Hotel , very close to Marine Parade.

Cheers

[DP25]

I asked a Thai waiter there what laksa would be called in Thailand and after pondering for a moment he told me it would probably be refered to as guay-dtiow kaek or ก๋วยเตี๋ยว แขก. The few times I have asked about gweatiow kaek in Thailand all I got was puzzled looks.

I've had guay-dtiow kaek a couple times in Bangkok so it does exist. It had chicken though, not prawns. Once was at a random food stall on the street, can't remember where. Another time was at the food court in the basement of the Siam Paragon. They had a Muslim stall that had it. Was maybe a year ago though, don't know if they still have it.

[Groongthep]

Found a picture I took at Marine Parade Laksa (Singapore)...

The best one I ever had was opposite the rear entrance of the Paramount Hotel , very close to Marine Parade.

Cheers

Thanks to skippybangkok, lomotopo and percy2 again. I think laksa in Singapore is a little bit like spaghetti sauce in the west in that everybody makes their's a little different from the next guy. I like mine spicy with a fair amount of that red chili oil floating on top, but to each his own. Thanks for the leads, I'll check them out.

[onethailand]

Boon Tong Kiat Singaporean Chicken Rice, across from J-Avenue on Thonglor. I haven't personally tried the laksa, but all the other food I had was quite good and this place is simple but always quite crowded. There used to be a branch near Emporium in the parking lot next to UOB Bank but that has gone now.

Actually, there's two on Thonglor, very near each other - they had to expand to accommodate the traffic.

[NewtoBKK]

We were craving for some SG/MY food today and decided to try out the Kopitiam at Soi 26... Huge Mistake!! I don't usually write to complain about the restaurants that we have been to, but this visit really pissed us off... so here goes...

In our view, this restaurant is a utter waste of time because of three main areas:

1. Quality

- The kopi (coffee) that they served really tasted like dishwater. For those of you who have yet to try this place, try this - use one of those kopi powder bags and make the first strong cup of coffee; throw that first cup of coffee away and use the same bag to make the 2nd cup; throw that cup away again and make yourself the 3rd cup; now, add a bit of condensed milk for colouring and some sugar for sweetness... you will get a cup of coffee that approximates what they serve at Kopitiam... in my view, the coffee served by Breadtalk at Centralworld tastes much much better.

- The iced Milo? same same but different, if you know what i mean... it was more like a tall glass of ice dripped and flavoured with some Milo and lots of sugar...

- The rest of the food (eg. rojak, nasi lemak, ice kachang) tasted very very very average... and the greatest joke of all was the nsai lemak - the rice they served was plain rice! why even call it nasi lemak!?

2. Price

- Especially given the quality of the food they served, I find that everything there is overpriced - prices here are at least twice to thrice the price of similar dishes in SG or MY! And this is BKK we are talking about!

3. Service

- First, the service staff couldn't really even sepak/understand English and we had absolutely no idea if they had taken our order correctly...

- I really started to suspect the above when 30mins after they had served us desert (ice kachang) together with our rojak and first plate of nasi lemak, they still hadn't served us our second plate of nasi lemak...

- When I realised that the second plate of nasi lemak wasn't coming any time soon (although by then, I had already confirmed with the waitress that we had indeed ordered two nasi lemaks), I cancelled the order and asked for the bill.... guess what? They were simply indifferent and plonked the bill down on our table...

The irony of it all was that we didn't have the exact change for the bill and so had to leave them a tip!! why should I even tip for bad food, bad service and high prices? but I just couldn't take it anymore and had to get out of there before I started screaming at them!

It was often said that hunger is the best condiment - trust me, we were very very hungry, but this certainly did not make the food (or the entire visit) any more palatable!

Never wasting my time on that place again!