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Published on October 7, 2007

Call Chom Suan "quirky". This Thai restaurant is open only at lunch time, no alcohol is served, and credit card services are not available. On the plus side, the food is excellent, and if you want to bring your pet along, the staff welcomes any dog or cat with open arms.

"We've set up the restaurant just to cover expenses and our staff's salaries," says owner Anchalee "Pooh" Chongkhadikij. She herself has 13 dogs, some of whom appreciate the air-conditioned comfort of the restaurant.

The bright and airy restaurant is on the second floor of a building in a small apartment-house complex about 700 metres past Kuppa on Sukhumvit Soi 16.

Office workers in the area already know Chom Suan, which is practically the only reasonably-priced restaurant offering Thai dishes in the area.

These dishes, says Pooh, have been developed from recipes she and friends have gleaned from their own families, including the household cooks who have prepared family meals for years. "We aim for home-style dishes," says Pooh.

The result, however, is a menu full of dishes you won't find anywhere else. Try out the "salad boran" (Bt70), for instance, and find a simple vegetable salad with a lovely dressing made with egg yolk, vinegar, fried garlic and som tam.

Chom Suan may be the only restaurant in Bangkok to offer a most unusual som tam - "Som tam kao pot" (Bt80). Instead of papaya, the som tam includes freshly steamed corn kernels, a tasty variation. The dish is accompanied by fried sticky rice rolls. You can have the traditional som tam if you wish, or try out the different kinds of yam, spicy-sour salads that may include vegetables or seafood, depending on your choice.

Another tasty starter is a dish of Pooh's very own curry puffs (three pieces/Bt30). She makes them herself, she says. These puffs are quite huge, and the chicken filling has a distinctive, pleasant flavour.

The menu also contains a range of noodle and rice dishes, along with "additions" you can order to go with the rice. The tariff for most dishes ranges from Bt70 to Bt100.

Do save room for dessert. The blueberry cheesecake is very popular, and the homemade ice cream, usually fruits in season, is very fine.

On the first floor of the building is the Church of Joy, a Baptist church that holds services every Sunday from 9.30am to noon, and then they go upstairs to enjoy a Chom Suan lunch. In the evenings, the congregation gets together for choir practice or Bible lessons. They're busy people, as Pooh has recruited them as "tasters" for the menu.

So far, their taste buds have been spot on.

Laurie Rosenthal

The Nation