A famous Bangkok pad Thai restaurant

Who hasn’t heard of ‘Pad Thai’ the famous Thai noodle dish. I recall my first one in a rather touristy setting in a restaurant on Khao San road 25 years ago. Sometimes there’s no second chance to make a first impression and I remember a nice dish, certainly tasty but not the one to write home about, especially when compared with so many other exceptional Thai dishes. But hey, there’s no accounting for taste and so many people like pad Thai and I too can enjoy one, especially where it’s of the quality of those served in ‘Thipsamai Padthai Pratoopee’ ทิพย์สมัย ผัดไทยประตูผี.

The history of the restaurant goes back to the mid 20th century when a young married couple Ms. Samai and Mr. Chote, had opened the first pad Thai stall in Bangkok. An endorsement from the prime minister Pleak Phibunsongkhram granted a nation wide recognition and led to the establishment of ‘Thipsamai Padthai Pratoopee’ as a restaurant. When the couple got older and couldn’t look after the restaurant it has been sold to the current owner, who has retained the original recipe keeping the restaurant’s reputation of the best pad Thais in the capital and possibly the entire country.

Expect to stand in a well organized line before actually making it into the restaurant. The heavy traffic of local and foreign diners and the large team of cooks and waiting staff add to the general feeling of a food ‘mecca’. The secret of Thipsamai’s pad Thai is in the sauce that is stirred into a large pile of noodles and vegetables. Noodles are apportioned to individual servings and skillful cooks are finishing the dish by quickly frying a thin omelette crepe in a fiery wok, fried noodles are placed at the center of the crepe and within a blink of an eye and spectacular wok skills the noodles are wrapped with the crepe before the entire thing is plated.

The pad Thai is really tasty!