Somboondee Seafood: "The Con Man's Restaurant!" Bangkok Restaurant Tip by DarkRay

First off, this restaurant is a SCAM. But I thought I review the restaurant anyway just to give you an idea of their horrid fare.

The restaurant was situated in a deserted part of Bangkok. I guess in a way, it deters diners from getting away to other restaurants easily... The place looked old and dinghy, and albeit I visited the restaurant in October 2006, it felt like I entered a time warp and ended up in a restaurant of the 70s. Yup, the decor was like that, and not in a good way.... at all.

I actually thought the place felt haunted because it was so sad looking and ridiculously empty - we were the only diners when we entered the restaurant and was only joined by another very small group of unfortunate diners later in the night.

Since the restaurant was created to cheat the money of a gullible diner like me who would actually mistaken this as the famous Somboon Seafood for this questionable eatery, the service was actually surprisingly good and somewhat enthusiastic (to part me with my money I guess). I actually thought the staff smiled and laughed a little too much - they must be laughing at how silly my friend and I were to fall for their scam.

No contact details will be provided since I would not want you to be cheated like me. Go to the genuine Somboon Seafood instead.

Favorite Dish: The food in the restaurant was ludicrously overpriced. While most decent establishment Bangkok would charge way less than 100 baht for a serving of Pad Thai, it cost 600 baht here. We ordered it anyway because my friend was a fan of Pad Thai. Bad choice, because the Pad Thai was both burnt and tasteless at the same time. I did not know that such a combination was actually possible before this.

Interestingly, the Stir-Fried Asparagus with Prawns actually cost the same as the Pad Thai at 600 baht, which made it a better deal. This dish was actually quite tasty. But considering that the restaurant calls itself a seafood restaurant, the prawns used were laughably tiny.

The star of the show, was of course the crab, which was as you may expect by now, supremely overpriced. It cost a whopping 1,000 baht per kg and these were not even the large and scrumptious ones like the Sri-Lankan Crabs. I cannot believe I actually paid very good money for their lousy local mud crabs! Because these were the smaller crabs, eating them were a chore since you had to cracked through a lot of shells for very little meat. The unappetizing looking curry gravy tasted as bad as it looked, which was no surprise at all.

The prices for the non-alcoholic drinks like soft drinks, fruit juices and coffee were of course equally unreasonable as well, which were from 150 baht - 250 baht.

Comparison: more expensive than average
Directions: If any cab ever drop you here, just take another cab to the real Somboon Seafood.
Price: US$31-40
Rating: 1
Theme: Seafood