SOM TUM NUA @ SOI 5, SIAM SQUARE

By now, every blogger would have blogged to death about this extremely touristy restaurant in Siam Square's Soi 5, so what's another fanatical one more right?

Known for its most appetising and crunchy som tum (unripe papaya salad) as well as some Issan dishes, you'll find long queues forming outside it. 

I recommend their good old som tum Thai (75 Baht) and meaty barbecue pork slices (85 Baht). But the must-eat for me is the fried chicken wings. Whether you go in twos or fours, one basket is never enough. 

On a separate trip by myself at 4pm, I tried the salted egg som tum with their sticky rice and it was heavenly. 

However, as the restaurant is so widely publicised, service has been affected. On our last two trips, the staff appeared harried and some sullen, which is really quite a rare occurrence in the Land of the Thousand Smiles. Our orders took forever to arrive and there was a mistake due to inattention.

It is super easy to locate Som Tum Nua. Alight at Siam BTS station, look downwards on the side opposite Siam Paragon and you'll see Siam Square Soi 5, the pedestrian street tiled in grey. You can see the Som Tum Nua sign on the left of Soi 5. 

For cake lovers, just beside Som Tum Nua is a very small cake shoppe. 

Owned by Som Tum Nua, Yingdeaw Homemade cakes are voted by an EDT publication as the Top 10 in its category. They have a brand new branch on the fourth floor of Siam Square One (beside Siam BTS station). 

Beside Yingdeaw Homemade is a Thai massage place called Relax massage that we went with our bloated stomachs after Som Tum Nua. The massages are pretty good and they used to be the cheapest in the area at 200 Baht an hour. But I see that they have increased their fees this time round to 250 Baht an hour.