Sukunya Somtum

Air conditioning and papaya salad are a hard combination to beat when you've spent the morning walking around Ayutthaya's ruins in full sun. That's the case for this place on Maharat Road: cold room, quiet decor, food that arrives fresh and in quantity, and a bill that stays firmly in budget territory.

Som tam and Isaan dishes are the backbone, but the menu runs wider than that. Tom yum kung, green curry, fried rice with seafood, mango sticky rice. Reviewers keep coming back to two things: staff will ask what spice level you want and actually stick to it, and even the plain fried rice is made properly. Someone flags the steamed seafood with sour and spicy sauce at 240 baht, which is at the upper end of what you'll spend here. Drinks get mentioned too, mostly for being cold.

The catch is the closing time. Doors shut at five, every day, so this is a breakfast, mid-morning or lunch place and nothing more. Plan it around your temple stops rather than the other way round.