Lae lay @khao-khad

From the moment we arrived, this restaurant was high on our list—and it certainly lived up to our expectations. The menu offers an impressive variety of Thai, Italian, and Indian cuisine, catering to a wide range of tastes. Although the selection is extensive, our initial choices proved to be absolutely spot on. The chicken fried with chilli paste and vegetables (Phad Nam Prik Pow) was beautifully balanced, rich in flavour, and perfectly executed. The beef soup – Kao Lao – was truly exceptional; without exaggeration, it was one of the most refined and flavourful broths I have had the pleasure of experiencing anywhere in Thailand. The depth of flavour was remarkable, and the portions were extremely generous—particularly the abundance of tender, high-quality beef chunks in the soup. Combined with genuinely friendly service and very reasonable prices, it is easy to understand why this place is consistently busy. An excellent dining experience from start to finish.

We had the prawns in tamarind, massaman curry chicken and mango sticky rice. The prawns were fresh and so good in the tamarind sauce. Highly recommend this dish. Likewise with the mango sticky rice - the sticky rice was nicely done. We were so impressed by these two dishes that we returned the next night. The massaman curry was good like elsewhere.

Maybe it was a bad day. It took over an hour for our order except for the so called nans (they were crispy?) which arrived quickly and we ended up eating those whilst waiting forever. The restaurant offered a free lift from our hotel so we were kind of stuck with them. Beer arived poured, something to do with halal requirements i was told but it was flat and not very cold. We sat at entry level which may have also been a mistake although it was fun to see some other tourists looking like overweight bouncers doubtfully eyeing their beers whilst they too waited. All in all a negative experience which is a shame because thai mains were fine and i am sure staff did there best(apparently it was packed with people upstairs).