While it is still relatively young compared to the dyed-in-the-wool favourites, Siam Samran in the West End Markets has steadily settled itself into being one of the mainstays in the area as a place to go for a bite to eat. This is for a very good reason, mostly due to what is overall needed for a good restaurant to last - the food is high quality, it has decent service, and the decor is beautiful. Not that much is present to be able to distinguish it from other Thai takeaways overall as the food goes, but where it has them beat is in other key aspects.
Right out of the blue, someone I had worked with many times the past couple of years doing volunteer work had contacted me and was checking when I was available later that week. It had been ages since I had seen him and his girlfriend, I was not doing anything, and all was good. Plus there was a meal in there as well - I was instantly sold.
What is was going to be was a mystery until that day. The order of business was seeing a movie in New Farm which was not on until about 8:30, and I was asked if I would prefer dinner before or after the movie; when it comes to the movie, with some exception I always prefer the meal to be first. He was keeping it a mystery until he arrived at the door, and before I knew it he was asking me if I had been here. A long time back I hadn't, but as for reviewing ... no. So it was off to here.
They go above and beyond with making sure that this place stands out from the competition, even more so because of the advantage of having a lot of space to do so. Both inside and out is rich with lavish decorations, giving the allusion that you were eating somewhere in Thailand itself. This comes down to the attention to detail, which includes having wicker chair as seating, statues of Buddha, elephants (with trunk up and all) and dragons around the place, the kind of lighting that they use, and the wall paper design as a few nice touches. All those do make a difference when combined, and it can either be cosy when choosing to eat outside, or relaxing if the choice is to eat outside. In spite of the car park being meters away, it still feels fresh especially having all the plants strewn around the pavement.
When it came to the service, it was decent enough. They managed to bring out the food quickly and promptly as ordered, as well as taking away the dishes as needed. What was definitely notable in it being a Thai restaurant was, that while they were certainly pleasant and had a professional edge to them, that the waitstaff were not as engaging as they often are at the higher-end restaurants. This is not a knock, or a criticism, but more of it being an observation.
Getting to the menu, as mentioned it is more or less what is to be expected from a Thai restaurant - takeaway or sit-in. You have the usual round of entrees to share, the usual lot of salad as a side order, several kinds of soup, the usual few reliable curries on hand, as well as the stir fry dishes and rice/noodles. Then when it gets a bit more specialised, they have the chef's specials which is where the duck, crab, salmon, and Moreton Bay bug dishes are (plus a few pork ones as well). Something that is a bit different is several dishes of whole fish (which aren't a mint either).
For the drinks menu, it is pretty extensive as well. They have a range of wines on offer - sparkling, red, and white - then several types of spirits, and beers. For the basics, a few sodas are there, as well as a few juices. Good news is that they have tea and coffee here - including the South-east Asian style coffee - and some better news is that bubble tea is available as well. Finishing it all off, and to indicate here is for a good night out, is the list of cocktails and mocktails.
This is vaguely from memory what was ordered, so a couple of things might have been forgotten just as a head's up. As per usual, the first order of the night was the drinks. Always looking to get coffee, that was in luck since they had the Thai iced coffee on hand. This was sort of the standard sort of iced coffee in that part of the world - heaps of condensed milk mixed into a strong batch of brewed drip coffee, it is equal parts sweet and strong (plus smooth on the tongue), and certainly worthy trying out nevertheless. That is all that is needed to be said in that regard.
Starting off the food part of the night was a fantastic tom yum soup with prawns. It was creamy, pipping hot, the prawns were huge and delicious, and the coconut broth was sweetened with chunks of tomato throughout it. Not much can be done to improve on it, and that made for an optimistic start to the rest of the night.
Then the next order of business was spicy paw-paw salad. To be honest, and I have mentioned it a few times before, salad is not my sort of thing. That is not to say I will go out of my way to avoid eating it, but definitely given the variety of choice that there is, salad is low on my list of what to order and eat. With all that being said, that does not mean I will refuse to touch it if it land on my plate.
A couple of these were ordered, one that was spicy and one that was not-so-spicy. I forget the meat that was ordered with it. With the salad itself, it was fresh and tasty, having a complex flavour of spicy chilli, semi-sweet and mostly tart papaya, and a whole lot of vegetables mixed through it. If it is your sort of thing, it should be good, but not my thing so not much on my part to talk about.
The two dishes that I do remember were a green chicken curry, and the one that I ordered - the chef's specialty of deep fried crispy skin pork, salt and pepper variety. Both of these dishes were high quality, very tasty, and the size of the portions were quite generous. The chicken curry was all that it needed to be, the pieces of chicken were tender and the sauce was creamy and smooth. The level of spice was good, and the occasional bamboo shoot and vegetable freshened it up a lot.
With a mixture of onion, chilli and capsicum as a garnish, and a mixed seasoning of salt and pepper gone right into the batter, the pork dish made for something that was very tasty. Each bit of pork was bite-sized, hot and crispy, and the meat was succulent. It is essentially as good as it can get. That is about the heads and tails of it, simple yet hard to resist. It certainly goes on the recommended list, though with the selection there it is probably as good as any others there.
All on the side was the choice coconut rice. Fluffy, creamy, pipping hot is all that is needed for a good lot of this, and doing its job it absorbed all the sauce really readily. For that, the whole meal was rounded off and complete.
And that was another good meal out, and another notch on how reliable Thai cuisine is. This more or less does everything that is needed and expected from a Thai place that is worth its salt. It absolutely wins in terms of the decor, the aesthetics and surroundings are particularly nice and mint when it is around dusk (which was when I was here); compared to many of the nearby competitors, Siam Samran is basically in an advantageous position for a number of reasons already mentioned.
One aspect that it definitely shares with many of its long-running contemporaries is that on any given night, particularly mid-week, you are able to waltz on in there and get a table without a moments notice. That is the cherry on top to indicate that Siam Samram is yet another big winner in this area that is sure to be seeing just as much of a turnout in the future as it already has over the years.
TL;DR: We have ourselves a winner here. A well-established Thai place that is definitely notches above the local takeaway. The decor has amazing attention to detail, the food is fresh and delicious along with having great portions and where it is situated is very good. This adds up to why many people like to go here after all these years. While the service is not up to scratch, it certainly is not bad or lacking. Along with a few of the places on Hardgrave Road, Siam Samran has proven it is as good as those, and will be here for the long haul.
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