Lunch at Som Thai

Some thai, Som Thai!
 Pro Polished, smart thai offer.
 Con Service very good, but a bit pushed.

Som Thai
Pay

Per Person Menu del dia €12.90. El Tenedor offers/points may be available. Gratis: delicious deep-fried spicy peanuts. 

Find
Website Here.
Access Step free entry and exit. Lots of space.


In Short
Hopes? Freshness and intensity.
Reality? Among other things, best Thai curry sauce we've had in town yet.
First Impressions? Teak.
A USP? Excellent value Chueca thai.
The food in three words? Real thai flavours.
Service, please! One cheery, hard-working server, doing his best.
Friend friendly? You'd need to ask about things like fish sauce, for sure.
Rating for dating? Good option. Looks and feels the part.
Tip? Yes.
Change one thing? Server deserved back up.
Going back? Definitely.

Compare & Contrast
Krachai's not far away.

In Pictures
On Google Images

What's the story?
A decent-sized, well spiced Thai lunch with a top-notch sauce to seek out.

It's a day of pretty much the usual suspects at Som Thai. But we've got a rule about that, so let's see how it goes.

Som thai

Satay. Three brochettes, well dunked in a marinade, and then well-slathered with an authentically rich - but not burning hot - sauce. You might think the greenery is a bit left field, but it meant we discovered lettuce is a fine way to not leave too much satay sauce on the plate.

Spring Rolls. So easily a frozen, fry and chuck on a plate job, they're not a bad test of attention to detail. These three had a nice meaty chicken filling with a tangible touch of spice. We can't say they're not pre-made or frozen, but they don't taste mass-produced. That's not bad for the price.

Som Thai Som Thai

Yellow noodles. Look this place can't do anything wrong. A fresh stir fry. Every piece of veg has its own flavour and crunch. The noodles have a nicely seasoned spicyness. It's a good sized portion. It doesn't look spectacularly pretty, but at this price if you're going to sacrfice something, prettification is the one to worry less about.

Beef Mussaman. Dish of the day, and this sauce is going on the HM Recommended list as the best Thai sauce we've had in Madrid so far. You know things are going well when you're fishing whole star anise out. They're using real spices! Yes, this felt like a freshly made paste, with lots of distinct flavours, still bright and punchy. 

Kudos for getting the beef right too. So easy to overdo and leave chewier than Chewbacca chewing chewing gum, this was as soft as you like. It doesn't melt in the mouth, simply because that's what icecream does, not meat, but it's as close as you're going to get. The sauce is so good, and there's so much of it, some extra rice would have been welcome. But at this price this dish is an absolute winner. Excellent.

And to another rule. Desserts. Does it work? A scoop - a generous one - of chocolate ice-cream wasn't going to win prizes, but Coconut milk flan was. It felt someone had made it specially, with a notably different taste and texture - you can see it looks a little more crumbly than a standard flan

Som Thai

Spacious with a colonial atmosphere of cream, teak and greenery, it's a smart but simple ambiance. We've got to tip a hat to the service, too. A busy day with almost all the tables occupied the one server on duty did a magnificent job of juggling dish delivery, plate collection, bill organisation and so on. Nothing was delayed to any serious degree, but he deserved a bit of help as it was right on the line. He should be teaching classes to some of the establishments we've dealt with though. Bravo.

Conclusion? Two rules met. Freshly made dishes. Authentic, intense flavours not compromised too much for the local market. Service and decor don't disappoint and the lunchtime price is good value.

You'll have to work out your own reasons not to pop in.