Review; Took Lae Dae, Sukhumvit Soi 16

OK, so the main purpose of this website is to turn some of the review I mentally write into actual words that people can read.

Classy as ever, I start with a place I eat at virtually every schoolnight. Tucked inside Foodland supermarket, Took Lae Dae is Thailand’s answer to the Asda cafe – but there the comparison stops.

The menu is extensive and varied, with some 67 food items (They’re numbered, I didn’t count) and a healthy selection of specials (displayed on posters around the restaurant, so finding them can be something of a challenge).

The open kitchen makes a splendid job of Asian classics (Thai green curry is a particular highlight), but it’s the affordable and unusual selection of Western dishes that really intrigues.

Sure, you can get a burger and fries (the cheapest in town by some distance) and the club sandwich (which, commonly for Asia, and indeed Eastern Europe, come with egg, pah) but there’s alsosome more unusual variations that go beyond the norm, like stuff pork cordon bleu and the ‘butcher’s choice’ combination of five sausages. The American breakfast is also renowned, not to mention dirt cheap.

It’s all fresh too – the restaurant makes use of produce straight off the shelves of the adjacent store.

If there’s one downside it’s that the portions can be a little on the small side – but with few items coming in at more than 100 baht (roughly two quid UK) you can have two….

Best of all, for a night-owl like me, it’s open 24 hours a day (as is the supermarket, which has a refreshingly loose interpretation of Thailand’s ridiculous licensing laws).