In a nutshell: 

A really good Thai food restaurant, run by a Thai lady & her family, very good interiors, warm & efficient service, located in a lousy mall with awkward parking. 

Address & other details: Thai Esan 

Instagram : Thai Esan

Facebook: Thai Esan

Meal for 2: ₹1000 onwards 

Cuisine type :  vegetarian also, predominantly non vegetarian 

Disclaimer: All restaurants / eateries reviewed by YUMMRAJ were visited by YUMMRAJ himself & he has paid for the full Bill & tips also. http://www.yummraj.com does not have even one featured / sponsored reviews. YUMMRAJ believes in going to a restaurant in anonymity, as a normal guest, experience everything & give a honest account of the same to you.

YUMMRAJ rates all the food items & then gives a final overall rating, which is a simple average of the individual item ratings. What the ratings stand for: 5 = Excellent, 4 = Very Good, 3 = Good, 2 = Fair, 1 = Disaster

Short description- in case u r in a hurry 

We read about Thai Esan on social media & then someone in person told us as well. So we decided to drop by here one evening. 

This spic & span, very well maintained restaurant with beautiful interiors is like an oasis in a desert / a shrine (spared by the bomber) in a carpet bombed town. To be specific, the mall in which the restaurant is located is a mess. It’s a sold out mall. The basement parking is dirty & dimly lit. The outside parking is unmanaged. 

We went to dine out here in one occasion & went back a second time since we loved our first experience. We saw many Thai national guests in both the visits. 

The menu card is comprehensive & mostly has real Thai food that is not Indianized. The descriptions of the food are good enough to understand. English teachers might be irritated to see quite a few spelling/ grammar mistakes in the menu card. We did not mind. 

We super loved the food. Would visit many more times. 

Detailed description – in case u hv the time to njoy reading:

Day 1

SOM TAM POO MAA- TRADITIONAL THAI RAW PAPAYA & CRAB

The original dish is made with raw crab. I did not know that the Thai people also eat raw seafood like the Japanese. The lady came to ask us ‘this is raw. Would you like it to be poached’ we said ‘of course no. Thank you for asking’. After some time she again asked ‘are you sure’. We said yes. 

The salad had a strong flavour of fish sauce & we loved it. 

The crab was excellent – raw sweetish meat that we had to extract from the shells. It was messy but fun. The taste of raw crab & the texture was new to us. We realized we had not eaten this in Japan. Bowled over. 

Rate it 4.95/5

When we were leaving, the lady gave us an oral certificate – you are the first Indians to have tried this & liked it.

THOD MAN PLA – DEEP FRIED FISH CAKE SERVE WITH SWEET CHILLI SAUCE

This was excellent.  Soft, juicy when we bit it. Best we have eaten in india, with fish & lime leaves giving each other chance to express themselves well.

The sweet & sour sauce with peanuts was real fun. Loved it. Rate it 4.5/5

PORK SATAY – STRIPS OF GRILLED PORK SERVED WITH PEANUT SAUCE

Pork satay was mind blowing good. Super soft & juicy. Strong curried flavours that let the meat flavours co-exist. 

The peanut sauce that came with it was real fun, we polished it off at the end just like that, using spoon. 

Rate it 4.75/5

Ho Mok Seafood – Curry paste in young coconut, cooked with eggs, coconut milk, basil & lemon leaves.

This turned out to be the Thai ‘daab chingri’. The seafood was served with a slight gravy inside a green coconut shell. A raw egg would have been added & that curdled very well with the hot (temperature) curry to become a fluffy porous omelette bite. Wow. 

Perfect texture seafood. Each one of the different kind of seafood. Very balanced gravy in terms of seasoning. 

Rate it 4.5/5

For dessert we had KHAO NEAW MAMUNG – 

MANGO STICY RICE

It was a Real mango & sticky rice-coconut milk combination. Loved the sweet & salt taste balance & the rich mouthfeel. Rate it 4.25/5

Day 2

On day 2 we thought of trying the popular dishes. 

We started with TOM YUM SEAFOOD SOUP

SPICY SOUP WITH FRESH THAI HERBS AND MUSHROOM 

This soup was refreshing, somewhat hot, full of seafood flavours & this very enjoyable. The texture of seafood was just right (not over cooked). Rate it 4.5/5

We then tried PORK GREEN CURRY. This was very good to taste. No cream floating around. Sharp flavours. Thin gravy. More like I have had in Thailand. The pork slices were juicy & soft. Rate it 4.5/5

SEAFOOD PHAD THAI

STIR FRIED FLAT RICE NOODLE IN PHAD THAI SAUCE INCLUDED CRUSHED PEANUT

We usually don’t order noodles but we did, out of curiosity. The peanut sauce bowled us over. The noodles were just perfectly cooked. Seafood texture was perfect. Rate this dish 4.75/5

YAM KHAIYOMA

THAI BLACK EGG SALAD IN YAM SAUCE

Thai black eggs – we tried this for the first time & just loved it. Yam sauce was nice to taste. Rate this 4.5/5

YAM HOY NANG ROM

RAW OYSTER SALADS WITH THAI STYLE SAUCE

This salad had a strong flavour & taste. It was somewhat hot. We loved the newness of the flavours. Raw oyster flavours finished a bit due to the sauces. We are used to eating oysters just as it is. Rate it 4/5

KAFAI BORA 

THAI COLD COFFEE

This seems to be a popular drink that poked out memory & took us back to childhood Nescafé / melody. It was good but we realized we have moved on from appreciating this any more. Rate it 3/5

Overall rating of the food & beverages at Thai Esan averages out to 4.4/5

Look forward to revisiting