- Hey everyone, I hope you're having an amazing day.
It's Mark Wiens, I'm in Bangkok, Thailand
and the Michelin Guide in Bangkok.
I'm familiar, I mean I love to eat, I research restaurants.
I keep up with restaurants in Bangkok.
But there's this one restaurant that received
a Michelin star that I had never even heard of.
It's actually not right in central Bangkok,
it's on the outskirts.
It's actually in the next province called Samut Sahkon.
They received a Michelin one star.
I'm very curious about the restaurant.
It looks like a very local seafood restaurant,
it's called Ruean Panya.
Yesterday my wife, Ying, called them up.
We made a reservation, we are on our way.
I'm very excited and I'm gonna share all the food
that we eat with you in this video.
Alright, let's go.
(upbeat instrumental music)
From Central Bangkok it's a 47 kilometer drive,
exactly one hour, two minutes.
Doesn't look like traffic is too bad and we are on our way.
(upbeat instrumental music)
We made it, that was exactly an hour drive.
Great to be here in Samut Sakhon.
You kind of come into the neighborhood.
You kind of think you're gonna just end up in the middle
of nowhere, but all of a sudden a restaurant,
the restaurant which is kind of spread out
between a number of different houses I think,
just appears in this neighborhood community
sort of at the dead end.
(upbeat instrumental music)
I guess this is sort of the reception.
It almost looks like a hotel, but really classic.
We checked in here, well we inquired here.
But then she's leading us over into this building,
into this house.
You get this relaxing sensation when you arrive here.
When I was reading in the Michelin guide it says
this is a real hidden gem.
It's beautiful in this room, it's like a museum.
The wooden furniture, the paintings and drawings,
the sculptures.
There's antiques all over and we almost kind of have
this little private dining room.
We have our one table that's here.
That's where we're gonna sit.
Really quiet, really peaceful back here.
(people chatting in foreign language)
We're gonna order, there's a couple dishes
that they mentioned in the Michelin Guide
which I'm definitely gonna order,
especially the (foreign words) and the fried shrimp
which look incredible.
Then we're also looking through the menu trying to get
some other dishes, some of their also specialties
that they have.
(speaking in foreign language)
(upbeat instrumental music)
A few of the dishes have arrived, not all the dishes yet.
But she just brought the shrimp.
These have to be some of the most giganormous shrimp
I have ever seen.
Seawater, saltwater shrimp, they are unbelievably.
Do you remember the name of this dish?
It's like (foreign words) salt, salt fried (foreign words).
A salt-fried shrimp.
This is really just like bumped up my mood served
with starfruit which is also unique.
Kind of like an oily sauce,
but it's so unbelievable fragrant.
Look and they're even curled up on this plate.
This thing is absolutely massive.
They have it curled on a plate because they're so big
they wouldn't even fit on a normal plate.
But if you stretch her out, it literally is the length,
maybe even longer than my face.
This thing is massive and this is not a freshwater.
This is an ocean, like a tiger prawn.
You can see they cut out the vein so that just leaves
the meat just like it's just sprouting.
Look at that, so they sliced the head.
You can see that head oil has just kind of sprouted out
as it was fried.
Oh look at that, it jut flakes off.
Wow, oh wow, okay we will lick everything.
But look at that juicy head butter oil.
Okay I'm just gonna bite, I think.
(upbeat instrumental music)
oh wow, oh that is unbelievable.
Immediately you taste the salt rather than fish sauce.
It's sprinkled in salt, I believe.
Sink your teeth into the flesh and it's so sweet,
it's so firm, it's so fleshy.
Oh that is insane, and when I took that bite
look at my plate.
I just splattered, that's like a painting,
an abstract, beautiful painting.
I've gotta taste that with some of the starfruit.
Juicy and sweet, just slightly sour.
That's just all good.
A juiciness with the shrimp in your mouth.
(speaking in foreign language)
Oh that is amazing, another dish has arrived.
(speaking in foreign language)
(upbeat instrumental music)
You know like normally you're gonna finish a whole shrimp
in a couple bites.
This one you can actually set aside for later.
And since all the rest of the food came,
gotta try the rest of the food.
It's just, yeah it's beautiful.
It's not like overly decorative,
but just incredible ingredients so far.
Okay I'll try this fish next.
I believe in Thai she called it a (foreign words).
So I think it is pomfret, a type of pomfret
or a pompano.
But I've never heard of that name.
Normally it's called (foreign words) which is, I don't know.
Anyway I think it's a type of pomfret.
I'm gonna grab some of the, oh it's so crispy.
That's so much garlic, too.
Put this onto the plate.
Oh look at that, the steam.
I'll stick this onto the splatter painting,
the shrimp splatter painting.
(upbeat instrumental music)
Oh it's so hot, but the texture of that fish
is incredible, really, really crispy because it's
deep-fried around the edges.
But then on the inside it's just like so soft and silky
and falling apart in your mouth, but not mushy.
Oh the freshness, that garlic.
I can't remember if this was the sauce served with it.
But I think it was.
There's some shallots and chilies in here,
and maybe some lime juice.
I'm gonna put this on.
(upbeat instrumental music)
There's just like an elevated (foreign words),
rich fish sauce, chilies in it, shallot, and I think
just a little bit of lime juice so it has that sourness.
This is one of my favorite types of fish.
It is like the texture of it, the taste of it,
the meatiness of it and how they've prepared it.
Nice, awesome.
I can only fit one scoop of rice on my plate right now
due to the hugeness of that shrimp.
The next dish is another stunner on a beautiful plate
just piled high.
It's a fish that I've never called before.
In Thai it's called (foreign words).
It is she said the dish preparation is called
(foreign words) which is covered in chili.
But usually it's kind of sweet.
She said this one is a (foreign words) version.
A traditional version and you can see the fish
are kind of small.
There's chilies in there.
You can see kind of almost like an oily chili glaze
just covering it.
I think it's fried as well.
You can see this is a whole tail, so it's a small fish.
Ying says that there might be bones in here,
oh I just lost the chili again.
We'll have to kind of navigate.
No, you can eat the whole thing, the whole thing is crispy.
Oh, it's like crunchy and soft at the same time.
And it's just kind of saturated in that chili sauce,
which is slightly sweet and then kind of fried
like ooziness of chili.
And you taste that like half the lime leaves are in there
nicely as well.
I think from the guts of that fish you get a slight
bitterness which actually tastes quite good.
Somehow it's like juicy and puffy, yet fried and crinkly
all at the same time.
Okay, this one is the (foreign words).
It's a snail in a type of curry here.
And you can smell, immediately she sat this out
I could smell the (foreign words), which is that climbing
wattle shoots on top, which has a distinct aroma to it.
I think that's more coconut cream on top.
Oh yeah, you can see those little, those are the little
snails in there.
I'll get a little bit of everything on this bite.
You can taste the immediate richness of the coconut milk
and coconut cream.
Then it's not really spicy, it's quite a mild curry.
Well, you taste a little bit of chili
as you keep on chewing.
But you've got the flavor of the (foreign words)
with the coconut cream, with the little (foreign words),
the little snail shells.
They're kind of chewy a little bit like squid.
Next up for the (foreign words) which is this is
a chili dip made with shell-less crab,
just the crab nuggets.
This is like solid crab, a little bowl of solid crab.
You can see the chilies folded in,.
Then I'll grab a cucumber which is a good neutral
vegetable, a neutral vessel for it to get the full
flavor of it.
And generously top it.
Oh look at that.
Just solid, solid strings of crab.
(upbeat instrumental music)
Oh that is stunning.
Mm, it's like it's a very mellow citrus-y sourness.
You taste the (foreign words) but also you taste salt
because it's not such a pronounced fishiness.
And then just the silky strings of crab
and chilies in there.
One of the best veggies and dip you could possibly have.
I believe this is (foreign words), which is white turmeric.
Yeah, that's (foreign words), that's white turmeric.
Oh, that's just like pure and vibrant in all the right
kinds of ways.
One more main dish that we've gotta try.
That thing is heavy, you've gotta use both hands.
This is by far the most gigantic bowl of (foreign words)
that I've ever had.
You can eat it with rice, you can eat it with vegetables.
But it's kind of a dip, kind of a main dish.
It's made with thick coconut cream and then in this case
with crab, an entire crab chopped up in there.
It is just thick and rich.
You see the vibrancy of the orange crab in there.
You see the chilies.
That is impressive, I have never seen, look at the claw.
That's the claw, I didn't even know. (laughing)
Okay, I'll grab some cabbage.
Just kind of dip that sauce.
(upbeat instrumental music)
Mm, mm that is so rich and so thick.
It's sweet, partly from the coconut cream
and then partly from palm sugar.
It's always kind of on the sweeter side.
You can taste the onion, shallot-y flavor of it.
Oh that is hot.
If you reach down it's like because it's such a thick
gravy-like sauce it just retains the heat.
It's almost rich like melted cheese.
Let me just navigate this crab a little bit.
You're going to need to slurp as you eat this
probably because it's so juicy and just wrapped up
with that coconut cream.
Then because it's so hot and you can also eat it with rice
which is very common.
There are some floating chilies in it as well.
And you also feel the shallots which are just
kind of dissolved into the (foreign words).
There's so many seafood juices on my plate
that my plate is getting kind of messy
from all the seafood juices, but that's okay.
Okay, eat that with the rice now.
You know, overall (foreign words) is typically
a little bit sweet for me.
I like it especially when it's paired
with the other dishes that are not sweet.
But that coconut, rich coconut cream is just unbelievable.
I think I sampled all, we've got another couple dishes.
We've got just a plain soup and some other chicken,
stir-fry chicken dishes.
But these are the main seafood dishes
these are the main dishes that I really
wanted to try.
I have to say that just from tasting a couple bites
of every dish I'm very impressed.
The food, the quality of the food, the giant-ness
of the seafood, the preparation, and even the decoration
and display.
Just how everything is on a huge plate but not
overly fancy, I'm loving it.
That fish is really a highlight actually for me.
(upbeat instrumental music)
That fish is just unbelievably good.
He's just been waiting here hanging out waiting for me.
I will pull off the head for this bite.
I've taken like four bites and it's still this size.
It's still the size of my face.
I love how the taste is simple and only focusing
on the shrimp itself so you can really taste the vibrancy
of the shrimp.
That's like magnified shrimp flavor.
Who would have known the next big combination,
shrimp and starfruit.
And that's even after licking my fingers.
The orangeness from the shrimp.
This is one of the dishes that my wife ordered.
I didn't even know she ordered, but it's
the (foreign words).
Pork fried with fish sauce and I love how there's just
whole floating around chilies as well as slices
of raw garlic.
Mm, and shallots, that's just like super good.
You taste the fish how salty it is in there.
The raw garlic is awesome.
Check this out.
(crunching)
Somehow they fry it so perfectly so it's so crispy,
yet not oily.
Another cool thing, because this restaurant is spread out
between different houses there's actually a phone
in this room.
The waitress said to just give her a call when we need
some service.
So Ying has called her.
I think Ying is moving onto dessert.
Oh man, I've really got to wipe my mouth.
Sorry about the orange mouth lipstick.
Good thing we have baby wipes.
Is that good?
Oh no, still got some.
Okay I think we're good.
For dessert they have, this is a very popular dessert.
But this is actually from, is it from Samut Sakhon?
It's (foreign words), which is famous from Samut Sakhon.
It's a traditional Thai dessert.
They look kind of like noodles, but the greenness
is to symbolize that they're pandan flavored.
There's coconut milk in here, there's ice in here.
Mm, mm, boy this is really good.
You crunch on the ice, the noodles are like jelly.
They almost have a vanilla flavor from the pandan.
(speaking in foreign language)
2,650, how much was the fish?
The fish was 3,000 baht.
Look at how long our bill is.
Almost as long as the shrimp, but yeah not a cheap meal.
But total price came to 9,765 baht.
There were four of us, so actually five of us eating.
But Micah fell asleep partway through the meal
and he didn't eat too much.
But I showed most of the dishes.
We also got a couple of extra dishes but they weren't
the expensive ones that I didn't show on camera.
Yeah, it's not a cheap meal, but definitely the quality
and I mean this is a restaurant you'd want to come to
for a really special celebratory occasion.
(upbeat instrumental music)
Ah, okay so a couple of things.
Oh number one, we got some takeaway.
We ordered a lot of food and the food was portion sizes
are huge.
Not to mention the ingredients are just massive
what they use.
I think the amount of food we ordered we could
have at least had two maybe even three or four people
could have eaten that entire meal.
Which would have made the price a lot cheaper per person.
I thought the food was absolutely world class.
The seafood, that is some of the greatest, grandest seafood.
The fish which I actually just looked up is a black pomfret
which is from deeper water.
It's bigger, that fish was unbelievable.
I would say that you should really order the seafood.
Seafood is what they specialize in.
The seafood was by far the best thing.
The other dishes, the chicken and the pork,
they were okay for me but not something special.
It was really about the seafood.
That was just an incredible Thai seafood meal experience
at Ruean Panyah, which is a one star Michelin restaurant.
And yeah, I think it exceeded my expectations.
Did it exceed your expectations, Ying?
- [Ying] Yes.
- So we both agree that was a stunning meal.
Thank you so much for watching this video.
Please remember to give it a thumbs up
if you enjoyed it.
Leave a comment below, I'd love to hear from you.
And if you're not already subscribed, click subscribe now
and click that little bell icon so that you get notified
of the next video that I publish.
Thanks again for watching, see you on the next video.