Live Prawns in Bangkok?
 

Hi.

I once went to a restaurant in Chiang Mai where they had these tanks in the ground with live prawns. When you made your order, they'd then cook up the prawns.

Are there any similar restaurants in Bangkok? Preferably with live prawns, or live fish will do too. :)
Thanks.

Yes, I've seen quite a few places in Bangkok with tanks of live prawns and fish.

will be in Chaing Mai for a couple of days end of month. can you remember the name and location of the restaurant that you got the live prawns?
thanks

gtrekker, I got pulled away from my computer and didn't have a chance to finish my post.

There is an enormous tourist-oriented seafood place in Bangkok called something generic like the Seafood Market that many people like. But it is quite expensive and the preparations are not very interesting. There are many, many small seafood places that cater primarily to locals. The prices are good and the food is much more interesting. There are a number of locations that have lots of such small restaurants. I have the card for such a place, but it is written in Thai - great for giving to the taxi driver, not so good for responding to a question here on Fodors! The restaurant is called Charoen Seafood, it is open 11:00-23:00 and the phone numbers are 0-2215-1326 or 0-2215-1327. Call and have them give you an address.

mogens,

I'm sorry I don't have specific info on the Chiang Mai restaurant. I just remember it being somewhere near the night market.

kathie,

any idea where the smaller restaurants you describe were? Streets? I think I'm more interested in something like that than the tourist one you mention.

Thanks,

gtrekker2003

Trekker, sorry, the card I have has no street names in English. When I showed the card to the staff at my hotel they said this was a building with many small seafood restaurants. I'd say to call the phone number and get an address - you may want someone who speak Thai to call them for you. Some, but not all of the wait staff speak English.

Ate at Seafood Market before. Not bad but pricy.

In Bangkok, Somboon Seafood is quite popular although I haven't tried it before.

http://www.somboonseafood.com/e-index.html

many sea side restaurants offer this type of thing....they just came off the boat an hour ago...

I agree that the touristy place in Bangkok is way pricey. I tried it and it was good, nothing special as far as the taste is concerned. But it was an experience, my first with such markets.

I thought, from the title, that gtrekker wanted to eat prawns live in Bangkok. Now I'm disappointed. Once had "ebi odori" (dancing shrimp) in Japan. Check Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Odori_ebi

If you are just looking for a great seafood place, with few tourists, I recommend Pen, in Bangkok. They may have tanks, but I cannot remember.

Live prawns? Not so much! After the live octopus in Seoul, I would pass on those!

Pen is one of the restaurants reviewed by Johnny Apple in his NYT article several years ago. Gloria thought it was excellent, but rather expensive as the fish and prawns they ate were expensive items. The address is here on the board somewhere, but I'll also try to find it,as the search function will find items about the Peninsula Hotel in Bangkok rather than the entirely unrelated Pen restaurant.

Thanks everybody.

rhkkmk, where are these sea side restaurants that you mention? Not along the Chao Phraya River, right?

places like hua hin, pattaya, phuket, samui, krabi....

there would be some around the river probably but i am not aware of any....maybe at yok yor restaurants?? certainly at china town there would be some also...

Thanks very much rhkkmk. I'm not going to beaches on this holiday but maybe another time.

Here is the address of Pen, along with comments on my dinner last winter:



Dinner that evening was at Pen which proved to be a tantalizing introduction to Thai food. Fried Morning Glory with Minced Pork; Barbecued (grilled) River Prawns and Fresh Mango with Coconut Ice Cream. Superb. My only regret, here and throughout the trip, was that as a single diner I could not sample more dishes!
I was the only non-Asian in the restaurant and despite the fact that the hotel had reserved a table for me, the staff seemed quite surprised to find a single female foreigner in their midst. (This would remain true throughout the trip) The female manager could not have been more solicitous. Cost: 780 TB.

Highly recommended. Five stars!

Pen…2068/4 Chan Road Chongnonsee, Yannawa, Bangkok
Open 11am-2pm and 5pm to 11pm.