Al Matum

We wanted to have simple food after our massage at Health Land on Ekamai. We normally have Japanese food after the massage since it is not too heavy. However; we decided to try something different. We remembered that a new som-tum restaurant opened on Ekamai 12.


The restaurant is situated in a charming house and most of the dinning area is in the very nice garden. The garden has very simple bamboo furniture with pillows for extra comfort.


Large trees are scattered throughout the garden and has hanging lights and ground lighting to give a dramatic effect to the garden. The garden is well manicured with bushes, flowers and plants.


There is nothing special about the indoor dinning room; but, I thought the plastic animals on top of the roof overlooking the garden was cute.


The first dish was som-tum Thai. The portions are small but was enough for two people. The som-tum was well balanced with sweet, sour, tangy, acid & spicy. Fresh papaya, tomato and long bean. The som-tum had good taste, colour and texture.


The next dish was larb moo (minced pork salad). This was not the larb I am used to. The minced pork was chunkier and there was less herbs such as sweet basil or mint. Non-the-less, the taste was very nice and the extra crushed roasted rice gave good texture.


The next dish was Isaan sausage. I do like these little sausages when I can get them. The grilled sausages had a good sour and savoury taste.


The next dish was grilled chicken. This was a really skinny chicken but it was grilled nicely, it was juicy and it tasted nice. It was not the best grilled chicken I have had but it was not bad at all.


The next dish was deep fried fish salad. This was the only dish we did not like because first it was not the dish I thought I ordered; which is a deep fried fish skin salad. What appeared was a crispy fish salad that was way too sweet. It was more like a dessert than a savoury dish.


The evening we went for dinner; there was only another table occupied. I thought how sad it was that not more people were not enjoying the calm and relaxing atmosphere of Al Matum as well as dinning outside under the stars. The food was good. The service was good. The prices are incredibly cheap. I do hope this place survives.

Charoenchai (Ekamai 12)
Sukhumvit 63
Bangkok 10110
02 281 2842

www.almatum.com