No-nonsense Suki Restaurant in Bangkok: Ruen Petch
For the uninitiated, Thai suki is akin to Malaysia’s steamboat, a pot of cooking broth on the table, to cook with raw ingredients. Malaysians go gaga over flavoursome soup base, but not Thai people. Thai suki’s soup base is typically a clear soup, and tasteless, in my humble opinion. Well, the soup base is meant to develop its depth, by cooking ingredients.
MK Suki and Coca Suki are no stranger to local Thai people, and regular visitors to the Kingdom. D And I have stopped eating at MK, as we found that their quality has deteriorated over time. As for Coca, I never liked it anyway in KL, so it is not our top choice here. Coca also have less branch in Bangkok (vs. MK).
Ruen Petch Suki And Restaurant เรือนเพชรสุกี้, was mentioned by D for a couple of times. He said that it is an old suki restaurant, that has been around for many, many years. Even before MK.
So, on a rare weekday night, we had an unplanned suki dinner. Gasp! My first time out to downtown after three weeks back in Bangkok. I was holed up at home with my Europe travel research for that loooong.
Ruen Petch has two branches. The Petchburi branch is located close to D’s office, and it is also the original Ruen Petch branch. The second branch is at Samut Prakan province. Google Search will shows the location map of the second location.
The plan was for D to meet me at the restaurant. I had to find my own way there, and MRT is the best bet during peak hour. It is possible to walk from MRT Phetchburi to the restaurant. Do not make the same mistake as I did. Exit 1 is the closest. It took me approximately 20 minutes of walking, from the other exit (Exit 2). Exit 1 will probably cut short the walking by 5 minutes or so.
All you need to do is turn left after you walk out from Exit 1, and walk along Thanon Petchaburi. Your landmark is Avani Atrium Hotel. The restaurant is directly opposite, linked via a pedestrian bridge. So, it doesn’t matter if you are on the wrong side of road.
Reun Petch have both suki and non-suki menu, but we only ordered suki dishes.
We got a pot of typical clear suki soup. It looks so unappetizing, no? Malaysians would probably scream murder back home.
Thank goodness the suki dipping was lip-smacking good. Suki dipping is the utmost important for suki. We tasted fermented red bean curd in the sauce, which I intend to replicate it at home when we have our mini steamboat.
The marinated meat items (130 baht, per plate) typically come with raw egg yolk. Ours came without, as D is a non-egg eater. I pointed out to the ‘obvious hole’ on our two plate of meats, due to the missing egg yolk.
I was amused with the three types of fish balls in the menu. We opted for dimple, whatever-it-is. Since they were out of the cute dimple fish balls, we went to the extreme-end, and chose rugby.
Total: 792 baht including 10 baht for aircond charge. It seemed that the aircond charge was pointed out in many Thai blogs, but unmentioned in English blogs. The bill is only in Thai, so non-Thai wouldn’t be able to spot that! Why would an F&B establishment charge diners for aircond?
Local Thai necitizens complaint about poor service and cleanliness. We didn’t face any issue, and found that the staff was attentive and quick on their feet.
Menu is in Thai, English and Chinese. You will need to fill in order form by yourself, and it’s only in Thai and English. Do give this a place a try, recommended for good old-school Thai suki, off the usual tourist radar. Its popularity was affirmed with a packed restaurant at 7pm, with locals.
Ruen Petch Suki And Restaurant
เรือนเพชรสุกี้
Address: 1903-5 Petchburi Road, Bangkok, Thailand
Tel: 02-314 5047, 02-314 4274
Business Hours: 11.00am – 10.00pm