Baan Ice Restaurant is well-known in Thailand for its southern Thai traditional cuisine and has been recommended by the countless food gurus and bloggers in Bangkok.  In Thai, Baan means “village” or in modern usage “house/home”.  Ice is the name of the the young restaurant owner who brought his grandparents’ popular Nakorn Sri Tamarat (in Southern Thailand) recipes to Thonglor in Bangkok.  Besides the recipe, he had also brought in the local ingredients from Nakorn Sri Tamarat daily e.g. chili paste, sator beans and bai liang leaves.

So if you are looking for traditional Thai food and hospitality in an authentic local setting at “Ice’s Home – literal translation of Baan Ice”, Baan Ice Restaurant located at ground floor of Somerset Sukhumvit Thonglor is the place.

The main ingredients of Southern Thai cuisine food are coconut, cashew nuts, pineapple as these are in abundance at the tropical climate of South Thailand.  Seafood e.g. fish, lobsters, crabs, mussels, prawn and scallops are also key features of Southern Thai cuisine due to the warm seas that surround the peninsula.  Southerners also like their food chili-hot and enjoy the bitter taste of the flat native sator beans.

We experienced each of these characteristics of Southern Thai food at Baan Ice (except for the bitter sator beans) and I guess they are as authentic as it gets because each of these dishes taste wonderful.

First thing first – request for an English menu if you can’t read Thai; while the pictures would usually suffice – it wouldn’t do justice to the dish if you don’t understand the short blurb beside each picture explaining what the food is about and some stories of Ice’s childhood.

We started with the Pineapple Curry (180 Baht) – Southern coconut milk can be considered the best in making curry due to its sweetness and richness; when you mix it with the sourness of pineapples and hotness of Southern chili paste and then add it with pork, shrimp and then simmer all these ingredients – you get a very yummy dish unlike any curry dish you have tasted (at least in Singapore).  It is hot and very savoury (to some extent addictive) – it can be very potent 🙂 so mix it with rice and pork/shrimp to enjoy the dish!

In Singapore, we typically have Green Curry in soup form (or at least I typically have that – my Thai food experience in Singapore is very limited) – here at Baan Ice restaurant, you can have it stir fried with chicken – Stir Fried Green Curry (180 Baht).  According to the short description on the menu – at Ice’s Home, they made stir fried green curry for the monks until the monks recommend that they sell it at Baan Ice – so it’s a dish even recommended by the monks.  I recommend it too (although I am not a monk) 🙂

If you like Tom Yum spicy and at the same time very tom yumish (i.e. sour), you should try this dish – Clear/Milky Tom Yam Kung (spicy soup with shrimp) (200 Baht) but a word of warning – it is very spicy!

Get the crayfish dish too – remember what I said about Southern Thai cuisine and seafood above – just order any seafood at Baan Ice restaurant to try; you won’t regret it 🙂

For dessert, you can end off with Pink Snow (70 Baht) – shaved ice with (i think) Bandung fillings doused with condensed milk – sweet and nice!

The picture below shows all the dishes recommended above.  The portions at Baan Ice restaurant are generous – so you might want to share some main courses and soups if you don’t want to overeat.  Prices are reasonable (considering the size of the serving) – of course, the prices can’t beat those of Bangkok street food but you are getting very good Southern Thai food in a cozy comfortable dining environment.

Baan Ice restaurant is spacious two-story dining venue. for private dining, request for a seat upstairs.  Downstairs is also comfortable – you will notice the many tall bookshelves that run along the walls alongside framed newspaper articles commenting on the good food of Baan Ice restaurant.

Getting around Somerset Sukhumvit Thonglor Bangkok

Somerset Sukhumvit Thonglor’s location is close to popular shopping centres, vibrant dining and nightlife e.g. J-Avenue and Villa Market as well as Thonglor Midtown and Major Cineplex Eakamai

Ascott has developed an Around our Residences Facebook app that provides travellers with local insights to help them navigate the city during their stay at any of Ascott’s serviced residences. The application is a mash-up of Facebook and Google Maps, enabling users to share useful tips and get an inside peek to some of the unique finds one can discover within the vicinity of an Ascott serviced residence. There are recommendations from Residence Managers at Ascott, Citadines and Somerset properties and other Facebook fans on topics such as which supermarket to find the freshest produce or the nearest local bank. Travellers can tap into app to discover interesting local haunts, the coolest shops or the hippest bars.

Another resource you can check out for the hottest bites, bars, events and celebrity scoop near the Ascott serviced residence of your choice is the Ascott Living website, specifically the Ascott Living Inside Track which provides a quick travel guide to Bangkok.

Getting to Baan Ice Restaurant at Somerset Sukhumvit Thonglor Bangkok

From Suvarnabhumi International Airport

By Taxi: 45 minutes drive and costs around 400 Baht.

Nearest public transport from Somerset Sukhumvit Thonglor Bangkok

City Air Terminal: Makkasan (15 minutes drive)
Skytrain station: Thonglor (5 minutes drive by complimentary tuk-tuk service)

For more information and reservations of Somerset Sukhumvit Thonglor Bangkok, go to http://www.somerset.com/thailand/bangkok/somerset_sukhumvit_thonglor.html

Baan Ice @Somerset Thonglor
115 Sukhumvit 55 (Thonglor),
Sukhumvit Road, Klongton Nua,
Wattana, Bangkok 10110 Thailand
Open: 11:00 – 22:30