I had Mark Wiens & EatingThaiFood.com as my guide for my trip to Thailand and after checking in at the hotel, I headed straight to Tom Yum Goong Banglamphu to try out their house special, Tom Yum Goong (ต้มยำกุ้ง).

The first time I read about it on eatingthaifood.com, I was drooling all over myself and looked up this place on Google Maps and saved it to my list of places to visit in Thailand.

Though the soup doesn’t look quite as appetizing, and more like a curry, I knew I was going to experience something special. The soup was a mix of freshwater shrimps whole which were twice the size of the shrimps I’ve seen back home, with generous portions of mushrooms, lemongrass, kaffir lime leaves that added a lot of depth to the soup and last of all, the secret ingredient broth that they had going on at the front of the stall.

Nothing quite prepared me for the experience but the seasoning and the tanginess (if that’s a word) of the broth was absolutely marvelous with the prawns and the vegetables complimenting each other to perfection. It does great with a bowl of sticky rice and a bottle of beer. It was the perfect start to my first meal in Thailand and I couldn’t have asked for more.

A great place to grab lunch for cheap, don’t be put off by the location. It is noisy and right on the road close to Khao San road. I’m pretty sure not stopping by this joint would be a wasted vacation.

Follow me on Instagram & Twitter by following @foodwithshayne

Location : Tom Yum Goong Banglamphu