Malaysia
Singapore
Thailand
Tucked in a corner of Ratchada Night Market, you can find Taikong Seafood, a little-known seafood buffet place in Bangkok.
Seated two to a table, our group of four was separated by a metal tank running down the side of the aisles.
They specialise in Seafood Buffet (THB 799), serving up all kinds of seafood like bamboo clams, crabs, scallops and more.
If you want an alternative to all that seafood, they also have other ingredients like mushrooms, corns and more.
This restaurant takes the farm-to-table concept to a whole new level. After sitting down next to a tank full of huge live prawns, and we had to catch them ourselves before grilling.
After grabbing them from the tank, I needed to shock and paralyse the prawns in a bucket of ice before putting them on the grill.
It got a little messy as the live prawns struggled in the bucket, but it was all part of the experience and I thoroughly enjoyed it.
As the main star of the buffet, the prawns definitely didn’t disappoint. These extremely huge prawns were almost the size of lobsters! Cooking the prawns on a charcoal grill also added a pleasant smokiness to them.
Upon peeling the prawns, savoury roe oozed out and added a bitter nutty aftertaste that lingered on my palate.
I would recommend dipping the succulent prawns in the green Thai chilli sauce before eating it, for an initial sourness that complements the sweet prawns. The spicy kick came at the end and created a dish with many layers of flavours.
Apart from the prawns, we tried the scallops as well. However, the scallops were rather small so there wasn’t much for me to chew on.
Since there is free-flow cheese as well, we added some onto the scallops before cooking them. The cheese had a subtle saltiness that went well with the rather bland scallops.
In addition, I would also recommend folding a small bowl using the aluminium foil and melting some cheese in it. This way, you can have an alternative dipping sauce for your seafood.
The jumbo cheese sausages are the only meat item on the menu, so it’s a must-try for meat lovers. The cheese within the juicy sausage oozed out immediately when I bit into it. I also really enjoyed the subtle flavours of rosemary in it as well.
I tried the cockles, which were much bigger than those found in Singapore. However, the cockles were very fishy and had an unpleasant bitter aftertaste.
The buffet also comes with free-flow drinks. However, we were disappointed after being charged for taking the bottles of Coke (THB 50) at the side, since we weren’t informed beforehand that those bottles were chargeable.
I felt that the place was not the most hygienic, with flies landing on the raw seafood. Even though they put cling wrap over the food, customers do not take the effort to cover it up.
I was also rather disappointed that there were only prawns in the tank, because I was expecting other live seafood like scallops and mussels.
All in all, I would still recommend this place to anyone who is a fan of grilled seafood, because of its affordable prices.
Think about it: one large grilled prawn in Singapore would already cost S$10! At Taikong Seafood, for THB 799 (which is slightly less than S$35), you can enjoy all-you-can-eat prawns and other seafood. Talk about getting your money’s worth.
Besides, catching the live prawns from the tank added some entertainment to the meal.
So, bring your friends to Taikong Seafood, and put your prawning skills to the test!
Expected Damage: THB 799 per pax
