Michelin starred street food in Bangkok

Raan Jay Fai is the nickname of 74-year-old Supinya Junsuta who is the chef at this side street eatery in Bangkok, gaining a Michelin star and global attention in the first Michelin guide to Bangkok in 2018. There is limited ability to book in advance and the best thing to do is head here as early as possible, place your name in the book, and take an iPad or book with you and keep yourself occupied for the time it takes you to be called – in my case I did this for three hours. But it was worth the wait as the blue crab was superbly sourced (she has access to the best fisherman) and the quantity she puts in the omelette would account for why each serving is an average of £28 which is incredibly expensive for Bangkok. I asked locals and apparently was this expensive long before Michelin’s arrival which was reassuring and on the grounds of the rarity of blue crab of this quality available (due to global warming). If you have time and are in Bangkok, you must try this.

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Some miscellaneous points on Raan Jay Fai you may have been asking: she wears ski goggles and a woollen hat in the sweltering heat of Bangkok and her kitchen in order to protect her head from the rising heat and hot ash from the wood and coal-heated woks that she uses. The wait itself is so long as she is famously such a perfectionist (and would not be out of line to say obsessive controller) that she only allows the cooking to be done by herself. Therefore only one dish at a time can be made averaging 7 minutes per dish which is fast and she is superb in this way, with amazing levels of energy for her age(!), but you must, therefore, be prepared to wait for a considerable length of time on average. Try booking ahead of course.

The omelette is made from nothing but eggs and blue crab costing approximately £25 and the king prawns in yellow curry served with egg and onion was one of the best street food and frankly any Thai dishes I have come across. A spoonful was generously offered to me by another customer sharing her plate with her guest and I reciprocated with the omelette. The yellow curry was £37 which is a phenomenal amount for street food, but I think it was actually worth the wait, the base being as good as it was with faultlessly sweet and supple prawns.

I would describe this as a must-do purely for the experience of having as it is genuinely that good in terms of seafood quality and deliciousness of Thai food, but at the prices and wait time, it is a thing perhaps to be done once and then it is safely stored in the memory box.

Food Grade: 75%