What is it?: A veritable Isan empire with eight locations that makes a deliberate point to elevate the Isan restaurant and place it in a comforting setting. We love the Aree original, but way out in the boondocks, the Ratchaphruek location has earned Michelin’s Bib Gourmand.
Why we love it: While we think the heat and the diesel exhaust quite convivial when we’re sitting down to an Isan feast, we realise not everyone else does, and Phed Phed has been a pioneer in the wave of casual, design-minded Isan eateries. But this isn’t just a place to take pretty pictures – the food delivers, with an encyclopaedic selection of som tam variations, catering to any imaginable taste. The signature house style, tam phed phed, has that good funk, or order the fruit-based variations – the tam mangkhut with mangosteen, in particular, rules. They even have meat-based som tams (?!), like a salmon sashimi variant that seems like a natural progression rather than forced fusion.
Time Out tip: Each location has a different name (Phed Phed Bistro, Phet Phet Lhay, etc.), and each has a wildly different interior. And we think that if you’re in the neighbourhood, you gotta catch ‘em all (Nintendo don’t sue us).