Som Siam Thai Restaurant, Guilford, CT

[Scargo]

Not long ago I posted a review of our first visit to the recently opened Ayuthai restaurant in west Guilford. A couple of days ago we tried the Som Siam Thai restaurant on the green in Guilford, for the first time.

This is a smallish restaurant sitting behind the storefronts facing the green.

We liked the art and table settings. When you walk in you can see employees working in the kitchen. It's a pretty small and intimate place but we were not disturbed by the kitchen/bar around the corner. Once inside you could imaging being in someone's diningroom because of the view out the windows. You get more of a residential than commercial feel. We went at 2PM so there were only a few other clients in the place. We were waited on by two mature and attarctively dressed Thai ladies.

We had a nice bottle of 2005 Steltzner Claret; about $34. As I recall the wine list was not large but decent. The wine was a little cold.

Sorry, but during the meal I continually forgot to photograph the food before I dug in. This is fairly typical Thai fare but the quality is high, the food very fresh, good flavors and portions fairly large. We started with spring rolls and then I had Tom Kai Gai. I opted for the house salad over the house soup (that comes with the meal). The salad had a very good peanut dressing. My partner in crime had chicken Pad Thai. All the food was prepared perfectly. This was a near perfect meal in every way. Granted they were not busy. To finish the meal we were given a complimentary desert of rice, sweetened coconut milk and (?). The look of the rice reminded me of caviar.

While finishing up they were setting up for dinner.

Only one visit, but we will go back! Personally, we enjoyed this meal more than the first (and only) meal we had at Ayuthai and better than anything we have sampled in New Haven, so far (and that has been quite a few samplings of four different places).

63R Whitfield Street. (R meaning "rear") On the Green. Guilford, CT 203.458.0228 Hours:

Sunday through Thursday, from 11:30 a.m. to 9:30 p.m., and Fridays and Saturdays, 11:30 a.m. to 10 p.m.

Edited February 25, 2008 by Scargo (log)

[Catherine Iino]

On Scargo's recommendation, we went late last evening. The place is very pretty, and the service could not have been friendlier. I'm afraid I don't remember the Thai names of the dishes we had, but they were: fresh rolls with a filling of chopped chicken, shrimp(?), and vegetables (not the usual unseasoned boiled shrimp and carrots); a dish of chewy, spicy, dry-fried beef with a red, not-too-hot (peppery, that is) sauce--great bar food; a green mango salad with cashews and fried salmon; and a stir-fried duck dish. The dishes were a little less interesting than the Thai Terrace in Hamden, where I ate recently, but very pleasant, and the restaurant is prettier and warmer.

By the way, the room feels so different at night from the way it looks in Scargo's photos--cozy rather than airy. I wouldn't have recognized it.

Thanks for the recommendation, Scargo.

Edited May 19, 2008 by Catherine Iino (log)

[prasantrin]

Sorry, but during the meal I continually forgot to photograph the food before I dug in. This is fairly typical Thai fare but the quality is high, the food very fresh, good flavors and portions fairly large. We started with spring rolls and then I had Tom Kai Gai. I opted for the house salad over the house soup (that comes with the meal). The salad had a very good peanut dressing. My partner in crime had chicken Pad Thai. All the food was prepared perfectly. This was a near perfect meal in every way. Granted they were not busy. To finish the meal we were given a complimentary desert of rice, sweetened coconut milk and (?). The look of the rice reminded me of caviar.

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What is the soup in bottom right corner of the top righthand picture?

And what is the soup in the bottom righthand picture?

Is the top one tom kha gai, and the bottom the house soup?

The soup bases look similar (coconut-based), but the bottom picture has a piece of shrimp in it, so I assumed it wasn't the tom kha gai (but I could be wrong).

They seem to use a lot of filler in their soups. One wouldn't normally find carrots in Thai soup, especially ones cut as prettily as the one in the bottom soup (and is that a cucumber in that one, too?).

[Scargo]

You are correct in that the soups were chocked-full of veggies. Quite unusual, but good. The top soup is Tom Kai Gai (chicken) and the bottom one was my main entree, a seafood soup, Tom-Yum Goong (I'm pretty sure), which had squid and other seafood as well as the shrimp.

CTmenusonline/Som Siam Thai Restaurant CT has their menus.

I intend to try Thai Terrace in Hamden at my next opportunity. Funny how, with the gas prices, I think twice before I go out and I try to consolidate errands and kill many birds with one stone... This has got to be hurting businesses.

BTW, I hate to say this... I have shifted to putting far more energy and time into chowhound than here. I have always liked eGullet very much. I enjoy the format, lack of bling-bling and advertising, but it is just dead (speciffically , the New England subforum in Restaurants, Cuisine, and Travel) compared to CH.

I'm glad you liked Som Siam. There is a somewhat new one that I reviewed a couple of weeks earlier you may want to try: Ayuthai review on eGullet It is in Guilford (but almost in Branford) and easy to get to from I-95.