Top 10 Crab Curry in Bangkok: Where to Eat Poo Pad Pong Karee
From Somboon Seafood's original curry crab to Jay Fai's Michelin-starred plate, here are ten Bangkok kitchens known for poo pad pong karee.
Poo pad pong karee is Bangkok's great seafood showpiece: crab stir-fried with yellow curry powder, egg and a splash of milk until the sauce turns thick, glossy and golden, with onion, spring onion and celery for crunch and a little chilli for warmth. It is gentle rather than fiery, rich rather than sharp, and it exists for one reason: to be spooned over a big plate of jasmine rice.
The best versions start with live crab, cooked to order in a very hot wok, with the egg set into soft curds rather than scrambled dry. Some kitchens serve the whole crab in its shell for you to crack, others pick the meat out first so you can eat it with a spoon. Both are worth trying, and the ten places below cover the full range, from a Michelin-starred street kitchen to a weekday lunch shop near a university and the old seafood houses where the dish made its name.
The dish is a product of Bangkok's Chinese-Thai seafood restaurants, which is why so many of the best plates come from family-run places in Bang Rak and Chinatown. For background on how that cooking shaped the city's food, see our piece on the Chinese influence on Thai food. If you want to cook it at home, our poo pad pong karee recipe shows how.
What to look for
- Live crab. Good seafood houses keep crabs in tanks or deliver them daily. Fresh crab gives sweet, springy meat; tired crab turns watery and stringy in the sauce.
- Soft, silky egg. The egg should bind the sauce into loose, creamy ribbons. If it looks like dry scrambled egg, it has been overcooked.
- Shell on or meat only. Shell-on crab is messier but more flavourful; picked meat is easier and usually costs more. Many places offer both.
- Balance. The curry powder should be fragrant, not dusty, with a little sweetness, a little salt and a gentle chilli kick from the oil.
- Roe crab in season. Some kitchens let you choose crab with roe, which makes the sauce richer and deeper in colour.
1. Somboon Seafood (Surawong)
If one restaurant can claim poo pad pong karee as its own, it is Somboon Seafood. The family business has been trading since 1969, bills its dish as the original fried curry crab and now runs several branches around Bangkok, but the big Surawong Road restaurant in Bang Rak is the one the Michelin Guide singles out as the best of them. It is a large, busy seafood hall built for groups sharing plates.
The curry crab here is the benchmark: crab in a thick, eggy yellow sauce with spring onion and chilli. Depending on the day and season, you can choose between roe crab and meat crab. If the curry has sold out, the Michelin inspectors suggest the stir-fried crab with spring onions instead.
Where: Surawong Road, Bang Rak. Order: fried curry crab, roe crab if available, with steamed rice.
2. Jay Fai
Jay Fai is famous for her crab omelette, but her crab curry is made with the same generous chunks of lump crab meat, stir-fried with egg and onion into a creamy, fragrant yellow sauce. The shophouse on Maha Chai Road holds a Michelin star, the first awarded to a Bangkok street food vendor, and plates are priced accordingly.
This is the meat-only style at its most lavish: no shells, no picking, just large pieces of crab in sauce. Expect a long wait, and check which days she is cooking before you go, as the shop is not open every day.
Where: Maha Chai Road, Phra Nakhon (old town). Order: poo pad pong karee, plus the crab omelette if you are sharing.
3. Krua Apsorn
Krua Apsorn is a family-run old town dining room near Democracy Monument, said to have been a favourite of the Thai royal family for its home-style cooking. Its stir-fried crab meat with curry powder is one of the dishes people come back for: picked crab tossed with curry powder, egg, onion and celery in a golden sauce.
Because the meat arrives already picked, it is an easy, relaxed way to eat the dish. Pair it with the fluffy crab omelette and a vegetable stir-fry for a classic Krua Apsorn spread. The original branch, on Sam Sen Road in Dusit, holds a Michelin Bib Gourmand.
Where: Dinso Road, Phra Nakhon, or Sam Sen Road, Dusit. Order: stir-fried crab meat with curry powder, crab omelette.
4. Chula 50 Kitchen
For a cheaper, everyday version, head to Chula 50 Kitchen, a busy canteen-style restaurant on Chula Soi 50 off Rama 4 Road, near Chulalongkorn University. It is a favourite with students and office workers, and its signature is crab meat curry with scrambled egg, served over rice as a one-plate meal or as a larger dish to share.
This is not a grand seafood house, and that is the point: quick service, low prices and a version of the dish you can eat on an ordinary weekday. It opens from breakfast, closes in the early evening and is closed on Sundays.
Where: Chula Soi 50, off Rama 4 Road, Samyan. Order: crab meat curry with scrambled egg over rice.
5. Northeast
Despite its name, Northeast on Rama 4 Road, opposite Lumpini Park, is best known for its crab curry. The curry comes in two forms: a boneless version with picked meat and a cheaper shell-on version, both in a very thick, rich sauce.
It is a short walk from Si Lom MRT station, which makes it an easy lunch stop for anyone around Silom or the park.
Where: Rama 4 Road, opposite Lumpini Park, near MRT Si Lom. Order: boneless crab curry with rice.
6. Samyan Seafood
Samyan Seafood sits on Narathiwat Ratchanakharin Road in Chong Nonsi, and crab is the main event. The owner's grandfather was a crab supplier in Yaowarat, the family is now in its third generation in the trade, and the restaurant still supplies crab to other well-known Bangkok kitchens. The owner insists the crabs arrive alive within a day of being caught, and there is no freezer for seafood.
Curry crab is the house signature: large, meaty crabs in a rich, savoury sauce made for plain rice. This is a good choice if you care most about the crab itself.
Where: Narathiwat Ratchanakharin Road, Chong Nonsi, Yan Nawa. Order: poo pad pong karee with a large crab, steamed rice.
7. T&K Seafood
At the corner of Yaowarat Road and Soi Phadung Dao (often called Soi Texas), two rival seafood restaurants face each other across the lane: T&K Seafood and Lek & Rut Seafood. T&K is known for grilled river prawns and crab curry served at pavement tables, with more seating on the floors above.
Its yellow egg curry is cooked with squid as well as other seafood, especially crab. It opens in the late afternoon and runs until the small hours, which makes it a natural part of an evening in Chinatown.
Where: Yaowarat Road at Soi Phadung Dao, Chinatown. Order: stir-fried crab with yellow curry, grilled river prawns.
8. Kuang Seafood (Rang Nam)
The original Kuang Seafood sits on Soi Rang Nam, a quiet lane off Phaya Thai Road. It is a straightforward Thai-Chinese seafood restaurant, and curry crab is the dish it is best known for, cooked without the mark-up of the more touristy seafood halls.
Reviewers praise the freshness of the crab, though some find prices on the high side. It is a good alternative to the better-known names if you are staying around Victory Monument or Ratchathewi.
Where: Soi Rang Nam, Ratchathewi. Order: curry crab, steamed rice.
9. Savoey
Savoey is a Bangkok seafood group with more than 50 years behind it, and its riverside branch at Tha Maharaj, beside the Chao Phraya, is the most scenic place on this list to eat curry crab. The dish here is stir-fried mud crab in yellow curry sauce.
It is more polished and more expensive than a shophouse, and a comfortable choice for a group or for a first visit to Bangkok seafood. The group also has branches at Terminal 21 Asok, Sukhumvit 26 and Chidlom.
Where: Tha Maharaj, by the river near the Grand Palace. Order: stir-fried mud crab in yellow curry sauce.
10. Kungthong Seafood
Kungthong Seafood on Rama 4 Road, in Khlong Toei, is an old-school, casual Thai-Chinese seafood restaurant. Curry fried crab is on its list of signatures, alongside salt-fried golden prawns, three-flavour sea bass and a crab fried rice that reviewers say is loaded with crab meat.
It is mid-range and unpretentious, and works well for a relaxed group dinner when you want crab curry alongside a spread of other seafood.
Where: Rama 4 Road, Khlong Tan, Khlong Toei. Order: curry fried crab, crab fried rice, salt-fried prawns.
Tips for eating crab curry in Bangkok
- Check the price before you order. Whole crab is usually sold by weight, so ask how big the crab is and what it will cost. Picked crab meat is often priced per plate.
- Order rice for everyone. The sauce is the best part, and rice is often charged separately.
- Choose your style. Ask for neua poo (crab meat) if you want it without shells, or go for the whole crab if you do not mind getting your hands dirty.
- Share it. Crab curry is a centrepiece dish. Balance it with something sour or fresh, such as a tom yum, a vegetable stir-fry or a simple salad.
- Go early or late. The famous places get busy at peak meal times, and smaller shops like Chula 50 Kitchen close early.
- Plan the rest of the day. Combine a Chinatown crab dinner with other classics from our guide on what to eat in Bangkok.
Leonidas Georgiadis
Leonidas Georgiadis is the founder and writer of Aroy Mak Mak. He is from Greece, has been travelling in Thailand for almost twenty years and is married to a Thai wife, so Thai food is everyday family cooking in his home.
