Jay Fai – Michelin starred food stall in Bangkok – Is it worth the visit?

Jay Fai, the infamous women who is the Chef to the Michelin starred food stall in Bangkok. The hype around this food stall, her and her food reached a peak in 2019, when Netflix featured her in the first episode of the show “Street food”. As I was living in Bangkok at the time, I had to pay her a visit. Read here about my visit.

Who is she?

Jay Fai, really named Supinya Junsuta, has been a famous Thai chef before the Netflix show. Starting her small eatery in 1980, she got recognized by the Thai food scene for her high-quality seafood dishes. Which led to her receiving a Michelin star in 2018 for the small roadside eatery in the old town in Bangkok. She cooks wok-fried seafood dishes and is mostly known for her crab omelette. All dishes are cooked only by herself on an open charcoal-fired stove. A beanie and ski goggles are her trademark, wearing it to protect herself from the open fire and intense heat.

The visit.

After seeing the Netflix Episode about her, I thought that I need to see myself what the hype is about. Talking to Thai friends and colleagues I very quickly found out that there are different views on her in the Thai community. Most conversations ended up with my Thai friends recommending me NOT to go to Jay Fai and even suggesting other places where I could enjoy great Thai food, cheaper and without a wait. Of course, I did not listen.

Where.

To visit Jay Fai, it is possible to reserve a table by calling the eatery. However, when we tried to call, no one answered. Hence, we had to go without a reservation. As the wait for a table is long, on average 2h, we decided to go quite late, around 9PM on a Saturday.

If you want to take public transportation, MRT is probably the best choice, it gets you quite close. We, however, went with BTS train to Ratchathewi and took a Tuk Tuk from there which was a 20 min drive. It turned out not to be too easy to find a Taxi/Tuk Tuk driver as no one seemed to know her or the eatery. The Tuk Tuk driver we did find only knew the Pad Thai place next to hers and tried to convince us to go there instead. I can recommend taking a Taxi/Lime when you are trying to get there, where you can just enter your destination in the app.

How.

You’ll know you are at the right place by the crowd of people on the pedestrian walk. When getting there we immediately saw the huge queue of people. Which turned out to be the queue to the Pad Thai place and not to Jay Fai. Her restaurant is right next to it. When you get there without a reservation you can inform a lady at the entrance of the restaurant and she’ll write you on a list and gives you a number. They have placed around 20 plastic chairs in two rows in front of the restaurant for people to sit and wait.

As we expected to wait for a while, we went to get a fresh juice at small stand on the street. Returning with the juices to the plastic chairs and waiting area of Jay Fai’s eatery we were immediately told that we couldn’t consume any food or drinks while waiting on the chairs. Which seemed a bit paradox as you were not able to order drinks from the eatery either and the heat and humidity in Bangkok can make you very thirsty.

We ended up waiting for 1,5 h until our number got called. A lot of people had left and gave up waiting. In case you were lucky enough to have a reservation, you mostly needed to wait for about 20-30 min for a table to free up as well.

Atmosphere.

Her eatery is open on two sides, to the front and to the right. The open charcoal-fired stove is placed outside on the right side. 8-10 tables fit inside with 4-6 chairs, all in white plastic. The green tiles on the walls are decorated with newspaper articles and other pictures (maybe family?). The openness of the eatery let a lot of hot air and humidity in, a few vans tried to make it more comfortable for guests to endure the heat.

As Jay Fai really is still cooking all dishes by herself the wait for the dishes take around 30 min. Hence, in total we waited around 2h until we were served food.

The food.

Let’s start with the crab omelette. Of course, we had to have her famous crab omelette and I must say it is the best crab omelette I’ve ever had. Arriving at the table looking like a golden-brown burrito it cut into fluffy, big chunks of crab meat, held together by just enough egg. The ratio of crab meat and eggs I’d guess to be 8:2.

The crab omelette is about 800-1000 Baht.

Second must try are Jay Fai’s drunken noodles, phad kee mao talay. It is a delicious dish consisting of flat rice noodles stir-fired with a hot and spicy sauce, fresh chili, basil leaves, crisp hearts of coconut palms and fresh seafood like big whole prawns, rings of squid and cuttlefish. The ingredients, especially the seafood, are very high quality, the seafood is extremely tender. The uniqueness about this dish is the smoky char that sticks to the chewy noodles coming from the open charcoal-fired stove.

This main dish is around 700 – 1000 Baht.

To go or not to go.

To sum up the experience, I must say it was an extraordinary food journey, tasting street food in a new way with fresh, high quality ingredients. However, the experience besides the food was not very pleasing. Next to the long wait and extraordinary prices you are not only watched by the waitresses who will push you out as soon as you finished your plate, also the other guest waiting will watch you very closely.

To go or not to go is ultimately up to you. I can say that there are many great food stalls in Bangkok who serve amazingly delicious food. If you are looking for the best crab omelette in town go visit her. If you are looking for great Thai food, you don’t necessarily need to visit her.

UPDATE March 2020: due to corona lock down of the city – it is currently only possible to order out!