Among all the partying one needs to eat. Bangkok is riddled with food but I am a bigger fan of street eats than I am of overpriced restaurants. I love fried chicken and whilst I was out and about I found the Soi Polo area that has a few fried chicken joints. I am not sure which one is the “one” yet but I did try one of them and thought it was pretty damn good - and cheap!
Everyone refers to these chicken joints as soi polo - the one I went to is even called polo fried chicken but technically - these places are on Soi Sanam Khli. I walked all over the polo sois but the main joints are on Sanam Khli. You can see on the map where Sana Khli is in relation to Wireless road. U can get here via Wireless road or come down Soi Ruam Rudee and venture into Soi Polo but aim for Sanam Khli.
Soi Polo 4 is connected to the bottom of Soi Ruam Rudee - right at the bottom of it where the 90 degree bend is. Also the walkway that connects the Suk Soi 4 to Lumpini Park overlooks Soi Polo. So many ways to get to this place so finding it should not be a problem.
I went to the one named fried chicken polo - the name also includes the name of the lady owner. There are 3 joints right in a row on Sanam Khli - but this was the bigger one.
Here is the sign so u should be able to easily find the place. I think it is the third place in while walking Sanan Khli if coming from Wireless. They have a fairly big menu of Thai and Isaan food but I was only interested in the fried chicken.
The only choices are a half or whole fried chicken. I got the half - 80 baht. A Pepsi to fight the oncoming drowsiness and a small basket of sticky rice. All in - 100 baht. I was stuffed. The chicken is super tasty and smothered in fried garlic. I used the sticky rice to mop up the garlic that did not stick to the chicken. This is different than the chicken we mentioned at JJ Market but they are both good in their own right. The one at JJ being more of a battered Isaan style - this one being more of a simple garlic fried chicken. Can’t say I can pick a winner given the style is not the same. Anway - super tasty and cheap. They don’t appear to stay open late so make it a lunch or early dinner outing.
Party update soon. Cowboy kicking - Nana looking anemic. After hours going strong. Noticed how the Thais seem to be laying low these days? Rumors are rampant that there be another coup or some event to destabilize what appears to be the oncoming sweep by the PPP in the next election. Most places that see a lot of Thais have all been commenting on the slowdown but no one is saying much out of respect for the impending birthday gig. Thoughts?
fyi. sanam khli means polo field in thai
View all comments by nic
nic - thanks. I had meant to put that in but mentioned the naming issue since some people look for the chicken joints on the polo numbered sois but they are on Sanam Khli. Thanks for bringing it up!
View all comments by smitty
Fried chicken is my fave meal after a vigorous ST.
RE Nana Plaza:
I was at NEP Friday night between 10 and 11:30. Looked in most of the larger gogos, but we only had drinks in Mandarin and Mercury.
Based on a scale of 0 - 10, with zero being a bar with NO customers and few ladies, to 10 being a bar with no emptly seats and a high energy level.
2 Pretty Lady
3 Voodoo
5 Rainbow 2
4 Hollywood Rocks
5 Playskool
8 Rainbow 1
2 Rainbow 3
5 Mercury
1 Spanky
7 Angel Witch
4 GSpot
9 Rainbow 4
3 Fantasia
5 Mandarin Table
4 Mandarin upstair
1 Erotica
4 Carousel
0 Hollywood
2 Carnival
Hollywood 3rd floor NO customers and only about 10 desparate dancers. How do the owners manage to repel ALL customers?
Surprised to see several empty sections at AW despite it being showtime, on a Friday night in high season. Maybe an anomoly.
Rainbows 1 and 4 busy with the usual suspects.
View all comments by dj
dj: The scene or what passes for it has been building to this for years tho’ hasn’t it?
Nana is cadaverous.
Except for the “usual venues” the smell of formalin is everywhere.
View all comments by thongsuk
dj - thanks for the update. I don’t get why the hollywood bars are so empty. I know the coyote one is just lame but the other one is okay. good shows, some hotties and fun service girls. For some reason it may just the 3rd floor curse really given the only happening bar on the 3rd floor is the ladyboy bar.
View all comments by smitty
TS- NEP certainly seems to have fewer customers and less energy than I remember from a couple of years ago. No specific criteria or data for me to judge this on, just a gut observance.
Certainly single male tourists visiting Bkk have increased sharply in the past few years, and the Nana Hotel still seems to keep a high occupancy rate, based on a couple of friends I have who live there.
Perhaps internet exposure that attracts higher numbers of single males to Thailand to enjoy the nightlife is also bringing other nightlife alternatives to travelers’ attentions.
Has anyone noticed how busy the Soi 7 Beergarden has been lately? Used to be the BG started emptying out around 9 pm; now it’s still standing room only well after 11 pm, and very busy from mid-afternoon hours. Thermae also has a resurgance in both the number of customers and quality of ladies.
Smitty: Was it about 1 year ago when Hollywood 3rd floor remodeled their bar with the bright white interior and coyote dancing theme? Looks as though it backfired, though perhaps the slowdown in the NEP 3rd floor bars might be largely due to fewer NEP customers, and that many can’t be arsed to climb to the upper level with the escalator out. Who wants to crawl through the piss-ladened walkway to get to their decrepit elevators.
The Thermae ladies I went with last night (the one I picked invited her roomie) both worked at the Carnival Bar until about 2 months ago, and left due to a big drop in customers and accelerated salary-cutting efforts by management. Even though high season has returned, both ladies said they much prefer the freelance work now to working in the ’system’.
View all comments by dj
fyi. sanam khli means polo field in thai
Makes sense as there is a huge Polo Club there. Also the Calvary Police have their HQ around the corner. Thanks for the heads up on the fried chicken, will check it out soon.
View all comments by Mark