If you have the chance to visit Uthai Thani Province and are looking for a restaurant with a great atmosphere and authentic, spicy local flavors, we recommend checking in at the restaurant.“Wooden Riverside House”Located in Village No. 1, Nam Suem Subdistrict, Mueang District, Uthai Thani Province, this restaurant stands out by preserving the traditional local flavors of the raft-dweller lifestyle along the Sakae Krang River basin, serving delicious food amidst lush natural surroundings.
Enjoy nature by the water in a wonderfully chill atmosphere.
This place has been delighting guests with its dishes for over five years. Patthapa Iamsa-ard, the 38-year-old owner, oversees the restaurant and thoughtfully designs the decor to make customers feel as if they are dining and relaxing in a backyard garden. A key highlight is the seating area.The “rattan-thatch wooden house”extends out over the bank of the Sakae Krang River, allowing you to sit and enjoy the cool breeze while taking in panoramic views of the gently flowing water, enhancing your dining experience.
Discover delicious flavors highlighting bold local ingredients.
The menu perfectly captures the charm of the raft-dweller way of life, starting with winged bean salad—a popular dish during the rainy season when the beans grow abundantly in the forest. The restaurant cuts the winged beans into bite-sized pieces, blanches them in boiling water along with shrimp and minced pork, then mixes them with coconut milk and chili paste to add richness and smoothness. The dish is finished with fried shallots and fragrant toasted chili.
Next is a hot soup dish, spicy snakehead fish soup, a clear tom yum recipe infused with the aroma of Thai herbs like kaffir lime leaves, lemongrass, and galangal. The secret to its taste is bringing the broth to a rolling boil before adding large slices of snakehead fish, resulting in fresh, sweet, springy fish meat with no unpleasant smell.
A signature dish everyone must order.
The star dish is the traditional soft-fish chu chee curry. What makes it special is frying the soft-fish until golden and crispy, then stir-frying it with a secret curry paste ground in-house, adding thick coconut cream reduced to concentrate the flavor, and garnishing with sliced kaffir lime leaves. The feature that makes this an authentic raft-dweller recipe is the addition of“grated coconut”stirred in, which elevates the dish’s creaminess and aroma, making it irresistibly delicious.
There is also snapper with tamarind sauce: a large snapper fried until crispy outside and tender inside, topped generously with a special tamarind sauce simmered in-house to achieve a perfectly balanced sweet and sour flavor, sprinkled with crispy fried noodles for a delightful crunch. This is another dish so tasty it makes you want to have extra rice.
Wooden Riverside House is located not far from Wat Tha Sung and is open daily from 09:00 to 22:00. It’s an ideal spot for a special family meal or to impress visitors. Besides the riverside seating, the restaurant also offers an air-conditioned room for guests seeking a cool environment.
For those wanting to taste rare traditional flavors, you can follow their Facebook page.“Wooden Riverside House”Rest assured, this meal will let you fully experience the local flavors that reflect the identity of the people of Uthai Thani.