Thai Seafood Feast and Seagulls on a Bangkok Day Trip to Bangpoo (บางปู)

Bangpoo (บางปู) is one of the closest places you can go from Bangkok to see the ocean.

Although it’s not a swimming beach, you’ll the have the opportunity to feed seagulls and eat a delicious seafood meal on the end of the pier.

In this blog post I’m going to share with you all the details about taking a Bangkok day trip to Bangpoo (บางปู), and an amazing Thai seafood meal!

Watch the video:

If you have a few minutes, first press play to watch the video of this day trip to Bangpoo (บางปู).

(Or you can watch it on YouTube here)

Bangpoo (บางปู)

Let’s first talk where Bangpoo (บางปู) is.

Bangkok is located along the Chao Phraya River, about 15 kilometers from where the river meets the Gulf of Thailand (possibly a little less as the bird flies).

Bangpoo (บางปู) is about 30 km or so from Central Bangkok, located in Samut Prakan province. It’s a pier owned by the Thai Navy and it has an interesting retro 70’s feel to it.

Many Thais take a Bangkok day trip to Bangpoo (บางปู) to do two things: feed and watch seagulls, and eat seafood.

My wife and I jumped in the car, and since we went on the weekday, it didn’t take too long to get there — probably about 45 minutes straight down Sukhumvit Road from Central Bangkok.

Pak Nam Seafood Market (ตลาดปากน้ำ)

However, we stopped off in Samut Prakan to quickly go to the seafood market just for fun.

The big fresh wet market in downtown Samut Prakan is a great local market to visit, and even though it’s still so close to Bangkok, it has a small town feel and people selling tend to feel so much more warm and friendly than in Bangkok.

Anyway, if you’re taking a Bangkok day trip to Bangpoo (บางปู) and have some extra time, and before you’re too hungry, stop off at Samut Prakan Market for an hour.

From the center of Samut Prakan, it was just about a 15 minute drive to get to Bangpoo (บางปู).

Again, it’s a Thai Navy compound, so it has an interesting feel to it, and it also has a pretty retro feel going for it as well. After parking your car (there’s plenty of parking especially on the weekdays), you then proceed to walk through the entrance way and on to the main pier.

The pier is fully paved and it’s probably about 75 meters long or so (that’s a pure guess), and you’ll immediately see swarms of seagulls soaring over the sea, and swooping into rolling waves and the mangrove forest that lines the edge of the coast.

On the pier at Bangpoo (บางปู) you can buy some bird feed to feed the seagulls, and many people do.

But I decided to skip the bird feeding and head straight to the end of the pier where you’ll find one of the best reasons to take a day trip to Bangpoo (บางปู): the seafood restaurant.

Sala Suk Jai Restaurant (ร้านศาลาสุขใจ)

The restaurant is pretty classy, it even has a ballroom! I think some people on the weekends rent it out for private events and even for weddings.

But most of the restaurant is located on two wings off the ballroom, both of which are open air, and have a nice view of the sea and the seagulls that come swooping in.

If you go on a good day when it’s not too hot, the sea-breeze will be amazing.

Sala Suk Jai Restaurant (ร้านศาลาสุขใจ) serves just about all Thai seafood.

You can choose from shrimp to crab to fish. Actually, I had wanted to order steamed crab, but since we arrived a little on the late side for lunch, the waitress mentioned that they had already sold out of crab for the day. At first I was a little disappointed, but then I realized that’s actually quite a sign of a good Thai seafood restaurant as they only serve what they get fresh and once they sell out, they are done.

Fried barramundi (ปลากะพงทอดน้ำปลา)

To begin the seafood meal we ordered a deep fried barramundi with fish sauce and served with green mango chili salad on the side.

The fish was fried to a perfect golden brown so it was crispy and puffy on the edges, while fluffy on the inside. The green mango was a little more on the sweet side than the sour side, but it was pretty good.

Fried fish-cakes (ทอดมันปลา)

One of the dishes I really loved at Sala Suk Jai Restaurant (ร้านศาลาสุขใจ) was the fried fishcakes (tod man pla ทอดมันปลา). You could tell they were made fresh using all fish and curry paste and deep fried in patties.

I also liked that they weren’t too overly smooth, but had some grainy and spongy texture to them. Great dish to order when you eat here.

Stir fried fern (ผักกูดผัดน้ำมันหอย)

For vegetable we ordered fern stir fried with oyster sauce. I’m a huge fan of edible ferns, and this was simple, but excellent.

Shrimp and mung bean noodles (กุ้งอบวุ้นเส้น)

Goong ob woon sen (กุ้งอบวุ้นเส้น) is a common Thai dish of shrimp and mung bean noodles baked in a personal pot with pepper and cilantro roots and usually some pork fat. One of the best versions is at Somsak Boo Ob in Bangkok.

The version here was alright, but it wasn’t amazing. It had good ingredients, but I think they could have bumped up the flavor of the cilantro roots.

Mussels baked (หอยแมลงภู่อบ)

You won’t get big meaty New Zealand mussels here, but the mussels were local, small, but tasty. Some of them had a little bit of a tough texture, but I quite liked them.

The mussels were again baked in a personal pot, with Thai sweet basil and lemongrass to give them some fragrance, and served with a chili dipping sauce.

Potaek (โป๊ะแตก)

I saved the best dish at Sala Suk Jai Restaurant (ร้านศาลาสุขใจ) for last.

Potaek (โป๊ะแตก) is another Thai soup, not quite the same as tom yum, but with a very pure seafood broth, very clean tasting, and very sour. The seafood was fresh, and the broth was absolutely outstanding.

The potaek (โป๊ะแตก) was for sure my favorite dish of the meal.

Total price for this entire Thai seafood meal at Sala Suk Jai Restaurant (ร้านศาลาสุขใจ) came to 1,205 THB ($34.40), and there were 4 of us who ate.

Conclusion

Bangpoo (บางปู) is a Thai Navy pier that’s one of the closest places you can go from Bangkok to see the sea. It’s not a swimming beach, but it’s a great place to see and feed seagulls, and more importantly, to eat Thai seafood.

At the end of the pier you’ll find a classic Thai seafood restaurant called Sala Suk Jai Restaurant (ร้านศาลาสุขใจ) that serves the full spectrum of fresh Thai seafood dishes.

All the dishes were good, but I especially enjoyed the potaek (โป๊ะแตก) soup.

Sala Suk Jai Restaurant (ร้านศาลาสุขใจ)

Address: Tambon Bangpoo, Thanon Sukhumvit, Amphoe Mueang Samut Prakan District, Samut Prakan 10280
Open hours: 10 am – 10 pm daily
Phone: 02-323-9911

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