Authentic Thai at Sansook Kitchen

Written and photographed by Sarah Pittman

First, I’d like to say thank you to those who reached out to me on Instagram to share their favorite places in Gwangju. All of your tips have been so helpful!

This month, I went to Sansook Kitchen based on the recommendation of an Instagram acquaintance. Sansook Kitchen is an authentic Thai kitchen near the 1913 Songjeong Station Market and Gwangju Songjeong Station. I had a difficult time finding it because their Facebook directions stopped at the nearby subway stop. I was able to find their address eventually, printed on a business card posted to their Facebook page.

When I found the restaurant, I noticed that they had a mini-market on the first floor selling all sorts of Thai goods. Any home chefs who want to try their hand at cooking Thai food, or Thai expats looking for some flavors of home, may want to check out their store. The stairway leading up to the second level where the restaurant is situated is covered in dark wood paneling. It reminded me quite a lot of a kitschy tropical bar from back home, with deep, warm wood all around.

I arrived at Sansook Kitchen in between the lunch and dinner rush, so the restaurant was quite quiet. The restaurant felt dim and shuttered since all of the second story windows were covered with the same wood paneling that was used in the stairwell. Within the restaurant itself, there seemed to be a coffee shop as well as a separate kitchen where the meals were prepared. Both the restaurant and the coffee shop were staffed by a mother–daughter duo who were very kind.

I ordered a spicy beef salad and the pad thai. The salad came to the table first, and I’d honestly hesitate to describe it as a salad. There was a copious amount of spicy, sliced beef on the plate and some julienned cucumber. While there were vegetables on the plate, Westerners looking for a familiar salad may be surprised. Go in expecting more meat than veggies. The spices on the meat were delicious, though the beef itself was dry. There were a lot of peppercorns on the salad, and the cucumbers were a wonderfully refreshing note to counter the spice in my mouth. For this reason, I would have preferred more veggies in the salad. Eating the salad left me wanting more of the cucumbers.

The pad thai was not like any I’d ever had before, and not in a good way. The prawn, served with its head attached, was very good, and it had a lot of very well-cooked and surprisingly flavorful bean sprouts. Unfortunately, the pad thai came out at room temperature, not hot or even really warm. It was very oily, and didn’t impress with its flavor in general. It was neither too spicy nor too sweet. In fact, it was hard to get any strong flavor from the pad thai at all. The one flavor that did come through was in the tofu, which was flavored like maple syrup. Had the dish been hot and spicy, the maple may have been a good match, but at room temperature and without strong spices or sweet flavors to balance against, it was isolated and out of place.

Overall, this restaurant didn’t necessarily wow me, but I’m happy that I did give it a chance. I’d still recommend that you give this local restaurant a try for yourself at peak hours when its dishes should be fresh. I’m a little sad that I didn’t have a better experience, but I’m always happy to get tips for places to try.

Sansook Kitchen 타이푸드
Address: 7 Jangdong-ro, Dong-gu, Gwangju. (2nd floor)
광주 광산구 광산로 19, (송정동) 2 층
Phone: 062-944-1370, 010-8356-1370
Open Hours: Daily 10:00 a.m. – 10:00 p.m.

The Author
Sarah Pittman is an English teacher with a degree in psychology from California State University, Fullerton. She discovered her love for photography while working at Disneyland and has been honing her craft with practice and YouTube videos every since.