Saam, referring to “three” in Thai, resides in a small cubic white building, but don’t let the size fool you. Inside, the bar offers a spacious area split in two zones: wine (using the Proper area) and a dinner section. The kitchen opens at 6pm, so the atmosphere goes well with the warm lighting and the interior design with a shelf of aligned wines. 

“I think we finally came to who we really are in terms of the space, the food, and what we want to offer. Proper is almost like a child, because when it happened we did nothing with the space. I literally put the kitchen in storage,” Chef Sareen said. 

He added that Saam aims to be formal and with more space to relax, meant to mirror a sort of Australian hangout, gleaned from Chef Sareen’s years in Melbourne. Chef Sareen sticks to his style of a borderless menu blending experiences in the leading restaurants from his years in Benu in San Francisco and Fäviken in Sweden. 

“You know, why’d we want to offer Italian food when we can offer more?” he says.

Essentially, his menu has heavy Thai accents which he found by his own trial and error, and overall, it’s not based on the traditional Thai recipes—leaning on innovation and creativity. 

The menu is categorized into starters, medium, and main course. To start, Chef Sareen turns to puffed sticky rice as a sourdough topped with dry-aged beef in a tartare dish (B420). The next is Jon’s charcoal-grilled corn ribs (B220) seasoned with tom yum spice; the Son-in-Law Chicken Wings (B330) are stuffed with scallop mousse. 

“The whole menu is designed to share... We want our customers to explore by mixing and matching their own dishes,” Chef Sareen said.

For the medium menu, order the fried whole eggplant with Nam Prik Noom (B320)—chewy and has a well rounded taste. The grilled cabbage is also a must, with salted fish cream, fried garlic, and lardo to bring the taste altogether. 

Saam’s bolognese may look like any other Italian pasta dish, but it’s a sort of “Thai bolognese”. In this noodle signature (B410), Chef Sareen uses thick hand cut noodles and dresses them with sauce bursting with Thai spice. Last but not least, the S.F.C. (B650) features triple fried chicken served with sriracha mayo and fried lemon grass.

To round off the meal, there’s the ‘Re-imagined Tom-Yum’ sundae ice cream (B290) made from leftover sticky rice ice cream and chili caramel sauce, or opt for the crepe dessert (B320) with lemon grass and ginger cream and the fresh sour smack from lemon caramel.

 235/4, Soi Sukhumvit 31, Watthana, 081-145-3856. Open Wed-Sun 6pm-12pm.