Since opening its doors in late 2018, Mahasan Burnt & Bowl has proved almost impossible to book.

After recently receiving thousands of calls from people trying to get a table, the hip and humble steakhouse near the Charoenkrung-Chan intersection has announced they will be closing in June to relocate. Their announcement on May 26 stated that they will close for the entire month of July to move to their new, secret location, which will open in August.

They also invited customers to book tables for their remaining few weeks in the current location via a new email system. They limited this booking period to between 10am-midday the following day (May 27), to be dealt with on a first come first serve basis.

On May 27, Mahasan announced that they were flooded with thousands of emails at 10am, but would only be able to respond to a few dozen of them due to their limited four table capacity.

The new email booking system was developed to remedy their previous phone booking policy, which was last available at the end of March, taking bookings for April and May. After asking customers to call between 7-9am on a specified Sunday, they received an influx of calls that ran into the thousands—we ourselves tried over 200 times on three different phones and couldn’t get through.

Others posted screenshots showing hundreds, and even thousands of failed calls, leading to complaints about the difficulty of securing a booking. Facebook user Gy Chansamran commented, "The only way to get to eat at this place is to keep praying." Meanwhile others had lost all hope, with Facebook user Supakrit Rattanakamphol commenting, "I tried my best but I just don't have enough patience. Bye forever Mahasan."

After opening at the end of 2018, Mahasan shot to fame thanks to serving pocket-friendly steaks—a 500-gram T-bone cooked to order costs just B580—to a simple, homey room of just four tables.

Appeal lies not just in the dishes (other must-orders including the sous-vide grilled cow tongue, B270; braised roasted beef stew, B220; and pork steak, B280), but also in the down-to-earth and friendly experience, with staff grilling over no more than a simple burner set up in the dining room.

Here’s hoping that the new location will be big enough to accommodate all the hopefuls without having to go through a Glastonbury-style booking process.

1843 Charoenkrung Rd., 086-960-5858. Open daily 5-11pm