GEORGE TOWN, Jan 23 — Thai celebrity chef Thitid Tassanakajohn, more familiarly known as Chef Ton, has opened a casual Thai restaurant here as his first venture into the Malaysian market.
The 39-year-old, who has been visiting Penang regularly over the past 10 years, has a soft spot for the island and feels that it has similar vibes to Phuket.
”I really like the street food in Penang, I like the Siam Road char koay teow and the bak kut teh here too,” he said at the official opening of his new restaurant, Sood, in Farquhar Street here.
Although he loves Penang, he believed the market back then was not ready yet for the concept of restaurant he envisioned to open here.
Sood at Farquhar Street is now open.
”Now, I feel it is mature enough so we decided to open here and in the heritage area too,” he said.
Chef Ton whose restaurant earned a Michelin Star in 2019, was also featured in the Chefs Uncut show on Netflix and has over 25 restaurants under his belt including Le Du, Nusara, Baan, Mayrai and Samut.
Le Du topped the list of Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants list in 2023 while Nusara ranked third.
Sood director Tony Ch’ng met Chef Ton a decade ago at Le Du in Bangkok before the restaurant and Chef Ton achieved fame.
”At that time I was so impressed with the food that I became friends with Chef Ton and after that, I invited him to Penang to show him around,” Ch’ng said.
He said over the years, they met up regularly, either in Penang or in Bangkok and sometimes even travelled together.
Chef Ton explaining the concept of the dishes at Sood.
”About five years ago, we planned to open a restaurant here but then the pandemic happened and times were uncertain then,” he said.
The plans were put on hold till 2024 when they started to talk in earnest about setting up a restaurant in Penang.
Ch’ng’s company, Regal Blossom Sdn Bhd, signed a partnership agreement with Chef Ton in April 2024 and it took them about six months to restore and prepare the heritage building they had secured for the restaurant.
”This is a 150-year-old heritage building so it took us longer to renovate as we want to preserve as much of the original fittings as possible and at the same time, put in modern touches,” he said.
He said the idea was to come up with a rustic and modern combination that complements the heritage elements of the building.
Sood, which means “go all out” in Thai, was meant to be a fun and casual dining space for both locals and tourists that featured Thai-inspired dishes with influences from local ingredients.
The menu at Sood features Thai-inspired dishes (clockwise from top) such as simmered coconut with fermented bean and prawn served with fresh vegetables, stir-fried minced beef with ginger curry, green curry with grilled chicken and red curry with minced fish.
”Chef Ton has other fine dining restaurants so he wanted something fun and casual here to fit with Penang’s scene so this is what Sood is, we want it to be a place for friends and family to gather for a meal, with sharing plates and after the meal, they can move on to the bar upstairs to continue having fun and relax,” he said.
Sood opened about a month ago to test run its menu but Ch’ng said the full menu will be launched next week.
As per the concept of a casual dining place, the menu will feature a la carte dishes with an array of snacks, starters, pre-main dishes along with sharing-style main dishes that are served with rice.
The restaurant is only open from 5pm onwards daily while its bar upstairs is open for happy hours from 4pm onwards.
The Sood bar upstairs.
Sood is not the only restaurant that Chef Ton and Ch’ng plan to open in Malaysia as they are currently in the process of opening another one in Kuala Lumpur.
”The restaurant in Kuala Lumpur, to be called Tuah, will be a different concept to this,” Ch’ng said.
He said Chef Ton is finalising the concept now and they hope to open the restaurant in May this year.
