Address - Tokyo-to, Shibuya-ku, Jingumae 6-4-1 (Hakkakukan Bldg 4 Fl) Opening hours - Every day from 11:30 am to 3:00 and 5-10 pm Map - See directions Telephone - 3406-8829 Menu In Japanese and English, with pictures CC Ok

I have been to literally hundreds of Thai restaurants, and found them to be almost always equivalent in quality, that is to say very good, but this time I have an exception, albeit a small one. Chaiyaphum is definitely a little bit above the average, and its food has that extra touch that makes it worth a special trip. Note that the Tokyo Food Page inexplicably says exactly the opposite, but never mind, to each his* opinions.

In Europe and the in US, restaurants are usually in highly visible spots where people may bump into them on their way somewhere else, but in this case like in many others the Japanese like doing things their way: lost somewhere at the top of their high-rise buildings you can find barbers, doctors, jewelry stores, pachinkos and Thai restaurants.

Chaiyaphum is right in front the elevator on the fourth floor of a building above the Lotteria fast food store across Laforet in Harajuku. From the outside it looks very small, but once you enter you find yourself in a wide, airy room with cane-covered walls, rather pleasant to the eye. The music was subdued and unobtrusive, the way I like it: it must soothe, but not distract or disturb.
From a fairly long and interesting menu, we ordered Thai-style fried chicken, pat pak bung, or fried vegetables in plain English, fried rice with pineapple, and spicy king prawns, a rather abundant meal for just two people for which we ended up paying 5000 yen apiece. We drank two tropical fruit juices, I don't remember exactly which. Everything was excellent, and it had that extra something so difficult to find and that I can only describe as class. We had the place all to ourselves, so we took it easy and finished the meal after more than a couple of hours with two cold desserts. If you are in Harajuku and want to eat, don't forget Chaiyaphum. You will spend more and get more.

* Against the diktats of public correctness, I hereby formulate the following grammatical rule, which shall be known to posterity as Frank's Rule: for reason of convenience, the gender of the subject and of its possessive pronoun in a sentence where context doesn't make it explicit shall be that of the speaker, in this case me, a male. I refuse to use ugly and hypocritical expressions like "his of hers" or, even worse, "her" when I am a male. Let women use "her", as they should. I will use "his".