Soni Indian Restaurant - Signature Pani Puri at Rayong’s Favorite Indian Restaurant

I was in Rayong with my girlfriend at the time and we were both craving Indian food, more specifically, my girlfriend wanted Pani Puri and I wanted Palak Paneer. After not much searching on Google Maps, we found Soni Indian Restaurant which seemed to be the most popular and best Indian restaurant in Rayong, who’s signature dish is the Pani Puri.

Perfect.

For my girlfriend that is.

I don’t know how they fared with the Palak Paneer that I so desperately desire though…

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Authentic Indian Restaurant in Rayong

soni indian restaurant — *I have no idea why spaghetti is on their banner. In fact if you looked lower, you’ll also see Hawaiian pizza…*

Personally, when thinking about good authentic Indian food in Thailand, I usually think about Bangkok. It makes sense, it’s the capital and it’s a giant cauldron of cultures and cuisines.

With Indian food you’ll find many delicious and authentic Indian restaurants such as local favorites like Amritsr and, my personal favorite, Mama’s Restaurant.

And Rayong isn’t that well known as a tourist city, so finding Soni Indian Restaurant serving authentic Indian food here was actually pretty crazy. Not to mention they have two branches with the other being in Ban Chang which is about 30km away.

The one that I was dining at was the Rayong branch.

Soni Indian Restaurant Menu

Soni Indian Restaurant’s menu is diverse and plentiful. With me and my girlfriend still being Indian food noobs, we were overwhelmed with what was on offer.

You’ll find a bunch of well known Indian dishes like:

Butter Chicken
Chicken Tikka
Various types of Rotis and Naans
Plenty of Rice and Biryani dishes
Veg, Chicken, Mutton Thali
Appetizers and snacks like Pakoras and Samosas
Indian desserts like Gulab Jamun and Rasgula

Indian food is known for it’s insanely delicious vegetarian food, and no doubt Soni Indian Restaurant has plenty of vegetarian dishes to choose from, like 2-3 pages worth of vegetarian dishes.

Pricing

Indian food is quite expensive in Thailand but Soni Indian Restaurant’s prices are still cheaper than Bangkok, each dish costs around 150 - 180 THB with the breads coming in at 40 THB for a plain Naan.

So pretty fair price for Indian food in Thailand.

Soni’s Specialty Pani Puri

Let’s start off strong with Soni Indian Restaurant’s specialty (no kidding that’s what they wrote on the menu) dish, the Pani Puri.

For those of you who don’t know, Pani Puris are these really thin, delicate, and crispy deep fried dough balls. They’re a popular street food item in India.

They have regional variants and names as well, in the Northern states of India they are called Golgappa, while in Bengal it is called Puchka, and so on.

ragda pani puri — *Why does no one else think about putting spices in their mashed potatoes? Imagine eating this with a nice juicy steak!*

Pani Puris are a DIY ordeal, you punch a hole through the paper thin Pani Puri shell and then fill the insides with a bunch of fillings. At some places they give you three fillings but Soni Indian Restaurant gives you four, these fillings are:

Ragda - a mixture of spiced mashed potato and chickpeas
Meetha - sweet chutney, Soni Indian Restaurant gives you a mint chutney and tamarind chutney
Teekha - spiced sour and tangy water

Throw all of them inside your Pani Puri, starting with the Ragda mashed potatoes, then the Meetha chutneys, then finally the Teekha spiced water.

pani puri with fillings — *Now say ahhhhhhhh*

The result is a crunchy, sour, tangy, sweet bite sized snack/appetizer that is satisfyingly refreshing.

The spiced mashed potato, was creamy and a little bit spicy, while the various chutneys added a tart sweetness, especially that tamarind chutney.

The Pani Puri shell didn’t really taste like much, it’s like a plain potato chip. But the real MVP is the Teekha, the spiced water, it was cold, sweet, spicy, and sour. Truly beautiful.

These Pani Puris are incredibly addicting, I could’ve ordered like 2-3 more plates of these Pani Puris, but sadly I had to take care of my wallet.

Hot and Fresh Garlic Naan

Nothing beats a freshly baked Garlic Naan, except two freshly baked Garlic Naans. Yes we ordered two.

I’m not advertising it’s freshness either, I can tell that these were freshly made as the second garlic Naan took a while before it was served.

Anyways, these guys were good, not the best garlic Naans that I’ve had but they were soft, fluffy, buttery and with a hint of garlic fragrance.

Creamy and Rich Palak Paneer

palak paneer curry — *I know some of you don’t like vegetables but go to India and then tell me vegetables are boring. I dare you.*

Here it is guys, the Palak Paneer, one of, if not, my favorite Indian dish (so far). A rich and creamy curry made from spinach with chunks of mild and bouncy Paneer cheese, a sort of Indian cottage cheese. Soni also included some sliced ginger in there to cut the richness of the curry, which I highly appreciate.

Palak Paneer goes so well with the garlick naan, the curry is not spicy but you can taste the herby-ness from all the aromatic spices and spinach. And plus this has to be healthy right? It’s a thick, rich curry, but it’s green and green things are healthy right?

Anyways, get the Palak Paneer. If you don’t like it, then you can leave a comment telling me I’m a shill for Palak Paneer.

Salty and Flavorful Chicken Tikka

Here is another favorite dish of mine, the Chicken Tikka, essentially an Indian spiced grilled chicken.

Come to think of this, these dishes are almost the exact same that I’ve ordered when I went to Amritsr…

Anyways, the Chicken Tikka at Soni Indian Restaurant is… very salty and dry. Aside from that the taste was actually quite nice, just needs a little less salt. The waiter told me to eat this chicken tikka with the mint chutney sauce that came with the Pani Puri, and it did help improve the dryness a bit, also added a nice refreshing flavor.

I like the onions as well, soft and coated with that Tikka seasoning.

Conclusion

Pros

Good and fair pricing, our total bill came out to ~650 THB for two people, which isn’t half bad for Indian food in Thailand.
All of our dishes were tasty and full of flavor, some had too much flavor (looking at you, chicken Tikka).
The waiter was attentive and very helpful in recommended some of his favorite dishes.
Service was fast, but that might be because we were the only ones there at the time.

Cons

Some dishes could use a bit more work, they tasted good but nothing spectacular.

Overall I would recommend you come to Soni Indian Restaurant in Rayong if you are craving some authentic Indian food. Not only is the pricing fair, these guys seem to be the most popular and best Indian restaurant in Rayong. All of our dishes were tasty and the waiter was very friendly.

The only downside is that the some dishes were just ok, and I did find that the portion for the chicken Tikka was too little, the pieces were quite small.

Soni Indian Restaurant | 8.5 / 10

Phone: +66 93 285 3252

Location: 142/8 8/2 Noen Phra Sub-district, Mueang Rayong District, Rayong 21000

Opening Hours: 10:00AM - 10:00PM | Mon - Sun

Pricing: ~180 THB per dish | $$

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