Koh Samui & the Monkey
Neighborhood: SOMA
415 Brannan St(between 3rd St & Ritch St)
San Francisco, CA 94107
(415) 369-0007
http://www.kohsamuiandthemonkey.com/
http://www.kohsamuiandthemonkey.com/
In The Know: Right of the bat I knew I was going to love this design. It isn't like every other restaurant that is street level; you actually have to go up a small flight of stairs to get there. (Its not that it is the only restaurant that is like this in SF but I haven't blogged on those places yet so outta sight, outta mind - at least for now so back off!) It is great as far as restaurants go because you feel better than everyone else when you are looking down upon all the other restaurant minions...muahahahaha. At the top of the stairs is a bench with bronze see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil monkeys. 
Great touch seeing as how the restaurant has monkey in the title and flippin monkeys everywhere (all thats missing is the barrel). Once you enter the full bar is to your immediate left, a great water fountain/Buddha sculpture/partition situation separating the dining area. The tables and chairs used to furnish the restaurant was only one of the things that really tickled my pickle. One could say custom build furniture is a fetish of mine so....hi, creators of those fabulous wood/metal pieces...hi ;) The other pickle tickler was how they incorporated the obvious Thai decor in a warehousey shell. There was almost floor to ceiling warehouse windows (generally it is several small panes of glass) and exposed ventilation system. On one of the walls there was an incredible Buddha sculpture surrounded by candles adding to a very intimate feel throughout the whole space. It would definitely be a great place to take a date, if your into the looking down through warehouse windows at other restaurants while surrounded by monkeys, sculptures, and candles siting on fabulous chairs...kinda thing.
Great touch seeing as how the restaurant has monkey in the title and flippin monkeys everywhere (all thats missing is the barrel). Once you enter the full bar is to your immediate left, a great water fountain/Buddha sculpture/partition situation separating the dining area. The tables and chairs used to furnish the restaurant was only one of the things that really tickled my pickle. One could say custom build furniture is a fetish of mine so....hi, creators of those fabulous wood/metal pieces...hi ;) The other pickle tickler was how they incorporated the obvious Thai decor in a warehousey shell. There was almost floor to ceiling warehouse windows (generally it is several small panes of glass) and exposed ventilation system. On one of the walls there was an incredible Buddha sculpture surrounded by candles adding to a very intimate feel throughout the whole space. It would definitely be a great place to take a date, if your into the looking down through warehouse windows at other restaurants while surrounded by monkeys, sculptures, and candles siting on fabulous chairs...kinda thing. Behind The Bar: A sexy tattoo, slick haired, beautiful eyed, pirate looking chap. Please don't mistake the mention of this pirate with the SF's infamous pirate (General Lee) that works (ed) at the Beauty Bar. Oh, no no no. He is a much cleaner cut and of the more delicious variety. However, even with the pretty ones I can always find fault. My one qualm with him is I think he thought I was some sort of undercover agent sent by the powers that be (i.e. his bosses) to make sure that nothing but whispers of sweet nothings come from his supple lips. Translation: he was boring and withheld all the juicy gossip from me. He mentioned how nice it was to have large windows surrounding the space allowing for the sun to heat the room up itself. That's it, that's all I get!?! I blame in on his equally boring colleagues/friends siting at the bar. You don't have to be shy with me and look at your friends to help you answer questions my sensual succulent. If he was to humor me, however, he would have said that in the dining section they tried to squeeze to many tables into the space. There was no coherent flow. Unless you know the layout extremely well, it was hard to navigate the maze. Some tables where just far enough apart that made you t
hink you could fit through them but come to find out after sipping on the Pumpkin curry chicken in red curry sauce served in pumpkin you realize how tight your cloths fit now and promise to start tomorrow with your Extreme Makeover: Stop telling yourself your going to start tomorrow and just do it already! edition...so getting between these tables was a bit harder than you could imagine. Thanks for the help and words of wisdom you sexy lil pirate vixen you; I'll be after your booty soon...
hink you could fit through them but come to find out after sipping on the Pumpkin curry chicken in red curry sauce served in pumpkin you realize how tight your cloths fit now and promise to start tomorrow with your Extreme Makeover: Stop telling yourself your going to start tomorrow and just do it already! edition...so getting between these tables was a bit harder than you could imagine. Thanks for the help and words of wisdom you sexy lil pirate vixen you; I'll be after your booty soon...Who's Who: Other than the aforementioned pirates' shipmates at the bar, I saw two after work ladies and a group of diners in their mid 30's (ish). Not a whole lot to work with. Let me paint you a picture of what kinda crowd I can imagine would frequent this kinda joint: at the bar we have a mixture of 20-30 somethings sipping on tasty beverages after a long and extremely prosperous day at work. Everyone is enjoying each others companies, laughing at each others jokes, and lining up to buy me shots;) The dining room is filled with folks of all ages and backgrounds, from a grandma knitting in the corner to Jesus playing cards with 50 cent to children hiccuping rainbows to Johnny Depp (the real, and my forever #1 pirate) feeding me strawberries to everyone lining up to buy me shots. Come to think of it, I am an extremely great artist and think I really should frequent this place more often.
