Located on the Prajak Silliphakhom Alley, opposite the entrance to the Nipatat Road, the Im-Em Restaurant is a Nong Khai dining institution serving only 3 dishes and only at breakfast time.
Traditional Thai-Chinese Coffee Shop
This is a traditional Chinese-Thai coffee shop and the locals queue up for the food and coffee they serve. The 3 dishes on offer are ‘Pan-Egg’, ‘Rice Porridge’ and ‘Bread-Sausage’. The first two of these may not appeal too much to the Western tastes. However, the Bread Sausage is fantastic and in my opinion one of the best breakfast dishes served in Thailand and it costs only 10 THB per piece.
I Found This Restaurant By Accident
I found this restaurant because there was no where else close by to my hotel (The White Inn on the Nipatat Road) open at 07.00 in the morning when I woke up. I was expecting to only have a coffee when I went in as the Im-Em Restaurant does not look very good from the outside. However, these rolls with Chinese sausage inside were being freshly made at the restaurant for a queue of people who had come for take-away. I had to wait 10 minutes for so for the next batch to be made before I could eat.
Sausage Bread
The rolls were hot from the oven and tasted like good French made crispy rolls. The dried Chinese sausage inside had been re-hydrated and then cooked in the oven and tasted very similar to English sausage. The coffee which came with the rolls was made in the traditional Laos way with a cloth straining bag to filter the freshly brewed coffee. For 40 THB this was my best ever breakfast in Thailand and it was served in the most basic of Thai restaurants.