Ranee's Guest House and Restaurant, Bangkok

I ate there one night. When I went to pay the bill, it seemed a bit expensive. Later I checked, the figures had been crossed out and higher ones inserted, i.e. he wrote the bill, then removed the duplicate and put in higher prices, which I paid, and he pocketed the difference. The food wasn't great either. The 'fries' were some over-cooked wok doorsteps, tofu burger was just a slice of undercooked tofu in a bun. The 'spicy' tofu salad came with a warning in the menu that it was very hot, but it was a small salad served in sugary water with some vinegar. Awful place.

We eat in Ranees all the time ... the food is fantastic, especially their home made pizzas and they serve dark beer Laos ! They also make a great Massaman curry !

Ranee's is run by a South African (not Frenchman) and his Thai wife. The food is certainly excellent! The staff work hard at preparing ingredients fresh. Some of the best versions of traditional Thai dishes are presented, along with excellent European light meals such as jaffles. Raneee recently branched into fresh pasta too.

Do not stay there!!! It is dirty and a total rip-off. I left my bag in the room and came back to find it had been gone through. The manager failed to acknowledge my complaint or give me my money back. I stayed there two days and it has been one of the worst experiences in Thailand.

I've never stayed at Ranees, but the restaurant is a favourite of mine. I will go out of my way to visit Ranees - especially being vegetarian, where the selection is the best. Even my partner, who is the fussiest little monkey you'll ever meet, says Ranees is great value for simple honest food. I was first introduced to Ranees in 2001, and have been back on every trip to Thailand since. I love the chilled out atmosphere, where, especially when you're travelling alone, you're quite welcome to hang out and read for hours on end. Service can be a little slow, but worth the wait. Ranees will definitely be on our itinerary when we return to Thailand in a couple of weeks time.

I spent a day in Bangkok before heading South to Koh Samui and pre-booked this place as my place to stay when I returned to Bangkok later in the week. The main floor of the building is a restaurant, and it looked resonably clean for Bangkok so I booked the room without looking at it. BIG MISTAKE. I came back from the South later in the week, arrived at midnight and went up to the room. (In what proved to be a smart move, I asked to see the room before I paid.) It was a dump. Squalid. A thin mattress covered with a dirty sheet with cigarette burns in it. The walls are made of thin plywood and you can hear everything from the entire hostel and in fact the street outside. There were bugs everywhere, both dead and alive. The lock on the door was broken. There was one window, with big wooden shutters but no screen, so many buggies. No fan. I sat on the bed for 5 minutes, realized it was so dirty I didn't want to touch anything and then walked out, leaving the staff confused but not surprised. The fact that I would wander away into the streets of Bangkok alone at midnight without a place to stay speaks for how bad this place is. Traveling in SE Asia and staying in Hostels does require that you lower your standards a bit, but there are many clean, cheap hostels in Bangkok that fulfil the basic needs of a clean bathroom/shower and clean bedding. I stayed in three different hostels in Bangkok and they were great. The Khao San Road area seems to sprout these cheap, tenement-style hostels for drunken westerners willing to crash anywhere after a night of partying. If you don't really care about noise levels, clean bedding, bugs, or a door lock; then this place is cheap, 4-5 dollars (USD) a night. It is very convienently located, only 1 block from the action and nightlife of Khao San Road. They have late check-in, I arrived at midnight with no problems. The staff was friendly. I do not recommend this hostel.

We ate at Ranee's Restaurant on 3 December 2005, after travelling around the region for 3 months, we found the service to be very poor from a male waitperson and the food very average on the night. We ordered a red thai currie (specifically spicy) with plain rice, pork and cabbage soup and chinese sausage fried rice. After waiting around 30 minutes for the meal which was fine, we recieved stale plain rice with a very mild westernised red currie, over cooked close to burned chinese sausage with fried rice and cabbage soup that was very plain with no taste. After advising a female waitperson about the stale state of the plain rice and requesting a fresh plate, much to her distain, I received a new plate some 10 minutes later but no better than the first serve. The red thai currie was very westernisd and not at all spicy even after asking for a spicy red currie. The outer courtyard area is covered with mosquitos so we asked the male waitperson if any mosquito repellent was available when we ordered our food, he advised he would bring some over straight away, but he nor the repellent were ever seen again. I would not recommend this restaurant.

Great food & nice quiet location not far from Khaosan Road.