The Hau Yong Seng Soy Sauce Factory Cafe

Hau Yong Seng is Bangkok's last traditional homemade soy sauce factory. Located alongside the Bangkok Yai Canal, once home to 9 rice mills, 9 soy sauce breweries, and 9 shipyards, Hau Yong Seng has sought out modern ways to stay relevant even as soy sauce brewing has largely shifted to be mass-produced in industrial factories.

The salty smell of soy sauce hit our nostrils as soon as we stepped up to the charming little cafe and took a seat next to the water. It was a warm but breezy afternoon, and the canal was quiet save for the occasional longtail boat zipping along the famous old waterway.

The soy sauce factory, or brewery to use the proper term, has been in operation for more than a century, and is currently run by the 3rd and 4th generation. They still use the traditional method of brewing soy sauce for up to six months using exposure to the sun in large clay jars before cooking over a wood fire.

Visitors are welcome to walk around the courtyard at the old factory and look at the jars of soy sauce slowly fermenting in the sun.

It was the 4th generation, now in their 20s, who had the idea of turning the struggling family-run soy sauce brewery into a trendy riverside cafe.

Of course, you can buy bottles of their locally brewed soy sauce to take home with you (we did!), but what has made the cafe Instagram famous lately is their menu of soy sauce-based food and drinks.

Pinky ordered a soy sauce latte, and I ordered a soy sauce chai yen, the iconic orange Thai iced tea. The soy sauce added a subtle salty note that gave the drinks a little more richness. If you didn't know what you were supposed to be looking for, you might have a hard time identifying the extra flavor. It wasn't overpoweringly salty or anything like that, just a nice little addition to the otherwise very sweet flavors of the drinks.

We had lunch as well, which I'm sure was cooked using the house soy sauce, and finished up with dessert: a scoop of soy sauce ice cream! It was delicious, especially on such a hot day. The saltiness of the soy sauce made it taste a lot like caramel, and it was so satisfying.

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I love discovering hidden gems like this. It's nice to see little slivers of old Bangkok kept alive in the modern day.