Chef Ton Opens Saam, His First U.S. Restaurant, in San Francisco

San Francisco already knows serious Thai cooking. What arrived on Friday is a Bangkok résumé walking into that conversation with a different pitch.

Thitid “Ton” Tassanakajohn, the chef behind Michelin-starred Le Du and Nusara in Bangkok, opened Saam at 415 Brannan Street in SoMa, his first restaurant in the United States. The name means “three” in Thai. It points to Ton plus Bay Area partners Tee Atthapon and Ty Choosuwan, and to the spicy, sour, and salty spine the team wants on the plate. The room is a la carte and family-style. The ambition is older Thai recipes and scratch curry paste, not another tasting-menu transplant of his Bangkok fine dining.

Ton’s path is familiar to anyone who follows modern Thai fine dining. Economics at Chulalongkorn, then the Culinary Institute of America and New York kitchens including Eleven Madison Park, The Modern, and Jean-Georges. He returned to Bangkok and opened Le Du in 2013, a seasonal Thai restaurant whose name comes from ฤดู, the Thai word for season. Le Du took a Michelin star and, in 2023, the No. 1 spot on Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants. Nusara, opened with his brother Chaisiri “Tam” Tassanakajohn and named for their grandmother, earned a Michelin star in the 2026 Thailand guide and sits at No. 5 on Asia’s 50 Best this year. Peers also gave Ton the Inedit Damm Chefs’ Choice Award for 2026.

Saam is not meant to be Le Du on Brannan. Atthapon, chef-owner of Kan Kiin in Daly City and Song Wat on Divisadero, is general manager. Choosuwan, who cooked at Prospect and Boulevard, is chef de cuisine. Ton holds the executive chef title and still lives in Thailand. Local reporting describes menu development by text and photos: Ton sent instructions from Bangkok; the Bay Area pair cooked, shot the plates, and sent them back for notes. He flew in for the final stretch and plans to stay at least a month around the opening.

Eater SF’s opening report sketches a menu that leans seafood and large formats: tiger prawn with shrimp paste and fava beans; sea bass with Southern-style turmeric rice; salt-crusted branzino with pla ra and a peanut seafood sauce. Curries include a duck pad ped ped, Manila clams in gaeng kua, and a vegetarian white curry with cauliflower and mushrooms. Lighter bites include som tum with peaches, shrimp, cherry tomato, and fermented fish sauce. The team talks about older Thai recipes rarely seen even at home, made with California ingredients and pastes pounded in-house.

That puts Saam beside San Francisco’s Michelin Thai landmarks, Kin Khao and Nari from Pim Techamuanvivit, without trying to copy their lane. Kin Khao took a star in 2015 as the city’s first Thai restaurant to do so. Saam’s partners describe a more casual share table, closer to the recent Bay Area wave of Thai rooms that are serious about flavor without requiring a tasting reservation. Lunch is planned in the weeks after dinner service starts. A tasting menu is possible later, not the opening story.

Drinks start with wine and Thai beer, plus imported sato, the sticky-rice wine with deep roots in northeastern Thailand and Laos. In the United States, sato has been showing up more often as makers and bars treat it as a real category, not a novelty pour. Cocktails are expected to follow.

Saam takes over the former Sun and Moon space near Oracle Park. Reservations are on Resy; early reviews already suggest booking a week ahead for weekend tables. For diners who already plan Bangkok around Ton’s tasting rooms, the news is simpler: his first American address is a three-chef partnership cooking Thai food meant to pass around the table, with the man whose name drew the headlines still spending most of his year in Bangkok.