Chon Som

Chon Som will be open Christmas Day 2009 from noon - 9 p.m.

2009-12-25T05:02:00.001-08:00

Happy Holidays

Tis' the season to be thankful. We value our customers and are grateful the support. This year has been rough for many businesses. Chon Som hit our 3 years anniversary back in August. It is a big milestone for the restaurant industry. It makes Nat & I happy to see that our passion for food and entertainment is well appreciated. Without each and every one of you, we wouldn't be where we are today. Please think of Chon Som in the upcoming year. We strive to serve quality food with a great value.

Holiday Hours: http://www.chonsom.com/

Christmas Eve: Thursday, 12/24 5 p.m. - 9 p.m.

Christmas Day: Friday, 12/25 noon - 9 p.m.
Reservations is recommended for party of 4 or more 512-989-5559

New Year's Eve: Thursday, 12/31 5 p.m. - 10 p.m.
Start off the nice with a fantastic dinner at Chon Som. We will have a special menu (along with our regular menu) and $12 champagne packages.

New Year's Day: Friday, 1/1/2010 5 p.m. - 9 p.m.
Free Spicy Hangover Soup

Thank you very much,
Marisa & Nat

Weekend Specials: Friday July 13th - Sunday July 15th

2007-07-12T17:24:00.000-07:00

sushi appetizer:Ika Chucata $8.00
grilled calamari drizzled with ginger ponzu sauce.

Thai appetizer: Shrimp Lollipops (3) $7.00
marinated shrimps with garlic cilantro oyster sauce wrapped around with fried egg noodle ,sprinkled with garlic chili sauce.

Thai entree: Sizziling Krapow $16.00
seafood medley calamari,scallops,shrimps and mussels sauteed with onions,bell pepers japanese eggplant and basil in a garlic basil sauce served on a hot sizziling plate
choice miso or salad

Come BBQ Thai-Style with Chon Som this July 4th

2007-07-03T09:57:00.000-07:00

Open July 4th from noon - 8 p.m.
also serving regular menu

Father's Day @ Chon Som

2007-06-14T17:41:00.001-07:00

Austin Chronicle Restaurant Poll Results

2007-06-14T16:59:00.000-07:00

Austin Chronicle's Results Link

Thank you!

What an honor to be recognized in the Austin Chronicle Restaurant Poll 2007. Without our customers, we wouldn't be where we are today. Thank you, Nat/Alisa/Marisa

Chon Som's First Mother's Day

2007-05-03T17:02:00.000-07:00

Reservations Suggested
Chon Som is excited to celebrate this special day with our customers. Our mothers are very important to us. Their support and advices are some of the reasons why Chon Som is where we are today. We hope to see you and your family this weekend.

Happy Mother's Day from Chon Som

-Marisa

Fox 7 Review

2007-04-08T16:04:00.000-07:00

It was a "Good Friday" indeed. Rob Balon (website) gave us an awesome review. We are so honored.

Click here to see the video clip of the review.

Chon Som Fox 7 review

Chon Som Valentine's Sushi For Two Special

2007-02-12T15:35:00.000-08:00

Chon Som will be offering our Sushi For Two from Wednesday 2/14 - Saturday 2/17. There is still availability on Valentine's Day. Please call 512-989-5559 for reservations.

Also serving regular menu

Chon Som grand opening special: 15% off the week of Jan 22nd

2007-01-22T09:22:00.000-08:00

On Saturday, January 20th, we kicked off the official grand opening with a fabulous dinner event http://www.chonsom.com/grandopening.htm . We were touched with the amount of support and new faces that came to help us celebrate. We were also honored with the presence of our local food critic, Rob Balon www.diningoutwithrobbalon.com, the leader of Discovered Austin group, Le Roi Collier http://newintown.meetup.com/615/?gj=sj5, and Austin famous socialite, Holly (Hot Happenings) http://newton.ctyme.com:2001/cgi-bin/WebObjects/SDSite.woa/wa/hhh bin/WebObjects/SDSite.woa/wa/hhh.

The preset menu was a hit, the classical Thai dance performances were wonderful, and to top it off with an ice sculpture of the there were ambiance and lots of energy. We were very touched when Nat & Alisa came out at the end of the night to a standing ovation.

We would like to continuing celebrating throughout the week of January 22nd by offering 15% off your check (excluding happy hour and alcohol).

Thank you all for being a part of our important event.

...hopefully we'll get more pictures soon. In the meantime, you could view these Wini's pictures

New Year's Eve Dinner at Chon Som

2006-12-27T08:38:00.000-08:00

Start the celebration for this New Year's Eve with our new fusion pre-set menus from Nat & Alisa.

Walk-ins from 5 - 6:30
Call for reservations
512-989-5559

Please keep in mind that the normal a la carte menu will also be available.

Happy Holidays from Chon Som.

Chon Som Holiday Party

2006-12-14T14:22:00.000-08:00

I have to say....I love my Chon Som family. We are very fortunate to find such a good fun-loving-dedicated group.

We celebrated our holiday party this year at 300 AMF bowling. It's a great team building event. Here are the normal pics. For silly ones, you need to contact us directly...hee hee.

Chon Som Crew and guests

Chon Som Family

Left to right

(Nico, Sinoun, Trey, Billie, Nat, Marisa, Justin, , Stef, Alisa, Eve, and Sue)

Chon Som "$1" Happy Hour

2006-12-06T15:02:00.000-08:00

100% Health Inspection Score

2006-11-03T15:06:00.000-08:00

The health inspector came in today. We scored 100%.

It must be really good if your health inspector came in to dine with his friends 3 times within the first 2 months of opening.

Important News: Driving to Chon Som from MoPac

2006-11-01T14:45:00.000-08:00

Hello,

Apparently MoPac North now turns into Tollway 45 with the exits for Wells Branch and beyond closed. It will lead you all the way to I-35.

If you are coming north on MoPac, you MUST

EXIT Parmer and run locally to Wells Branch (3rd light).

Chon Som's 1st Annual Halloween Celebration

2006-11-01T14:16:00.000-08:00

October 31, 2006

Just for fun, we'd decided to shut down the place for a private event. We had a special menu (Hell's Fried Rice, Children of the Corn, etc) and some drink specials for this event. It was a great turn out. We had total of 46 people all night and it was a blast. Dinner started at 8 p.m. By 10:30, we turned down the lights, pumped up the music, drank some sake bombs, and had Halloween contests...

most creative: Henry the Eight-Brett

sexiest: Playing with the Queen of Hearts-Jan

best costume: Geisha Sushi Chef-Trey

After the party we went to Homer's for some scary-oke. Nat almost won best costume for his geisha outfit.

What do you think of Chon Som?

2006-10-13T13:41:00.000-07:00

We would like to gather some comments to be posted on our website www.ChonSom.com. Please tell us..

...what makes Chon Som your special place?

Thank you

We got our beer and wine license!

2006-10-13T13:39:00.000-07:00

Woo hoo!

This will be the last weekend for BYOB at Chon Som. We will start serving beer/wine next week.

Special thanks to Bridgett for helping us with the licensing process.

Favorite Dish at Chon Som

2006-08-31T12:18:00.000-07:00

This is hard to decide. I've been trying everything in the menu. If it's from the sushi menu, I would say Kanisu. On a hot Texas day, it just hit the spot. Kanisu contains crab, cream cheese, and masago rolled in paper thin cucumber soaked in a refreshing light Japanese rice vinegar.

From the hot kitchen, I would say Pad Thai. This is a popular dish in most Thai restaurants. It's a hard dish to make it perfect. The heat and the sauce have to be just right. Alisa got it down! Yummy

What is your favorite dish? Please post a comment to this blog.

Word of Mouth

2006-08-31T12:12:00.000-07:00

We've been open a little over a week now. Things are getting settled with staffing, process, kitchen, sushi bar. We are all pretty excited and happy. Why so happy? What we have is very unique. We have great food, great staff, and great ambiance. Not only that, people come in and see familiar faces all around the room. The most important thing is that people are leaving with a big smile on their face. Thus, we are starting to get regulars. Friends bringing friends which bring their friends. I believe in Chon Som. I feel the energy!

Thank you for everyone's support, it really means a lot.

The creation of Chon Som

2006-08-28T06:18:00.000-07:00

Chon Som is built on love, passion, and friendship. On June 12th, we had a happy hour to announced to some of our friends that Nat and Alisa just purchased a restaurant. All of our friends knew that it's our dream to open our own restaurant.

...and so it begins

That night we "brainstormed" and started a work crew. We created an online workflow where I (Marisa) send an email everyday and update the calender. Yes, I turned into the project manager. The email would contain a funny summary of the night before, news update on Chon Som, and goals for the day. We gutted everything from inside to the outside in the course of 2.5 months. By the end of the renovation period, we had a workcrew of over 60+ volunteers. Chon Som is special because it's really built with love. Everyone is a part of it.

This past week, August 21, 2006, we had our soft opening. The week went by smoothly. The food is awesome, the ambiance is warm and inviting, and the energy is high.

Thanks to our friends for making our dreams come true. Without your support, Chon Som wouldn't be this beautiful! Below is just a very small segment of the renovation pictures.

Nat (executive sushi chef), Marisa (public relations), and Alisa (executive chef in the hot kitchen)

Flash Slideshow

Chon Som Hours

2006-08-25T07:28:00.000-07:00

Lunch

Monday - Friday

11:00 a.m. - 2:00 p.m

Dinner

Monday - Thursday

4:30 p.m. - 10:00 p.m.

Friday

4:30 p.m. - 11:00 p.m

Saturday

12:00 p.m. - 11:00 p.m

Sunday

12:00 p.m. - 10:00 p.m.

Location Location Location

2006-08-24T13:08:00.000-07:00

Chon Som

2013 Wells Branch Pkwy #109

Austin, TX 78728

512-989-5559

We are located on Wells Branch between I-35 and MoPac next to Citgo gas station.

Pass Initial Health Inspection

2006-08-16T07:28:00.000-07:00

As of 8:45 a.m. this morning, Chon Som can officially serve/sell food. When the health inspector says that he will come back to eat, it's a good sign! There is no scoring for the initial health inspection but if he had to score, it would be a 97. We would have lost 3 points for the sanitizer that has moisturizer in it.

Moving forward to a great beginning.

Soft Opening

2006-08-15T11:38:00.000-07:00

Soft Opening August 21st! Call 512-989-5559 to RSVP today.

Marketing

2006-08-09T11:59:00.000-07:00

Do you know what marketing is? Apparently, I don't. Last night I got the run down from Slezak. He started with me describing Chon Som and why it's unique. After 1.5 hour of grilling me, we came up with a unique selling point (USP). From there, everything flows together such as activities, the atmosphere, the service, the character of the restaurant, the promotion, etc.

I didn't realize that marketing has such a big role in the overall place. It covers everything from presentation of the food, menu layout, look/feel of the dining area and the bathrooms, business cards, art, colors, website, etc. He will be meeting with us every 2 - 3 days for at least 1 hour to make sure we're focused and insync. I am impressed!

Parting quote "How many times do you get to make a first impression?"

Start of Chon Som

2006-08-07T13:58:00.000-07:00

Hello,

I couldn't post pictures to the other blog. Thus, I decided to keep it simple and use blogger. Welcome to Chon Som Blog.

First week of April, my mom told Nat & I about 5 Spice being for sale. Of course, we immediately said no. We were determine to get into the Domain and had investors lined up. We were disappointed by the Domain not welcoming small locals such as us.

Second week of April, as I was driving into work. Waiting for the light, I stared straight into 5 Spice. I thought to myself, it wouldn't hurt to find out how much. Mama, Nat, and I went over to take a look and talked to the seller. To our amazement, it's not as bad as we anticipated. This would be a great startup without investors. Why not!

Third week of April, Alisa flew back to Austin. She sees the potential too. Lets get the game movin'.

The next 2 months we spent researching,dealing, negotiating, making sure we're not getting scammed, etc. We also started our relationship with Josh Cantrell, one reliable lawyer!

On June 12, 2006, we finally signed and purchased the assets from 5 Spice at 5 p.m. Of course we had to celebrate. We gathered a few friends up and had a happy hour at the restaurant. More pictures will be posted soon.