Bangkok Restaurants – Where I Actually Eat

This is the list I’d send a friend who messaged me asking where to eat in Bangkok this week. It’s not comprehensive. It’s the places I’d actually book.

Tasting menus (the splurge meals)

• Le Du – the city’s best modern Thai tasting menu. Chef Ton’s flagship. One Michelin star, deserved. Sukhumvit Soi 7.
• Sorn – the Southern Thai tasting menu. Three Michelin stars. Difficult to book, worth the effort.
• Gaggan Anand – modern Indian, post-Gaggan-Anand-the-original. Still strong. Sukhumvit.
• Sühring – modern German in Bangkok. Sounds wrong on paper. The most consistently great fine-dining meal in the city.
• Saawaan – modern Thai at a lower price than Le Du. Soi Suan Phlu.

Book 3 to 4 weeks out for Friday or Saturday. Weeknights are easier.

Modern Thai mid-range

• Soei – the best price-to-quality ratio in town. Off Sukhumvit Soi 4. Reservation usually needed.
• Bo.lan Lite – the casual offshoot of Bo.lan. Modern, sustainable Thai.
• Khua Kling Pak Sod – Southern Thai, two locations. The one near Phloen Chit is my regular.
• Err – urban rustic Thai near the river. From the Bo.lan team.
• 80/20 – Bangkok-meets-Brooklyn, but better than that description. Charoenkrung.

Cantonese and Chinese

• Yu Ting Yuan at Four Seasons Bangkok – proper Cantonese, the city’s best dim sum and roast meats.
• Mei Jiang at the Peninsula – older but still excellent.
• Sui Sian at the Landmark – sleeper for dim sum lunch.

Street food and casual

Yaowarat (Chinatown) at night

The whole strip lights up after 7pm. Three carts to find:

• Nai Mong Hoi Tod – the famous oyster pancake.
• T&K Seafood – outdoor grilled prawns. Loud, busy, perfect.
• The fruit cart at the entrance to Soi Issaranuphap.

Walk Yaowarat, stop at whatever has a long local queue.

My casual rotation

• Krua Apsorn – the omelet (khao khai jeow) is the lunch I keep coming back to. Multiple locations; the original is Dinso Road.
• Khao Soi Lampoon – best northern khao soi in Bangkok. Off Saphan Khwai.
• Polo Fried Chicken – Som tam and fried chicken. Soi Polo, Lumphini. Worth the queue.
• Jay Fai – the Michelin street-food legend. Honestly: skip her. The wait is 5 hours and the food is good but not life-changing. T&K does similar dishes at 1/10 the wait.

Casual lunches near the hotels

• At the Mandarin Oriental: the riverside terrace breakfast – best in Asia. Lunch at China House (Cantonese).
• At Capella: Phra Nakhon for serious regional Thai.
• At Four Seasons (riverside): Yu Ting Yuan or Cafe Madeleine.
• At Rosewood Bangkok: Sühring is a 5-minute walk.

Bars

• Bamboo Bar at the Mandarin Oriental – the best hotel bar in Asia. Live jazz. Sit on the cushions, order an Old Cuban.
• Lennon’s atop Rosewood Bangkok – best Sukhumvit-side hotel bar. Best cocktails in the city.
• Tep Bar – traditional Thai music and Mae Khong cocktails. Charoenkrung.
• Q&A Bar – speakeasy on Soi 12, narrow and good.
• Mahaniyom Cocktail Bar – Thai-ingredient cocktail program, hidden inside an apartment block. Worth the effort.

What I’d never order

• A pad Thai at a sit-down restaurant in a major hotel. Order it from a street cart. Hotel pad Thais are mostly mediocre.
• A Thai meal at any restaurant inside a five-star hotel before you’ve eaten elsewhere first. They’re fine but they’re not where the city’s best Thai cooking is happening.
• Anything from a tourist-area menu where the prices are in dollars rather than baht.

Quick rules I follow

• Look at the local-to-tourist ratio at the door.
• Eat hotter, spicier, weirder than you would at home.
• Don’t drink the tap water. Drink the beer.
• Order one more thing than you think you can eat. It always disappears.

For where to actually stay in each restaurant neighborhood, see the Bangkok hotels guide and the neighborhoods breakdown.