I have been eating my way through Bangkok since I first moved here in 2002. Despite the staggering amount of time my girlfriend and I have spent navigating sois, malls, and hotels in search of the next great meal, I can honestly say that we’ve only scratched the surface of what the city has to offer. Bangkok’s food scene is characterized by abundance and variety. Whether you enjoy sweating it out on a greasy metal table at the side of a noisy street or desire white gloved pampering at a fine dining venue with a great view, Bangkok has something for everyone and at every price point. In general, meals in Bangkok cost only a fraction of what it costs to dine in the other great food cities of the world. This allows residents and visitors alike to enjoy eating out regularly and to try new things.
With so many options, new visitors may find it difficult deciding where to focus their attention. In this blog, I will introduce the influences of Bangkok’s food scene and discuss the latest developments and trends. In between, I’ll suggest some of my favorite places (in bold).
Influences
Several factors help to make Bangkok’s food scene so amazing. Together they allow the city of angels to firmly hold its place as one of the world’s greatest food destinations.
First, Bangkok is blessed with an abundance of fresh, high quality ingredients, most of which are sourced from nearby provinces allowing chefs to have easy access to hydroponic or organic vegetables, tropical fruits, jungle produce, herbs and spices, meats, poultry, freshwater creatures, and seafood from both the Gulf of Thailand and the Andaman Sea.
Second, Bangkok is a major hub for international trade in Southeast Asia. What isn’t available locally is easily imported from anywhere in the world. Daily shipments of delicacies such as Parma ham, French foie gras, Australian Wagyu beef, sashimi-grade fish from Japan’s Tsukiji fish market, Maine lobsters, Normandy butter, and exotic cheeses arrive in Bangkok destined to be served at the city’s finest restaurants. Rising levels of wealth have raised demand for these foods along with the expectations of Bangkok’s diners. Thus fine dining menus continue to grow more sophisticated to cater to Thais’ evolving tastes. While prices at these restaurants have also risen accordingly, they are still generally less than comparable meals in other large international destinations.
Third, Bangkok is Thailand’s largest city. This makes it the natural gathering place for Thais from all parts of the country that come to find work and experience a more cosmopolitan lifestyle. As a result of the influx of millions of migrant workers, Bangkok’s food scene is heavily influenced by the regional tastes of the urban laboring class. In Bangkok, diners can enjoy all of Thailand’s regional cuisines including the most popular ones: Esarn (Northeastern), Lanna (Northern), and the Malay Muslim-influenced flavors of the Deep South. Particularly worth mentioning is the influence if Esarn cuisine. Its specialties include som tum (papaya salad), larb (a minced meat salad with crushed rice powder), sticky rice, charcoal grilled chicken, and Esarn sausage. Esarn dishes are commonly sold on Bangkok’s streets (because they provide cheap nourishment to laborers) but are also found in Bangkok’s trendiest eateries. Esarn cuisine is often the first taste of Thailand that visitors fall in love with. Consequently Esarn dishes have made their way onto the menus of Thai restaurants worldwide.
Lastly, the influence of foreigners who have settled in Thailand is worth mentioning. The original immigrants were the Chinese and Indian merchants who arrived centuries ago. Many Bangkokians have some Chinese ancestry (particularly Southern Chinese- Teochew, and to a lesser extent Hakka, Cantonese, Hokkien, and Hainanese). Thus the city’s culinary landscape includes a lot of outstanding Chinese restaurants, particularly in the Yaowaraj district (Bangkok’s Chinatown) and Bangkok’s top hotels. A lot of Bangkok’s “Thai” foods borrow ingredients (such as rice noodles and oyster sauce) and culinary techniques (such as wok frying) from Chinese cuisine. The influence of the Indians on the food culture is also profound. The most obvious manifestation is in Thai curries. Today authentic Indian food can still be found by exploring the back alleys of the Pahurat district.
More recent foreigners who have had a major impact on Bangkok’s food scene are the Europeans and the North Asians. Recent waves of new residents from Europe have brought a renaissance for European flavors in the city. A decade ago, the predominant European cuisine was generic Italian, possibly followed by classic French. Today, diners can experience regional Italian cuisines focused on places such as Tuscany, Sardinia, Capri, and Piemonte. French food has evolved into the cuisine nouvelle style which is lighter in textures, less dominated by heavy sauces, and incorporates more global flavors. Additionally there are German-style beer halls (the most famous is Tawandang German Brewery), Swiss fondue eateries, Spanish Tapas bars, Lebanese restaurants, and Irish pubs.
The North Asian influence is the latest story in Bangkok’s culinary scene. While Japanese cuisine has always been popular with Bangkokians due to decades of Japanese expats and their families being stationed in Bangkok, recently the Japanese offerings have gone in two different directions. On the high end, new restaurants such as Honmono Grand (Soi Pipat North Sathorn) are becoming more lavish mixing elegant minimalist design, elaborate food presentation, and high quality imported ingredients. On the mid to lower end, ramen bars, curry shops (such as Coco Ichibanya) and Japanese confectionary shops (such as Beard Papa and Hokkaido Soft) have flourished. The best place to try Japanese food is in luxury hotels, high end shopping malls such as Siam Paragon and Central World Plaza, or in the Japanese enclaves of Sukhumvit Soi 24, and Sukhumvit Soi 55 (Thonglor). Korean food has also exploded onto the culinary scene in the last decade thanks to a growing number of Korean immigrants as well as Thai’s love of Korean TV dramas. In addition to Korea town which is situated at Sukhumvit Soi 12, excellent yakiniku, bibimbap, and chiges can be sampled at Korean restaurants throughout the city.
Trends and Developments
The arrival of the high end mall and lifestyle mall
Ever since Siam Paragon opened its doors in late 2005, followed shortly thereafter by Central World Plaza, Bangkok has been on a retail building boom. Together Paragon and Central World ushered in a new era of retail in Bangkok, completing the shopping superblock spanning the stretch from National Stadium BTS station all the way to the Chitlom BTS station. At one time these two malls made the list for top ten largest malls in the world. But for adventurous diners, the main significance is that these two malls marked the arrival of numerous international restaurant concepts including lesser known western fast food and regional chains (the big ones like McDonalds, KFC, Burger King, and Subway have been long established in Bangkok). It also celebrated the coming of age for many mom and pop operations and homegrown restaurant chains like MK Suki and Fuji Japanese that graduated to the big leagues when they won bids to set up shop in these malls. The bottom floor of Siam Paragon and the top two floors of Central World continue to be some of the most prolific when it comes to introducing trend setting eateries in Bangkok. Bangkokians love their malls. Probably because outside is so hot and traffic is so bad that they like to be in places where they can get their food, shopping, and entertainment all under one roof. Most recently, Krispy Kreme Donuts famously opened at Paragon in 2010 to hour-long queues. The lines no longer wrap around the block but you can still expect a fair amount of waiting.
With the success of the dining venues at Paragon and Central World, other existing malls were forced to revamp and upgrade their culinary offerings to stay competitive. Today the mall-based eatery trend continues into new developments such as Terminal 21 at Asoke and Central Rama 9. It can also be seen in the development and success of neighborhood “lifestyle malls” such as J-Avenue (Thonglor Soi 15) and K-Village (Sukhumvit Soi 26) which feature chic and trendy dining concepts that resemble boutique-styled off-shoots of the mall-based chains.
The Buffet Wars
Anyone who has ever spent a significant amount of time in Bangkok will realize that Bangkokians love their hotel buffets. In particular, they love weekend buffets at 5-star hotels where they can lazily eat for hours with their families to forget about a week spent slaving away in an office or a nodding off in a Bangkok traffic jam. In recent years, the buffets have been getting more and more lavish to meet the increasingly sophisticated tastes of Thai customers. It is almost an arms race of sorts as hotels try to outdo each other as to who will have the best buffet in town. Common items seen on Bangkok’s luxury super buffets include Fine de Claire Oysters, Wagyu Beef, Caviar, Foie Gras, Spiny Lobsters, River Prawns, Australian Lamb, Prime Rib, Roast Duck, Sushi and Sashimi bars, Tempura stations, Alaskan King Crab, etc… This is on top of numerous salads, appetizers, Asian and Western entrees, pasta stations, dim sum, noodle stations, cheese boards, and exquisite dessert spreads complete with exotic fruits, ice creams, and chocolate fountains. Amazingly for this level of quality, a brunch or dinner buffet will set you back anywhere between 1,500 to 3,000 baht per person. I’ve sampled my way through most of the top buffets in town and can honestly say that the following are worth every baht you spend and calorie you swallow: Lord Jim (Mandarin Oriental), Dining Room (Grand Hyatt Erawan), Marriott Café (JW Marriott), Rain Tree Café (Plaza Athenee), and Espresso (Intercontinental).
An Advertisement for Espresso's weekend buffet (Intercontinental Bangkok)
Coffee or Tea?
Bangkok did not traditionally have a coffee or tea drinking culture. Thais like their drinks sweet; not bland or bitter. That’s why Thai Iced coffee and Thai Iced Tea are the way they are. That’s also why the working class pick-me-up of choice is the syrupy energy drink known as Kratingdaeng (Red Bull) and its legion of imitators… Yes, Red Bull was invented in Thailand! The drinking of gourmet coffee and tea did not take hold until the most recent decade with the arrival of Starbucks and Au Bon Pain. Around the same time, Illy and Lavazza were introduced from Italy and the lifestyle café concept quickly took hold. Today working professionals fuel up on their “tall nonfat soy caramel something or other” as they rush to work and university students have figured out that MacCafe is a good place to do some homework while waiting for friends at the mall. The most recent arrival is high end New York-based coffee shop Dean and Deluca, which just opened its second Bangkok location.
While a lot of the developments in coffee and tea culture here have focused on busy office workers, on the opposite end of the spectrum there is renewed interest in the art of afternoon tea. My two favorite places for afternoon tea are the Author’s Lounge at the Mandarin Oriental and the lobby of the Grand Hyatt Erawan. They feature imported coffees and teas served with delicate finger sandwiches and pastries. If you’ve ever tried to have tea at the Peninsula in Hong Kong, an afternoon at one of these places might convince you never to go back to Tsim Tsa Tsui. At the Oriental or Erawan, you’ll get all the glam and tradition but zero of the waiting! Also it costs about half the price of the Peninsula in Hong Kong. If you don’t make it down to these hotels, the Mandarin Oriental and Peninsula Bangkok both have cafes located in the Siam Paragon Mall for you to enjoy afternoon tea.
Street Food and Soi Food: Emergence of the Anti-Mall Dining Scene
While I pointed out that the majority of culinary developments have been concentrated in the city’s posh new malls, at the same time there has been renewed interest amongst foodies in rediscovering Bangkok’s great food streets. Despite the lure of air condition and the designer dining rooms of mall based restaurants, many foodies take to the streets in search of a more authentic experience. The truth is that dining in malls is a bit dull. If you’ve lived in any big city in Asia, you’d recognize that many malls have the same restaurant chains. Once you’ve seen one fancy mall, you’ve seen them all. The same goes for fancy hotels. You pay higher prices for sanitized and dumbed down food, plus a 10% service charge and 7% vat. Suddenly the appeal starts to wane and seeking out a cheaper and more exciting alternative becomes attractive. The desire to find Bangkok’s gems is what drives many of the most adventurous diners to risk getting hit by cars, stepping on doggy doo, playing Russian roulette against West Nile Virus carrying mosquitoes, and all the while dodging food poisoning. Your compensation for this risk? Hard to say. I guess only true foodies know the feeling. That’s why Antony Bourdain and Andrew Zimmern take you on adventures through Bangkok’s streets rather than its malls.
At the street and soi level you can either dine at a street side stall or in a traditional shophouse where the owners live upstairs and run their casual eatery downstairs. Additionally many old colonial era Thai style houses have been restored and converted into trendy Thai and International eateries. These converted houses offer a relaxed homelike ambiance and a sense of dining in a bygone era that cannot be replicated by a mall or hotel eatery.
The best place to experience street level food is along Sukhumvit Road and its labyrinth of sois that are ideal for exploring by foot. Bear in mind that most of these places tend to specialize in just one or two dishes. So when you’re exploring Bangkok’s street food scene it is best to adopt a grazing strategy where you go on a food crawl and try many things.
I’ve already pointed out the Japan and Korean towns along Sukhumvit road. Other sois known for great food in the Sukhumvit area are Sukhumvit Soi 3 (aka Nana North or Soi Arab…not the same as Nana South which is the prostitute Soi) and at the mouth of Sukhumvit Soi 38 (Thonglor BTS Station) which has some of the best pad thai, satay, and mango sticky rice in the city.
Soi 38 street food scene as seen from Thonglor BTS station
Outside of the Sukhumvit Area, the following are also great places to check out if you are fans of street food: 1) Kaosarn Road (the backpackers haven) 2.) Chatuchak Weekend Market 3.) Silom road especially in the evenings around Saladang BTS station 4.) Siam, especially in the evenings around Siam BTS station 5.) Victory Monument, especially in the evenings. 6.) Yaowaraj Road (Chinatown).
Yaowaraj road deserves special mention. This street probably has some of the best seafood and Chinese food available in the city. If you’re interested in delicacies like Shark Fin (not condoned but just don’ t tell me), Fish Maw Soup, Birds Nest Soup, Suckling Pig, Goose Webs, Grilled River Prawns, Curry Crabs, and Dim Sum you will be very happy spending an evening here. Hua Seng Hong and Scala are particularly famous eateries in Yaowaraj. Additionally Lek and Rut and T&K Seafood, the dueling grilled seafood vendors at the mouth of Soi Texas (a small lane on the right side of Yaowaraj road) are so famous I originally discovered them by reading Gourmet Magazine back in America. Both are good. You must try the grilled river prawns, crab fried rice, river prawn tom yum soup, garlic fried fish, grilled cockles, curry crab, and steamed mussels.
T&K Seafood, Soi Texas @ Yaowaraj Road
Rooftop Bars
One trend that has really taken hold in Bangkok is roof top dining. However this is more geared for rich tourists and people celebrating special events. In 2003 the Lebua hotel opened Sirocco, the Mediterranean restaurant at the top of State Tower. Since then it has been the premiere rooftop F&B venue in Bangkok. Taking sunset cocktails at its 63rd floor glass sky-bar is a breathtaking but knee buckling experience. If you are a fan of Hangover 2, you’ll recognize the place as the helicopter scene. Expect to pay about 400 baht per drink, which is ridiculous for Bangkok standards but still a lot cheaper than Singapore.
Other popular sky bars include Blue Sky (Sofitel Centara Grand) and Red Sky (Centara Grand Central World).
Skybar at the top of State Tower
Thai restaurants from Abroad? Homecomings? Oh my!
While Thai restaurants in Bangkok may be increasingly guilty of bastardizing their own cuisine with forays into “fusion” food (or “confusion” food), a number of Thai restaurants abroad have been focusing on perfecting the craft of royal Thai cuisine as part of the global slow food movement. With modernization and the focus on fast cooking, many of Thailand’s classical foods have been disappearing from menus because they take a significant amount of culinary skill and time to prepare. To stem the loss of this culinary knowledge, the Thai slow food movement seeks to rediscover and refine time honored techniques and preserve rare dishes, many of which originated in the royal courts of old and have been passed down through generations only to become lost in modern times. Many Thais and foreigners have no idea what Pad Thai originally tasted like. It took chefs like Australian David Thomson, the world’s premier culinary authority on Thai cuisine, to painstakingly search through old funeral pamphlets (traditionally they contained the favorite recipes of the deceased) to uncover Thailand’s lost culinary treasures.
Europe has seen the growth of several world class Thai restaurants that focus on slow food and traditional Thai fine dining. In 2002, Blue Elephant (Belgium) and Patara (London) were the first Thai restaurants of foreign origin to establish outposts on Thai soil. In 2010, the only two Thai restaurants to hold Michelin stars opened branches in Bangkok: David Thompson’s Namh (from London) at the Metropolitan hotel and Kiin Kiin (from Copenhagen) at the Siam Kempinski.
Additionally, Thai chefs who have spent years mastering their skills abroad have begun to return. Duangporn Songvisava and her husband Dylan Jones graduated from the kitchen of Nahm and returned to open Bo Lan (Sukhumvit Soi 26) their eatery devoted to ancient Thai slow food. More recently, Chef Ian Chalermkittichai returned to open his gastropub Hyde and Seek (Soi Ruamrudee) and flagship Issaya Siamese Club (Chua Ploeng Road). Chef Ian shattered stereotypes over a decade ago when he was promoted to become the first Thai executive chef of a 5-star hotel in Bangkok (Four Seasons). He gained additional fame with his New York eatery Kittichai and was the first Thai chef to compete on Iron Chef America.
Obviously, these places aren’t cheap. But if you want to experience some of the most artfully and deftly prepared Thai cuisine in the city, they’re worth a try.
Go out and have fun!
I hope that this will help prepare you for your trip to Bangkok. Remember to bring your appetite, an open mind, and a pack of Imodium tablets. While the food is safe, oftentimes your bodies may take time to get used to the spiciness. I have been careful not to recommend places that are difficult to reach by BTS, MRT, taxi, or by foot. If the suggestions in this blog aren’t interesting enough, feel free to ask me for more specific restaurant recommendations!