The best restaurants in Bangkok
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Thai cuisine is one of the tastiest and most versatile in Asia, offering a huge variety of salads, soups, curries, fried meats, seafood and delectable desserts, infused with an incredible range of spices. The capital Bangkok is a foodie’s paradise and it offers the best in Thai dining, while food from virtually every other country in the world is never too far away. From modern fusion cuisine, to old-school restaurants, to the capital's renowned street food stalls (that have so far survived the authorities’ city-wide street food cull), let Tom Vater, Telegraph Travel's Bangkok expert, be your guide to the best restaurants in the city.
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Blue Elephant
The Blue Elephant is located on two floors of a beautifully lit colonial-style mansion, and is both a fine Thai dining restaurant and one of Bangkok’s most highly praised cookery schools with branches around the world, including London. Diners sit in high-ceilinged rooms with wooden floors that feel almost palatial. The menu is hardly daring but this restaurant is all about classic dishes cooked to perfection, including vegetarian options. The Massaman lamb curry with sweet potatoes, one of the chef’s signature dishes, almost melts on the tongue and the restaurant’s very good house wine is from France.
Contact: 00 66 2 6739353, blueelephant.com
Prices: ￡￡￡
Opening times: Daily, 11.30am-2.30pm; 6.30pm-10.30pm
Reservations: Essential
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Blunos
In the 1990s, Martin Blunos ran a couple of two-Michelin-starred restaurants in Bath, which served classic French cuisine. There’s clearly a comfort element to the food of his Bangkok eatery – roasts and pizzas feature on the menu – but Blunos’ eclectic touch is felt and seen on every dish. The coco mint pea dip, derived from a baby food recipe by his daughter, combines mushy peas and eastern spices, while the pork belly, slow cooked with apple cider, is served with chickpeas and chili to give it an Asian twist. The West Country has arrived in south-east Asia.
Contact: 00 66 2 210 8100; eastinhotelsresidences.com
Prices: ￡￡
Opening times: Daily, 9am -12am
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The Namsaah Bottling Trust
This stylish pink building looks colonial on the outside and like the posh and somewhat hedonistic home of libertarian 19th-century poets on the inside. The Thai fusion menu is created by Thai celebrity chef Ian Kittichai and it’s as eclectic as the décor. Think pad Thai with duck and foie gras, sumptuous salmon tartare tacos and a delicious croquette noir starter made of small potato balls coated with mustard seeds. Diners head into several large wood-panelled rooms, illustrated with naughty vintage illustrations upstairs, while a wide range of cocktails and DJs keep things rolling below.
Contact: 00 66 2 6366622, namsaah.com
Prices: ￡￡
Opening times: Daily, 5pm -2am
Reservations: Recommended for groups and at the weekend
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Chennai Kitchen
Excellent south Indian cuisine can be enjoyed at the no-frills, long-running Chennai Kitchen, an almost hole-in-the-wall eatery serving just a handful of air-conditioned tables a few steps from Sri Maha Mariamman, the city’s most impressive Hindu temple. A variety of authentic dosas and thalis are best washed down with a mango lassi or a steaming cup of masala chai. South Indian breakfast fare such as idli and uttapam are also on the menu. The coconut chutney is fantastic. Service is haphazard and portions are modest, but so are the prices.
Address: 107/4Thanon Pan, Bangrak, Pan Rd, Ang Thong 10500
Contact: 00 66 2 2341266
Prices: ￡
Opening times: Daily, 10am-3pm, 6pm-9.30pm
Payment type: Cash only
Bangrak
Le Normandie
Bangkok’s first French restaurant opened in 1958 and received two Michelin stars in 2017. It's housed in the Mandarin Oriental and offers the very best of contemporary fine dining in Bangkok, with all the products imported from France. No wonder it's popular with visiting royalty and VIPs. Chef Arnaud Dunand-Sauthier’s culinary identity, classic but innovative, hails from the Savoie and Britanny. The set menu, which changes every three months, is a dream of different flavours and might include roasted sea bass, sea urchin with potato foam and champagne sauce, and roasted pigeon in cocoa sauce. The 450 different wines on offer, a pianist, vintage chandeliers and stupendous views over the Chao Praya make for a special dining experience.
Contact: 00 66 2 659 9000; mandarinoriental.com
Prices: ￡￡￡
Opening times: Mon-Sat, 12am-2pm, 7pm-10pm
Reservations: Essential
Best table: By the floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the river
Sukhumvit
Soul Food
Excellent regional Thai food cooked by an American ex-pat chef, with an extensive selection of cocktails thrown in, make this intimate Thong Lo neighbourhood eatery conveniently close to the Skytrain, popular with both foreigners and Thais. Street food standards such as pad Thai (stir-fried noodles) with crab and somtam (papaya salad) are recreated with richer flavours. More eclectic choices include yam som-o (pomelo salad with chili jam and tiger prawns) and Chiang Mai sausages that are served with grilled chili dip. Ingredients are fresh and food may take a while as it’s all cooked from scratch, but it’s worth the wait.
Contact: 00 66 2 714 7708, soulfoodmahanakorn.com
Prices: ￡￡
Opening times: Daily, 5.30pm-1am
Ruan Songnaree
The House of Two Women, as this simple but smart old school restaurant in the downtown area is called in Thai, serves traditional and authentic local cuisine. Diners can sit inside the cosy restaurant or on the small terrace out front, which is ideal for a pre-meal cocktail (but perhaps a bit close to the traffic). The selection of curries and soups (especially tom yam kung) is excellent. Also recommended are the delicious pork wrapped in orange and the crispy catfish in mango salad. Dishes are beautifully presented and garnished with intricate food carvings. An extensive wine list is available.
Contact: 00 66 2 6622804; ruansongnareebangkok.com
Prices: ￡￡
Opening times: Daily, 11am to 12am
Payment type: Cash
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Goji Kitchen & Bar
Located in Bangkok’s largest hotel, the Marriott Marquis Queen's Park, this smart-casual and, as befits the venue, large restaurant offers regional cuisine and western dishes. It's best known for its lavish buffets, which include an overwhelming selection of Thai, Chinese, Japanese, Indian, Korean and Western (French, Spanish, German and Italian) choices. Many dishes are prepared in open-plan kitchens and the quality is fantastic throughout. Once one tires of the mains, a great variety of cheeses and cold meats with breads await, unless one becomes trapped amidst a stupendous selection of desserts – from Thai sticky rice with mango to Italian ice cream.
Contact: 00 66 2 059 5555; bangkokmarriottmarquisqueenspark.com
Prices: ￡￡￡
Opening times: Daily, 12am -2.30pm, 6pm-10pm
Reservations: Recommended
Best table: By the windows overlooking the park adjacent to the hotel.
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Suda Restaurant
For a vast choice of cheap, clean Thai food with a Chinese touch in downtown Bangkok, head to the humble Suda Restaurant in Asoke; it's just a couple of minutes’ walk from the Skytrain station. Tables and chairs spill out of this corner building onto a quiet soi (side street) and while the staff can be distracted and grumpy, the food is tasty. Standards such as pad pak bung fai daeng – water spinach in brown bean sauce with chili and garlic – and beef panaeng, along with a multitude of fried rice and noodle dishes, all deliver. It can get very busy at lunch time.
Contact:00 66 2 229 4664
Prices: ￡
Opening times: Mon-Sat, 11am-10.30pm
Payment type: Cash only
Khao San Road
Jok Pochana
A huge selection of street food dishes is on offer at the rustic and very friendly Jok Pochana, in a quiet back street a few minutes’ walk from the Khao San Road. This road-side stalwart has moved a few times in recent years, but has survived the Bangkok authorities’ on-going city-wide street food cull for now. The extensive menu offers tourist-friendly chicken with cashew nuts, tasty seafood and soups such as tom yam gung, and everything is served piping hot within minutes, at very reasonable prices.
Address: 96-98 Soi Samsen 2, Phra Nakhon
Contact: 00 66 2 88 890 5263
Prices: ￡
Opening times: Daily except Sundays, 4pm-12am
Payment type: Cash only
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Pathumwan
Sra Bua by Kiin Kiin
Created by Danish chef Henrik Yde Andersen and awarded a Michelin star in 2017, Sra Bua in the Siam Kempinksi Hotel Bangkok invites diners on an outstanding culinary journey through Thailand. Guests first sit comfortably by the lotus pond that gives the restaurant its name to enjoy cocktails and exquisite appetisers reminiscent of Thai street food favourites, before being seated for an eight-course set menu of contemporary Thai cuisine – the cotton candy salad with red snapper and the tuna tartar are highlights. The experience of dining here provides a perfect introduction to the country’s exceptional flavours.
Contact: 00 66 2 162 9000; srabuabykiinkiin.com
Prices: ￡￡￡
Opening times: Daily, 12am-3pm, 6pm-10.30pm
Reservations: Essential
Mahanakhon
Tawandang German Brewery
For a completely different dining experience, try this huge and very popular restaurant-cum-brewery-cum-events venue. The restaurant, located on Rama 3 Road, serves excellent Thai and European (mainly German) food and great beer – Tawan Dang is Thailand’s first micro brewery. A nightly music revue showcases latest Thai pop hits as well as some traditional music. There’s entertainment for the children, too – with balloons, darts and a fun-fair atmosphere. A second branch in Ram Intra has more than 2,000 seats. It’s not intimate, but it’s certainly sanuk (great fun, Thai style). Dress casual.
Contact: 00 66 2 944 5131/00 66 2 678 1114; tawandang.com
Prices: ￡￡
Opening times: Daily, 5pm-1am
Reservations: Recommended at weekends
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