Restaurants Overview

Food is passion in Bangkok: Thais are obsessed with finding the out-of-the-way shop that prepares some specialty better than any other, then dragging a group of friends to share the discovery, and nowhere is this more true than in Bangkok. The city's residents always seem to be eating, so the tastes and smells of Thailand's cuisine surround you day and night. Food isn't confined to mealtimes, and noodle stalls are never far away. If you want a midnight snack, it's likely that there's a night market nearby serving up delicious dishes into the wee hours.

That said, Bangkok's restaurant scene is also a minefield, largely because the relationship between price and quality at times seems almost inverse. For every hole-in-the-wall gem serving, for pennies, the best laab, sticky rice, and som tam (the hot-and-sour green papaya salad that is the ultimate Thai staple) you've ever had, there's an overdressed, overpriced hotel restaurant that hawks touristy, toned-down fare at high prices. The best Thai food in the city is served not at places that are famous, expensive, or lauded by the media, but in the most bare-bones, even run-down restaurants. A good general rule: any place where you spot groups of office workers enjoying lunch or an after-work bite has to be good, as only a worthy restaurant would be chosen for such an important social outing.

If you want a break from Thai food, plenty of other world cuisines are well represented. Best among them is Chinese, although there's decent Japanese and Korean food in Bangkok as well. The city's ubiquitous noodle shops, though by all means Thai, also have their roots in China, as do roast-meat purveyors, whose historical inspiration was Cantonese. In general, Western fare tends to suffer from the distance.

As with anything in Bangkok, travel time is a major consideration when choosing a restaurant. If you're short on time or patience, choose a place with Skytrain and subway access -- many great restaurants are within easy walking distance from the stations. Note that often the easiest way to reach a riverside eatery is by taking the Skytrain to the Saphan Taksin station (where the line ends on the river next to the Shangri-La Hotel). From there you can take an express boat upriver to many restaurants, including a dozen or so of those we list.