Bangkok's 7 best Thai bars and restaurants

This small Isan kitchen near Phahon Yothin runs on recipes from Nakhon Phanom, the kind with real fermented depth and a seasoning hand you simply cannot fake. The room doubles as a proper listening bar: vintage furniture, stacked vinyl crates and collected objects on almost every surface, landing somewhere between a regular's den and a record collector's flat. The turntable moves through jazz, hip-hop, reggae, luk krung and Thai classical, usually to a room mid-bowl of nam tok and nodding along to something from 1974.

StudioLarb 2/9 Phahon Yothin Rd., Phaya Thai. Open daily except Wed 5pm–midnight. Tel. 064 586 6029

Bar Luk Krung Ari builds its world around old Bangkok – the city as it sounded and felt in another era – then translates into a cocktail bar that takes Thai spirits seriously. Luk krung is not background filler here; it is the main atmospheric thread. The drinks lean on local Thai liquors but are mixed with enough craft and intent that ordering one feels like the right place to start. Live music runs from Wednesday to Saturday from 8pm, and the Thursday sessions have gathered enough of a following that people turn up specifically for them. 

Ari, Sam Sen Nai, Phaya Thai. Open Tue–Sun 5pm–midnight. Live music Wed–Sat from 8pm. Tel. 082 114 6339

Nang Loeng is one of those Bangkok neighbourhoods that slipped between the gaps of redevelopment and somehow came out with its character intact: old shophouses, a weekend market and the feeling that time moves at a slightly different speed. Ssound Namm sits at the Chakrabongse intersection and fits right in. The concept is a small vinyl café built around coffee, Isan and luk krung records and a very deliberate sense of atmosphere, telling a story about where Thai music came from and what it still sounds like when you slow down enough to hear it. Wooden furniture, fresh filter coffee, a rare mor lam pressing running low on the speakers – it all works. Snacks and ingredients come from local producers too, which feels genuinely considered rather than box-ticking. You go in for a coffee and leave an hour later than planned.

Ssound Namm Chakrabongse Intersection, Pom Prap Sattru Phai. Open daily except Wed 9am–6pm. Facebook: Ssoundnamm

Silom has no shortage of places to get a drink. What it did not have, until recently, was anything quite like Sala Saneha. Set across several floors of a 70-year-old building on Decho Road, with the original structure left largely intact and all the better for it, the place feels designed by someone with very specific taste. The third floor holds a 25-seat standalone cinema with its own programming. Below that sit a wine bar and library with more than 2,000 bottles from around the world, plus a Thai spirits selection worth working through. The food takes its cue from the Western dishes that drifted into Thai life during the 1980s and 1990s – European comfort food seen through a local lens and served without ceremony. That's not a criticism.

Sala Saneha 9/1 Decho Rd., Bang Rak. Open Thu–Mon 6pm–midnight. Tel. 063 946 8385

There is a version of Isan food that gets refined until the point vanishes. MUAN Bangkok is emphatically not that. The kitchen commits to the real thing: fermented fish sauce with actual funk, larb with heat and herbs in the right proportions, and green papaya salad that does exactly what it should. The room, on the third floor near Saphan Khwai, is staged like a Bangkok side street after dark, with zinc-panel walls, overhead cables and a food cart positioned just so. When the live band kicks in, the energy moves up a gear. Later, the DJs take over and keep it going.

MUAN Bangkok 3rd Fl., Phahon Yothin-Ari (next to Vimut Hospital), Phaya Thai. Open Tue–Sun from 7pm.

TEP has been on Soi Nana since 2015, making the case that Thai classical music belongs in a bar where people are drinking properly and having a good time. The argument still holds. The live line-up rotates through Thai classical and folk ensembles, while the cocktail list is built around Thai spirits and aged rum infused with herbs and spices that have had time  to develop actual character. The space sits in a row of old shophouses, low-lit and unhurried.

TEP BAR 69–71 Soi Nana, Pom Prap Sattru Phai. Open daily 6pm–2am. Tel. 098 467 2944

Lat Phrao is not where you would necessarily go looking for alternative music programming, but PITI Bar on Soi Lat Phrao 115 has built something real. The vibe is deliberately low-key: air-conditioned inside, an outdoor section when you need air and a room that feels more like a friend's flat on a good night than a venue trying too hard to be a venue. What lifts it is the bookings – reggae, ska, funk, soul, jazz, and a steady rotation of international independent acts. The crowd is in on it. So is the person doing the bookings. That combination is rarer than it should be.

PITI BAR Soi Lat Phrao 115, Lat Phrao. Open Tue–Sun 6pm–2am. Tel. 091 038 7392