1. Foodland’s Took Lae Dee


If we’re talking about late-night or early-morning meals, we have to start with Took Lae Dee. It’s been around for as long as anyone can remember, tucked inside Foodland supermarkets across the city and can always be relied on when everything else is shut. The name literally means ‘cheap and good,’ which is pretty spot-on for what you get: classic Thai staples, American-style breakfasts and comforting stir-fries at prices that haven’t skyrocketed like in the rest of the city. It’s one of those places where you’ll see taxi drivers sitting next to expats nursing hangovers, all digging into plates of pad kaprao or a simple fried egg with toast and coffee. The service is fast, the food is consistent and there’s something reassuring about its fluorescent-lit, slightly sterile atmosphere that makes it feel like a time capsule of old Bangkok.