The best Thai restaurants in Bangkok

Food-loving graphic designer, Sittisak Sakornsin, has converted a traditional Thai wooden house into Baan Nual, a clandestine eatery—one of city’s very first—that serves home-cooked fare in a setting reminiscent of your grandmother’s Old Town residence.

The hype of upscale Thai food owes so much to Bo.lan. When Duangporn “Bo” Songvisava and Dylan Jones first opened their restaurant back in 2009 to offer old-school Thai flavors, we didn’t have a clue what they were doing and why we needed to pay that much for a meal our moms can cook. We soon learned however that what Bo and Dylan were trying to do was beyond anything that can be created in a home kitchen. The wife-and-husband team embarked on a culinary journey far beyond everyday Thai fare, traveling back in time to rediscover what Thai food was before everything was altered by modern conveniences. At Bo.lan, the finest ingredients, taken from different sources around the kingdom, deserve more praise than imported produce, and hands are valued more than cooking machines. And this is the reason we pay more: We pay for Bo and Dylan’s passion.

Nooror Somany Steppe is gifted. Originally a housewife in Belgium, Nooror used her cooking talent to put up the first Blue Elephant restaurant in Brussels with her husband over 30 years ago. Ironically, the restaurant in Bangkok is the 10th branch of the global brand—it was first launched in London, Paris and Dubai before finding a place back home. Nestled charmingly in the monumental Thai-Chine building right by the Surasak BTS station, the Bangkok branch is probably the brand’s most famous and has long been a prestigious spot for hosting members of the Thai royal family, foreign official guests and VIPs. Don’t be surprised, then, if you end up dining alongside ministers from the Indian government, like we did.

An avant-garde dining experience from one of Thailand’s most respected chefs—that’s pretty much enough said for Issaya Siamese Club. Celebrity chef Ian Chalermkittichai leads you through a journey of modern Thai flavors and state-of-the-art, innovative twists while still paying respect to old recipes. Making your way to Issaya is part of the appeal—it’s like a treasure hunt. You’d need to navigate your way through Sathorn’s small maze-like alleys before arriving at this charming, centuries-old house. Set in a lush garden setting, the cozy dining room retains a vintage Siamese charm with vibrant decor and colorful murals, while the club lounge upstairs brings back old-school luxury.

The name may sound like a fancy French restaurant but the food at Le Du is stylishly inspired by local Thai fare. Armed with an education from the Culinary Institute of America and working experience in some of the world’s best kitchens—Eleven Madison Park and Jean-Georges, included, Thitid Tassanakajohn or Chef Ton opened Le Du in Bangkok in 2013 with a mission to revolutionize Thai food. As the name “Le Du” (a pun on rue doo, which means season in Thai) suggests, the menu is created around the best local seasonal produce (so expect the menu to change quarterly) and elevates them with modern touches, inventive cooking and refined presentations.

San Francisco-based Thai chef Pim Techamuanvivit ensures dining at Nahm, the luxurious Thai restaurant founded by culinary master David Thomspon (which he transported from London), remains one of the most sought-after experiences in Bangkok with the new menu with more delicate flavor.

Paste is probably one of Thailand’s most understated restaurants. Steered by the husband-and-wife duo of Jason Bailey and Bongkoch "Bee" Satongun, this modern dining room offers fine Thai dishes crafted with respect to traditional Sanitwonge recipes, yet also brimming with innovative confidence. Drawing its name from “curry paste,” the centerpiece of Thai cooking, Paste pays particularly attention to the very source of their ingredients. For example, only fleur de sel (that delicate crust of salt that floats on the surface of saltwater) from Nan province is allowed in their kitchen (table salt is not an option). The menu carries a long list of intriguing Thai dishes with an interesting mash-up of ingredients. 

Celebrity chef Chumpol Jangprai takes the traditional Thai shared eating style of sumrub and given it a fine-dining approach at a new restaurant called R.HAAN.  Taking its name from the Thai word for food, R.HAAN (pronounced “aa-harn,” not “raan” like we originally thought) is set within a charming white house on Thonglor Soi 9. The menu includes three sets, each of which consists of 14 dishes made from local produce. Each set starts with small nibbles, followed by soup served in a siphon and four flavorful main dishes (served all together sumrub-style), and ends with dessert and fruits. 

As fas as refined Thai cooking is concerned, most diners still look in the direction of royal Thai cuisine, which mostly offers mildly flavored dishes that follow rare recipes taken from ancient cook books. While much reverence is reserved for this honored cuisine, less veneration is given to the heavily spiced, tongue-burning regional fare from the South, which many food critics are likely to shrug off as unpolished and pedestrian. The man behind popular southern Thai eatery Baan Ice, Supaksorn “Ice” Jongsiri, is hoping to change southern Thai fare’s reputation and prove that the feisty flavors of the deep south also deserve attention from epicures by showcasing the cuisine’s more refined aspects at his new restaurant Sorn. Ice has converted an elegant, two-story wooden mansion in Phrom Phong into a spacious dining room. The first floor is set up like a mini museum, featuring ancient cooking artifacts like a coconut-shredding “rabbit,” an egg blender and a wild quail trap. A glass mirror gives a peek into the kitchen where chefs whip up southern Thai favorites using traditional cooking methods. The second floor provides a more private dining experience, with partitioned dining rooms and a leafy terrace. Chef Yodkwan U-pumpruk, who’s been with Baan Ice since its inception, familiarized himself with southern cuisine for more than two years prior to Sorn’s opening by doing research and making trips down south to meet with local suppliers. His efforts have resulted in a five-

Food is not an alien concept to Jim Thompson. So it’s no surprise that Jim Thompson has added another dining room to its growing portfolio. And yes, deconstruction is key to the savory offerings here.

Instead of having star chefs represent its restaurant, Supanniga Eating Room lets its food speak for itself. And it works. Since it’s inception in 2015 in a multi-level shophouse in Thonglor (and later in Sathorn), the kitchens of Supanniga Eating Room have faithfully followed the recipes handed down through generations within its founders’ families. One of the secrets to Suppaniga’s success is the use of only the best ingredients from all over Thailand, including fish sauce and shrimp from the east.

But as part of its ongoing rebranding, the hotel has recently unveiled an exciting gastronomic project, which it’s dubbing a “hyper-local” Thai restaurant. Taan hopes to take humble, locally sourced produce to the next level by fashioning them into unconventional Thai-inspired creations.