How I lost the guys in 5 Bangkok dates

It started at Iconsiam with a Thai-American friend from way back. Years apart made the familiar feel new. Sometimes you need someone else’s excitement to remember why you fell for a place.

First stop: the terrace outside the Apple Store. We caught the river ambience as the sun hit the Chao Phraya and it was honestly beautiful. Watching him genuinely amazed made me feel like I was seeing my own backyard for the first time – humbling, maybe I’d taken too much for granted. Then it was up to the sixth floor of Tasana Nakhon for semi-outdoor seating and an uninterrupted view of Bangkok, just as pretty as expected.

He was on about matcha, so we ducked into Kyoto Uji Saryo on the ground floor of Siam Takashimaya. I had to see if it lived up to the hype. It did. Premium Uji leaves, bitter-sweet hit, thick and silky smooth. 

And because you can’t really know Bangkok without tasting street food on your feet, reality waits just outside those glass doors at the mall’s edge. Some walk-up spot whose name I've already forgotten, but whose pad kra pao I never will. Runny egg with lace-crisp edges over rice. Holy basil to pork ratio was the fairest I’d seen and he concurred.

After the food coma we took the BTS Sukhumvit line to Phrom Phong for the real Bangkokian city life. I got us lost, but we still landed soft at Mutual Bar for a nightcap. Predictably crowded, we claimed a corner that could have been intimately romantic or just overwhelmingly suffocating, hard to tell.

I ordered an Allen’s Apple with Jim Beam, apple juice, orgeat, lemon, a splash of red wine and apple slices on top. He went rogue with a gin and coke.

Verdict: loved it. Not about sparks, more about catching up with a long-lost someone. Bangkok felt like three acts: the high, the wandering, then the cocktail-close.

This was my ‘I’m randomly obsessed with aviation’ evening.

We began at Antonio’s on Sukhumvit 29 – an Italian place open since 2004, rooted in owner Tony Antonio Armenio’s Pugliese background. The kind of spot where you walk in and immediately understand why it has survived two decades in Bangkok’s brutal restaurant scene. Tony has a whole routine of personally stopping by every table and you can tell he’s genuinely invested in whether you’re having a good time and how much of their excellent bread you’ve swiped. The space itself is intimate and comfortable. Parquet floors that must have seen a few thousand first dates, lighting that does everyone favours. It’s the kind of place that makes conversation flow easier, which was perfect because things were about to get very nerdy about aeroplanes.

We got their famous porcini ravioli with black truffle cream sauce. Everything’s made in-house. It was so yummy I promptly forgot what he ordered, though we did share bites.

Then 10pm happened and he suggested we drive out to watch planes take off. 

We awkwardly, but I think legally, parked on the curb of Suvarnabhumi 3 road, standing around on damp patches of grass (there are benches if you don’t feel like standing), watching these massive planes disappear into Bangkok’s night sky. The sound starts as a roar, then whispers away and the lights get smaller and smaller, like stars, until we’re laughing, genuinely debating whether those are aircraft, building lights, or actual constellations.

Verdict: unforgettable. Antonio’s was a solid start, but Bangkok has this habit of tucking romance into the most unexpected places, almost daring you to spot it and we did.

So Fatboy Izakaya Ekkamai happened to us. Real intimate, real cosy, with that house-party vibe where everyone becomes your new best friend after two drinks.

We were barely seated when the Wagyu beef gyozas – now a mainstay of mine – arrived at the table. 

Next came the parade of skewers. The rib cap was my favourite. They do this chewy-tender thing, still sizzling hot but not molten-lava hot. Until we went for them way too fast and hit the collective tongue-burning, laughing-while-in-pain moment. We were both trying to be cute, taking small bites until we just gave up. Like, why were we pretending we didn’t want to inhale these?

The maki situation was where I decided to be a girl with intact manners, putting my pro chopstick skills to good use. We went for fatboy roll and BKK spider roll – highly recommended.

Then his friends materialised out of nowhere. Suddenly I was adopted by this random, fun crew and as darkness fell, shots were pressed into our hands – a normal day in this restaurant-bar.

The best part of the date was actually the restaurant, atmosphere and staff. They made me aggressively myself in a way that usually takes months around someone new. No internal monologue about being too weird or eating too enthusiastically.

Verdict: funsie all the way. One location, many hours. We stumbled around afterwards, joking about how I had to crane my neck to look at him and by the time I got home, I was that special kind of exhausted that only comes from genuinely good times.

Two days rolled into one because when your good friend, the Samui boy, visits Bangkok, city girl duties kick in.

Day one: White Rabbit Bar in Silom. I ordered the house favourite Rabbit Passion, while he ordered something decidedly more masculine a beer – a Madero, make it plural.

Day two called for Iconsiam and its crown jewel, SookSiam, said to be one of the seven wonders of the shopping mall universe. We were after little bites between boutiques and with SookSiam stretching across all regions of Thailand as well as offering international cuisines, we treated it like our personal tasting tour.

My favourite was moo ping, Thai-style grilled pork skewers, with sticky rice. Next we grabbed Korean corn dogs. He got spring rolls, which somehow became my spring rolls because I ate most of them.

Then came the shopping spree through big stores and French boutiques, where I had him roll out the pronunciations. A little free language lesson I completely flunked.

The night ended at My Darling In The Garden on Rambuttri Road – Thai fusion with live music and promises to ‘taste the happiness’ in their ‘warm, romantic setting you won’t find anywhere else.’ Cheesy tagline, but the place actually delivered.

That’s when I slapped him jokingly. It’s our playfighting thing, but this time the angle and weight were completely off. The slap was loud. Both of us froze, actually surprised, while the whole restaurant turned to stare. We quickly laughed it off with awkward ‘hehe, we’re just playing’ before devouring our grilled chicken and pork satay with peanut sauce. 

Verdict: loved every minute, ate way too much and racked up enough steps over two days to justify every single bite.

It began at 5 Yen Izakaya in RR Space, known for their Japanese fried chicken, which is now genuinely my personal favourite in the city. Without exaggerating, it’s that chicken alchemy feeling. We went for tebasaki wings (Japanese-style chicken wings) in their original flavour with yaki onigiri (grilled rice balls) on the side.

Then we wandered into The Hidden Closet, an erotic boutique right there in the same building. Honestly, the staff are such cool people and the owner is incredible – the whole atmosphere just put us at ease. What could’ve been awkward first-date territory turned into surprisingly deep conversations about pleasure and desire.

Ten literal steps later, we were at Easy Burger right beside the RR building – what has now become my favourite burger spot in the city. We were planning to just get milkshakes but somehow ended up with double west coast – two dry-aged smashed patties with crispy-edged char, thin grilled cheese that gets all golden and crispy, everything drowning in whatever their secret sauce is. 

They bake their potato buns fresh daily and pickle everything in-house, which you can absolutely taste. MF DOOM posters covered every wall, so we ended up lingering way longer than planned. Good burgers plus our hip-hop GOAT? You don’t rush that combination.

Verdict: conveniently perfect. One building, a few steps left and right and we had our whole night sorted – like our own little food world.

Bangkok became my co-conspirator in all of this. The city rewards curiosity and doesn’t punish anyone for questionable decision-making or an appetite for both good food and good stories.

Did I successfully pull an Andie Anderson? Debatable. Did I get a solid food tour of my dating life? Absolutely. Did I realise that maybe the best dates happen when you stop strategising and just enjoy great food with interesting people? Yeah, probably that one.