Andrew Fowler

The Michelin Guide. Maybe you’ve heard about it? According to many, it’s the ultimate arbiter in culinary taste, having done more to bring about the standards of modern fine dining and help hungry travellers find a spectacular meal than any other publication. According to dissidents, it’s an outmoded, pretentious, Eurocentric rag that has corrupted the soul of cuisine. It’s up to you to decide how you feel. Our outlook is generally positive. In the spirit of full disclosure, this writer has at various points contributed feature articles to the Guide, and I do think it remains important, with the caveat that it represents a certain perspective. And when you’re talking about ‘Michelin-starred’ cuisine, this is by now a certain genre in and of itself. You know what to expect – beautifully presented course menus, boutique ingredients, and a flair for the artistic, treading in the footsteps of masters like Paul Bocuse and Thomas Keller. And so these are 10 Bangkok restaurants that have been granted Michelin stars, and we feel they have really earned them. They might be difficult to book, and they might not exactly be daily drivers, but they truly capture what we love about fine dining. Discover, book, and save at hundreds of restaurants with Grab Dine Out. Enjoy exclusive discounts, use dining vouchers, and make instant reservations, all in the Grab app. Explore Grab Dine Out now.  

We were a bit perplexed by the requests we’ve gotten for ‘best Thai restaurants’ in Bangkok – it seems every bit as odd as ‘best Italian restaurants’ in Rome – but you the readers asked, and since we love you, we shall deliver. But let’s start with a little groundwork. Let’s begin with some criteria – first, it needs to be an ‘everyday’ sort of place. Not necessarily street food, but not a full-course meal at Nahm either (we wish). These should be the sorts of places you can take a gaggle of visiting out-of-towners, with the assurance that they do it right. We also thought it best to divide by region. After all, each of Thailand’s major quadrants has a pretty distinctive cuisine (good luck finding Southern menu items in Isan, for example), and instead of trying to shoehorn these four cuisines together, it’s probably more useful for you guys to keep them separate, with three restaurants each. No matter what region you’re feeling affinity for today, you should be able to find something that hits the spot below. Discover, book, and save at hundreds of restaurants with Grab Dine Out. Enjoy exclusive discounts, use dining vouchers, and make instant reservations, all in the Grab app. Explore Grab Dine Out now.

Bangkok’s dining scene never ceases to impress with new restaurants constantly adding fresh energy to the city’s vibrant food landscape. While elegant fine dining establishments often steal the spotlight with their refined menus and impeccable presentation, casual eateries play an equally important role in shaping the city’s culinary identity. From bustling street-side stalls to trendy bistros, these spots capture the capital’s lively spirit through bold flavours, creative concepts and inviting atmospheres. If you’re planning a romantic evening for two, a laid-back family dinner or even a solo food adventure, there’s no shortage of exciting options. The city’s diverse culinary landscape continues to expand, offering everything from Cantonese and French delicacies to comforting Burmese dishes. Whether you’re drawn to modern fusion cuisine or timeless classics, there’s always something new to discover. Discover, book, and save at hundreds of restaurants with Grab Dine Out. Enjoy exclusive discounts, use dining vouchers, and make instant reservations, all in the Grab app. Explore Grab Dine Out now.

It’s that time of the year again, when Asia’s 50 Best comes out and food nerds around the continent have their hot takes. Trust us, we’ve had a few too. Their criteria are at best rather opaque, and rumours and accusations – whether founded in truth or not – are a big part of the industry’s hot goss. But that being said, the Asia’s 50 Best has emerged, over the years, as a PR exercise that has played well to the region’s legacy media. Land a spot on any of the various associated regional lists, and you may not be wanting for customers. Love it or hate it, to earn a spot is to be given a nod in Asia’s culinary world. In Asia’s 50 Best, Bangkok had a strong showing this year, with nine entries, matched only by Tokyo. Granted, when it comes to Bangkok’s food entries, no surprises here – these are all known quantities in the Bangkok dining scene, and the city’s gourmands already have strongly held opinions about all of them (and, to be candid, some of those opinions might be formed without ever having actually eaten at the places in question). So to that end, here’s Time Out Bangkok’s take of the capital’s 2025 listings. Recommended: Thailand leads Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants 2025   Discover, book, and save at hundreds of restaurants with Grab Dine Out. Enjoy exclusive discounts, use dining vouchers, and make instant reservations, all in the Grab app. Explore Grab Dine Out now.

Attempting to put together a list of the 50 best restaurants in Bangkok is an unenviable task. No matter how hard you try, you’re going to be leaving out not just good restaurants, but mind-bendingly good restaurants. Indeed, the process of assembling the following list involved not only signal-boosting some of our favourite culinary craftspeople, but also a painful triage of a host of excellent venues. That’s just how dense with excellence this city is when it comes to quality dining.  What makes eating out here so brilliant is the sheer diversity – both cultural and economic – of the Big Mango’s food scene and our top 50 aims to reflect that. Were we to focus purely on the set-menu avant-garde and quiet-luxury omakase counters, it would be a disservice to a readership that doesn’t just want food to look at, photograph and read about, but wants to eat. Therefore, we include some of the city’s most dazzling palaces of haute cuisine alongside humble streetside vendors. We’re serious eaters more than withering critics, and Bangkok is a city full of serious eats. Hence, we want to share our favourites and leave it to you, the reader, to be the withering critic. Dive in and enjoy the ride!

Possibly no other cuisine invites as much argument as Italian – traditions are jealously guarded, ingredients are vaunted and legally protected, and heated debates about what constitutes authentic Italian food rage across Instagram and Reddit. Indeed, the endless quest for authenticity at points seems to verge on parody – a nationwide contest to see who did the best job of listening to what their Mama told them… So we tugged at our collars a bit when throwing our opinions into the mix. No matter which 10 restaurants we list out, we are going to invite ire, whether over a round of negronis at a tableful of Italians or in an online forum. This is especially true given how many top-tier Italian restaurants Bangkok has. We feel that these 10 represent Italian food in its diversity across both time and space. Here we have restaurants that hew closely to regional traditions and rely on the wisdom of the farmers and fishermen of those regions, as well as restaurants that freely play with technique and form, look forward into the future, and aim to expand the vocabulary of Italian cuisine. We make our case below – after that, hop on the Vespa, try for yourself, and join us for a good argument.

In January, we published our annual ranking of the world’s best cities. To create the list, we quizzed city-dwellers on everything from happiness and nightlife to walkability – and while all these factors are important in making a city great, let’s face it: a city is nothing without its food. From street eats to fine dining, family-run taverns to cutting-edge kitchens, eating and drinking is the backbone of local culture in our cities and the reason many of us choose to travel.  So, in order to figure out the great culinary metropolises of today, we surveyed thousands of people around the world about food in their city. We asked locals to rate their city’s food scene across 18 different criteria, including quality, affordability and attributes from ‘family-friendly’ to ‘experimental’.  Each city was ranked according to quality and affordability ratings, alongside a score from a panel of Time Out food experts – editors, food critics and Time Out Market chefs – who were asked to share their insights into the most exciting cities for food right now. To create the final ranking, we included only the highest-scoring city for each country to ensure the list reflects culinary cities globally. We then asked our global network of food writers to tell us exactly what makes their city such an exciting place to eat right now. The result? A very tasty list indeed. In each of these 20 cities, you’ll find the best of the old-school and the new. There are long-standing street food stalls and

What is it?: If the other two Central Thai spots on this list are nostalgic favourites for citizens of the capital, Sukhumvit Soi 33’s Sri Trat is dedicated to place, featuring local dishes from tiny Trat Province, wedged down between the Cambodian border and the Gulf of Thailand  Why we love it: For as many tourists as pass through Trat on their way to the white-sand beaches of Koh Chang and Koh Kut, the province itself doesn’t have much of a profile, including in terms of cuisine. Before Sri Trat Province opened, not many people could even tell you what they ate over there. The massaman curry with chicken and unripe durian provides a combination few would have thought of, but that slight sulphuric kick from the durian makes the dish. Barracuda salad with peanut dressing balances sweet and sour beautifully, and gaeng mu chamuang is an iconic local pork curry that highlights the chamuang leaf, an herb that features prominently in local cuisine. Time Out tip: Sri Trat is one of the few Thai restaurants with a genuinely top-tier cocktail programme. Like the cuisine, they deliver boldness, complexity, and balance, and have just enough sweetness to balance the fire in the dishes.

What is it?: A veritable Isan empire with eight locations that makes a deliberate point to elevate the Isan restaurant and place it in a comforting setting. We love the Aree original, but way out in the boondocks, the Ratchaphruek location has earned Michelin’s Bib Gourmand. Why we love it: While we think the heat and the diesel exhaust quite convivial when we’re sitting down to an Isan feast, we realise not everyone else does, and Phed Phed has been a pioneer in the wave of casual, design-minded Isan eateries. But this isn’t just a place to take pretty pictures – the food delivers, with an encyclopaedic selection of som tam variations, catering to any imaginable taste. The signature house style, tam phed phed, has that good funk, or order the fruit-based variations – the tam mangkhut with mangosteen, in particular, rules. They even have meat-based som tams (?!), like a salmon sashimi variant that seems like a natural progression rather than forced fusion. Time Out tip: Each location has a different name (Phed Phed Bistro, Phet Phet Lhay, etc.), and each has a wildly different interior. And we think that if you’re in the neighbourhood, you gotta catch ‘em all (Nintendo don’t sue us).

What is it?: In an old house near the base of Sukhumvit Soi 33, North’s dinner tasting menu might be eye-wateringly expensive, but their lunch is thankfully reasonably priced, and absolutely worth a visit to experience their refined and subtle approach to Northern cuisine.  Why we love it: Industrialisation brings growth and prosperity, but it also brings a standardisation. In many ways, that’s a good thing (we’d rather not die of trichinosis), but local delights that for whatever reason aren’t scalable tend to get sidelined. The team at North is part of the new wave of Thai chefs who deeply investigate the history and geography of Thai foodways. North’s cuisine showcases the many migratory waves that came through Lanna, with Yunnan-influenced khao soi that has a camphor quality owing to the heavy use of black cardamom, and Burmese-influenced “pea pillows” that will show you a whole new side of split peas.  Time Out tip: There’s nothing more Northern than a khan toke, a collection of little local dishes on a tray that symbolises classic Lanna hospitality. North’s khan toke set for two is a great crash course on the flavours of the region, elevated with wagyu hang le curry and heirloom rice.

What is it?: Before Supaksorn ‘Ice’ Jongsiri became a culinary superstar, he was a young chef continuing his Southern grandmother’s restaurant business, moving it from the backwaters of Nonthaburi to Thong Lo (now with six other locations as well).  Why we love it: We’re not able to get a table at Sorn, and you aren’t either. We accept this about life, just like we accept that our soi will flood this year. But thankfully Chef Ice’s entry-level restaurant is no slouch. Indeed, this is where he refined the skills and recipes that would later earn him three Michelin stars. Traditional dishes, largely from his ancestral province of Nakhon Si Thammarat. Two of the most outstanding dishes are named for his grandparents. His grandmother gets the khanom jeen khun ya, in which light fluffy noodles get the dunk-tank treatment in a classic nam ya curry, and his grandfather gets the khao yam khun pu, a classic Southern-style rice salad served with a funky budu dressing.  Time Out tip: A number of the best dishes are only periodically available – feel free to call ahead to check if standouts like the beef shank massaman and graduk khluk khlik phrik sator (pork ribs with sator beans) are available.

What is it?: The name means “many flavours,” and they deliver, with two branches (one on Rama 6, but probably better known for their branch in Sukhumvit Soi 49, across from Samitivej Hospital), serving forgotten recipes that we can’t help but love. Why we love it: Soi 49 is the land of glass-and-steel condos, posh izakayas, and vanity-project boutiques, but half-century-old Lai Ros is a refreshing breath of air, air that smells like good old-fashioned cooking aromas rather than reed diffusers. Pu lon mixes crab, pork, and coconut into a classic dip, and their khai palo (pork belly and hard-boiled eggs in a five-spice broth) will overwrite any bad memories of cheap cafeteria versions. There are even some cookshop classics from the earliest days of Western influence on Thai cuisine, like garlic-butter clams and ox tongue stew that really should be eaten with pearls and a pillbox hat on. Time Out tip: Ordering the khao chae (rice and a tapas-like assortment of pork and vegetable dishes, served alongside rice in chilled water, scented with flowers and candle smoke) is mandatory. They’re one of the few places that serve it year-round (not just in the summer). We repeat. Mandatory. Don’t make us tell your grandma.

What is it?: A blink-and-you’ll miss it little spot on Sukhumvit Soi 33 with a comforting, living room atmosphere and Lanna design touches that transport you far away from the neighbouring hostess bars and into the kitchen of an indulgent Northern grandmother.  Why we love it: In our brief and extremely informal (possibly while drunk) survey, we found that Thais who go to the North are more likely to crave the khanom jin nam ngiao (rice noodles in a thick, porky broth flavoured with tomato and red kapok flowers), while foreigners go for the khao soi (wheat noodles in a spicy coconut curry). Gedhawa does masterful renditions of both, better than most places in Chiang Mai. Expect all your favourites – spicy sai ua sausage, Northern-style pomelo salad, fresh and green nam phrik num (green chili dip), and one of the best hang le curries (a Burmese-influenced curry with pork and tamarind) we’ve ever had.  Time Out tip: Every magazine seems to mention that this is one of Harry Styles’ favourite restaurants. For some of us that’s decidedly points against the place, but regardless of how you feel about One Direction, this makes us think the man is onto something.  

What is it?: For Bangkokians, Ongtong needs no introduction at this point. Starting as a humble shophouse restaurant in Aree, they now have locations all over the city (this writer might be slurping on a wee bowl at the Commons as he writes), and have become the khao soi we all think of.  Why we love it: What has propelled Ongtong to success? In our mind, it’s two things. One is the early recognition from Michelin, who gave it he Bib Gourmand (a distinction they no longer hold, sadly), and the other was the proliferation of delivery services. For many of us, an inexpensive bowl of Ongtong’s classic khao soi delivered by a bold motorcycle courier helped take the edge off the pandemic. While khao soi is very much the order of the day, don’t shy away from their interpretations of other Northern staples – their sai ua is damn fine as well, whether ordered as a side dish or made into a simple fried rice.  Time Out tip: Especially given Ongtong’s appeal with both international visitors and health-conscious urbanites, they are one of the few places outside the vegan paradise of Chiang Mai that offer a plant-based version of khao soi, with some pretty awesome tofu to boot.

What is it?: A long-running Southern restaurant with five locations in unexpected spots – Central Westgate, Fortune Town, Paradise Park, The Nine, and a stand-alone venue out in remote Phuttamonthon. Why we love it: Discovering Mae Lui was one of those great happy accidents – we were doing our electronics shopping at Fortune Town, and in the ill-lit basement, we struck gold. Is this one for the spice-heads? No, not really, but flavours remain authentic nonetheless. Gaeng pu bai chaphlu is a Southern classic served with khanom jeen and all the accoutrements, the phat sator has just the right amount of stank, and please, please order one of the dishes with phak koot (fiddlehead ferns), quite possibly the world’s most underrated vegetable. Time Out tip: Vegetarian-friendly food can be tough at mid-range Thai restaurants in general, where a heavy dose of fish sauce is the order of the day, but Reuan Mae Lui has an impressively large selection of veggie-friendly dishes. A number of chili pastes are made without the usual seafood bases, and the variety and selection of fresh vegetable and mushroom dishes is impressively large (hint hint about the yummy ferns, again).

What is it?: In the Isan food hotspot of Rangnam Road near the Victory Monument, the choices are many, but in our mind, Isan Rot Det is perhaps the best. Why we love it: Damn, there are so many wonderful open-air Isan eateries we could have chosen (and we fully expect to hear your hate in the comments, and we regret not having space to include Sabai Jai, Polo Gai Yang, Som Tam Convent, and all our other faves), and the experience is quintessential to life in Bangkok. After a few weeks abroad, what could be better than sitting down in the open air humidity, writing your order on a slip of paper, and ordering a few dishes with your favourite people? The som tam in its infinite variations (the tam khao pot with corn in particular) hits just right, the kho mu yang (grilled pork neck) is tender and well-marinated, and we’re particularly taken with the larb pla duk (catfish salad), which shows a whole new side of that much-maligned fish. Time Out tip: For our visitors from overseas, once you hit Rangnam Road, don’t expect an English sign. It’s the one with the green and white interior, and most likely a buzzing crowd.

Living in Bangkok comes with the incredible privilege of culinary diversity. With just a few taps on my phone, I can easily order Sichuanese, Jamaican, or Egyptian cuisine. Yet, despite Britain’s significant influence on the world, finding authentic British classics here has long been a challenge. This raises an interesting question: why is that the case, and how is one man working to change it? The phrase ‘British food sucks’ has become one of the most overused clichés in culinary discourse. Equally familiar, however, is the counterargument: ‘Actually, British food is great now! Look, they added an herb!’ These pieces often feature a chef guiding readers through a gastropub creation that bears about as much resemblance to traditional British fare as Thomas Keller’s famous salmon tartare does to classic American cuisine. Perhaps this is because British food has always been humble. The pyrotechnics employed in many countries – the intricate spice blends of Asia and Mexico, the buttery sauces of France – just aren’t there. Postwar rationing is often cited as a reason for the cuisine’s poor reputation – it’s just that much harder to mask poor ingredients when the techniques are simple. However, even during World War II, the government authorities were willing to admit, in a bit of very typical British self-effacement, ‘no country in the world grows better vegetables than we do, and possibly no country in the world cooks them worse.’ This should be a clue. Few argue with the qual

‘Once you have the right ingredients, you know how to play.’ That’s what Chef Ho Chee Boon told us. He’s not much for polite niceties – he’s utterly unpretentious and a bit blunt. Using the wrong kind of mortar and pestle? He’ll let you know. He was born in Malaysia, and while we won’t make comparisons to a certain Malaysian-Chinese YouTuber, we understand if you might.  It’s what we expect from a master craftsman with 30+ years in the kitchen. Having opened Hakkasan, London’s first Michelin-starred Chinese restaurant, as well as operations on four continents (including Breeze at the Lebua State Tower here in town), he has played a major role in getting Chinese food the respect it deserves. While, to Western ears, ‘going out for Chinese’ once meant suburbanized flavour profiles, faux-Ming screens, and cloudy fishtanks, Chef Boon’s outlets are mingling grounds for the smart set, with the cuisine to match, inspiring countless Chinese chefs outside the Sinosphere to step up their game. Now he’s back in Bangkok to open Silver Waves at the Chatrium Hotel Riverside. Some of his projects are awfully glitzy – the Wikipedia page for Hakkasan has a photo of the Chainsmokers performing at their Vegas club location – but Silver Waves is thankfully more restrained. The sunset river views are glam enough, some of the best in the city, and the vermilion-toned dining room foregrounds the location. Tables are intimate, and private rooms are available too, including a massive 40-person round t

Jhol burst onto Bangkok's culinary scene in 2020 with a mission – to upend your preconceptions of Indian food. Good luck finding butter chicken on the menu – that would be a little like asking for a California roll from Chef Jiro. While the Mughal Empire-via-Whitechapel takeout standard reigns internationally, Karnataka-born Chef Hari Nayak and his team focus on the coastal regions, from the salt marshes of Kutch in the west to the steamy mangroves of the Sundarbans in the east. It’s a region of incredible ethnic and religious diversity, with less-known dishes made from seafood and even pork and beef, complete with tongue-twisting Tamil and Malayalam names and unique spice profiles, just waiting to be discovered. Flavours at Jhol are traditional, but presentation is as smart and contemporary as can be (something tells me it’s tough finding pomegranate granita in rural Maharashtra), matched by the warm, wood-accented interior of their space in Asok. However, as gauche as it might be to say, one thing we adore about Jhol is the price point. You can have dinner for two here without breaking the bank, with most of the dishes landing comfortably in the B500-ish range. To wit, some of our favourites have been the inji puli baby back ribs – slathered in a Keralan tamarind chutney, like an Indian reimagining of Carolina barbecue – the “BFC” (that’s Berhampur fried chicken, a tangy version from the Odisha town of the same name), and the dinosaur portion of Malabar lamb shank. And like

It’s official. According to Time Out’s global poll, based on surveys of locals, Bangkok has been declared the world’s second-best food city, behind only New Orleans (possibly the only place in the world with more braggadocio about their food than Thailand), edging up from sixth place last year. And that’s worth taking a closer look. Those surveyed were given a variety of adjectives to describe Bangkok’s food and it’s no shocker that their number-one descriptor was ‘delicious’. Well, yes! There’s a reason you have no trouble finding a Thai meal in any far-flung provincial city on the planet. And the second most common descriptor was ‘convenient and fast’. When one can go out onto the street and get an excellent meal in a matter of minutes or have cuisine from top-tier eateries whisked across town in a heartbeat by a death-defying motorcycle courier, we’re spoiled for choice. While the street food has been renowned for decades, the higher end was historically not as well known. For many, fine dining in the capital was thought of as overpriced, gussied up royal Thai dishes dumbed down for tourist palates or old school ‘continental cuisine’ that, while it has a certain charm, is hardly innovative. But that has changed rapidly – there’s been enough money in this town for long enough now that people don’t just want what’s fancy, they want what’s cool. You always knew that Chinatown was a great place for noodles. Guess what, now it’s home to some of Asia’s most innovative cocktail b