Description: The setting, in the basement of a shopping complex, does not do this restaurant justice. The Thai food and especially the vegetarian dishes are a real bargain for this central part of town. There’s a large menu with lots of seafood and a basic but comfortable dining room, with seating on long benches extending from the wall.

 

Description: A favorite with many Thais, this is a plain-looking restaurant with an open-air wooden balcony stretching to the Chao Phraya River. The tables might be simple and the chairs plastic, but the food is good and views of passing boats fitting for the cuisine. Grilled fish and prawns are specialties and there’s a platter if you can’t decide. Bangkok is generally cooler along the river at night, and there is a covered section for when it rains.

 

Description: A lovely restaurant that’s a favorite among Thais, especially for entertaining foreign guests. The dining room is tastefully done, with antiques and paintings from the local region. Traditional Thai food is prepared with skill – ask if you like it spicy – and the staff are charming.

 

Description: Like Soi Polo Fried Chicken, this little restaurant is the kind of place that makes Bangkok’s food famous. It’s cramped, noisy and often hot in the open-to-the-street downstairs, where they also cook, but the food and atmosphere in the century-old building keep people coming back. They cook the roti (flat bread) filled with your choice of chicken, beef, fish or vegetables at the front entrance. Or try the “dessert” roti with sweetened condensed milk. They also serve other Thai dishes and there’s small, air-conditioned room upstairs, too.

 

Description: Part of The Oriental Hotel and best at night, when they stage traditional Thai dance in the fancy dining room. Ask for the time of the show so you’re there to see it. To get here, use the boat service run by the hotel that takes you right across the Chao Phraya River. The food is excellent and meticulously prepared – some of the dishes were in the past reserved only for royalty – and the set menu is a great introduction to Thai food. Many consider this to be one of Bangkok’s best restaurants.

 

Description: Thais call the northeastern area that borders Laos along the Mekong River “Isan,” and the region has a cuisine of its own. Nowadays popular the country over, the food is best at home in Isan and in Bangkok, where millions from the northeast have moved for work. Incredibly good food is served at roadside stalls, but Sara-Jane’s does Isan food as well as anywhere, and the restaurant has the comfort of an air-conditioned dining room. The roast chicken and “som tam” (spicy papaya salad) are top choices, but the Isan sausage and “lab”, spicy minced chicken, pork or duck, will also please every time.

 

Description: Well into its fifth decade, this tried-and-tested restaurant has a loyal following, to the point of near addiction for some. The crispy fried chicken is their trademark and certainly should be tried, but the other dishes are very good too. It’s a basic dining room with metal tables, but that’s part of the experience. They’ve added an air-conditioned section to the older open-air room for those wanting to escape the heat, and they also deliver if you’re staying in the area.

 

Description: Street food on Sukhumvit at the intersection with Soi 36, next to the Thonglor Skytrain Station, has for many years earned its reputation for great street dining. The district stretches along Soi 36 for some 50 meters and is home to a wide variety of Thai open-air restaurants. Evenings it expands further, with more restaurants opening on the sides of the street. The cuisine is basic Thai and some Chinese on folding tables and chairs, and you’re far enough away from Sukhumvit to be able to hear each other speak.

 

Description: The set menus for between B800 and B1200 are a great introduction to Thai cuisine for the uninitiated, or you can order from the menu with help from the staff. The food is very good, but this restaurant, in an old house across from the Grand Palace on the Chao Phraya River, is as much about the experience as the dinner. It includes a small museum of items the owner, who founded Bangkok’s river express boat service, has collected over the years. Friday and Saturday night there’s dinner theatre.

 

Description: Bustling Yaoworat Road in the center of Chinatown becomes a culinary hotspot at night, with restaurants spilling off the footpaths onto the street itself. Most are open only at night and serve great food – most places specialize in seafood and the activity equals the quality of the food. Don’t expect high-end dining though: the folding tables tend to slant, stools suffice for seats, crowds surround and street noise thunders. But it’s a fun place, and the food is world class.