teacher5

we are going to bangkok next month..can anyone tell me their favorite restaurants in bangkok? chiang mai? or chang rai? i know i can read all the guides i purchased...but i value your opinions much much more

thanks

l etoile

Definitely go to Mezzaluna or Sirocco at the State Tower in Bangkok. Fabulous views and good food.

http://www.thedomebkk.com/web/corp_home03.html

stashe

Just had a wonderful Indian dinner @ the Chedi in Chiang Mai - great ambiance as well. Our fav in BKK is room service in a suite @ the Oriental!

MegatopLover

Baan Kanitha consistently delivers excellent high-end Thai food with authentic flavors. The location near the Conrad was better than the one on Sathorn Road. The Thai restaurants at the major 5* hotels have mostly Westernized their food. The one I tried, Thiptara at the Peninsula, had a spectacular setting and good but not terribly authentic food. For real Thai food, you've probably got to know the right sidewalk chef and just plop down.

OTOH, Mei Jiang at the Peninsula delivers excellent Chinese food from a range of cuisines, predominatly Cantonese but with a few others as well. My mouth starts watering over the thought of their Peking Duck-- I have it on nearly every visit to Bangkok.

Jesters at the Pen has good Pacific Rim fusion cuisine. But the times I've eatern there have often been on my last night in Bangkok at the end of a long visit with Mr. Megatop, so it's usually a sad occasion that leaves me unable to appreciate the food. Very cool space, though.

The Japanese place at the FS was good but very pricey. The Japanese at the IC was okay but nothing remarkable. The spot called A.O.I., with outlets in Silom, Siam Square, Emporium, and maybe elsewhere, had great sushi.

Suphatra River House was really really good for Thai in a beautiful setting. I was meeting my in-laws for the first time when I dined there on Christmas 2003, so that's about all I can remember. There's another riverside restaurant downriver aways from the Taksin Bridge whose name I can't remember, but it was really great and very cheap: dinner for five with river prawns bigger than your hand cost all of $30, though that was 2001 when the baht was much weaker than it is today.

Bottom line: Baan Kanitha near the Conrad for Thai, Mei Jiang for Chinese.

Peter4

You asked for favorite restaurants.
You didn't specify only fancy or expensive.
You won't read about this one in the ordinary guidebooks.

First what to order, then where:

Expensive restaurant food is available in every major city in the world.
Instead, I look for the best of the local, home-style food.
My favorite home-style food in Bangkok is egg noodles topped with fresh crab meat, roasted red pork, and dumplings.
The taste is more delicious than I know how to describe.

The name in Thai language: "Baa-mee-bpoo".

This is not fancy dining on top of a tall building.
This is the sort of food that ordinary Thai people eat often.
For the best "baa-mee-pboo", you'll be sitting on a plastic stool, at a rickety, metal table, alongside the pavement, and eating with chopsticks and a spoon.
In Bangkok, about 40 baht for a regular bowl, about 60 baht for a large serving: US$ 1.00 - 1.50.
If you leave any tip the cook will run after you to return the money you "forgot".

Many street carts serve baa-mee-bpoo, but for best quality in Bangkok, my favorite location is underneath the BTS skytrain station at Thonglor, at the top of Sukhumvit soi 38.
Apparently many Thai people agree, because there are always lots of expensive, late model cars, full of well-dressed Thais coming to eat there -- when they clearly could afford to eat just about anywhere.
Other diners will be late-shift workers just finishing work, students still in their university uniforms, taxi drivers taking a break, and prostitutes with their clients (who, also, clearly could afford to eat just about anywhere).

For dessert, order fresh mango with sticky rice and sweet sauce made from coconut-milk.
In Thai: "kao-nee-ao mah-moo-ahng".

It's a delicious meal, combined with a gentle adventure in "the real Bangkok", far away from any tourist restaurants.

Opens about 7:00 PM.
The fresh crab runs out around 1:00 AM.
If you are going by skytrain, be aware the trains stop running soon after midnight.

Hmmm ... I'm getting hungry!
Let's see: It's 9:15 PM in Bangkok now ... plenty of time to get over there tonight.

If you have specific questions, you are welcome to send email or private message.

- Peter
.

cestmoi123

I second Baan Khanita. The food is spectacular. Have the lime chili sea bass - I doubt you'll ever be so happy and in so much pain at the same time (unless you're into that sort of thing).

Chapel Hill Guy

I'll third it (I've only eaten at the one behind the Conrad). ^

transpac

There have been a number of "favorite/recommended restaurants in Bangkok" threads here over the years. The sub-forums have changed ~ 3 times so I'm honestly not sure where those threads are now, but a search might reveal many great recommendations?

Generally, when asking you might mention a preference? Thai food (Royal, Chinese, Issan), Japanese? Asian? Indian? Middle Eastern? Muslim? Western? And what type of restaurant, hotel, buffet, food-court/coupon, aircon, open-air, street sit-down, cart. Location also helps.

IMO, open-air Thai restaurants offer the best in food quality, atmosphere and value.

teacher5

we are open for any sort of food...i do like chicken, but anyway...my husband is a seafood addict...if we do stalls i guess it would be lunch and others dinner

never tasted muslim food...might be an experience

thank you

transpac

You should probably check the forums at forum dot thaivisa dot com .

There are regional forums for Bangkok, Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai, along with both Thai and Western food forums.

I found an old thread here on Bangkok Eating .