Visitors to Bangkok speak in breathless amazement of the city’s street-food scene, of alleys teeming with noodle carts and stir-fry shops. The city also caters to discerning gourmands with a bevy of casual and high-end restaurants spanning cuisines from Thai to European, and has the highest number of entries in Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants list for 2025 and 2026. Here’s a sampler of six restaurants, from single-dish specialists to those with elaborate tasting menus, that showcase Bangkok’s food in all its diversity.
Try Thailand’s national dish at Pad Thai Fai Ta Lu
Pad Thai Fai Ta Lu
Pad Thai, Thailand’s national dish, is ubiquitous on the streets of Bangkok, with vendors whipping up the stir-fry noodle dish on every corner. One of the dish’s purveyors is Chef Andy Yang, who left a thriving career as head chef at a Michelin-star restaurant in New York to open Pad Thai Fai Ta Lu in 2019. The restaurant looks like a comics-themed nightclub, with disco-ball lighting and a row of superhero figurines on the counter, but it’s not the looks you are eating. This pad Thai doubles down on the smoky wok flavor using premium ingredients like Iberico pork belly, and delivers on the dish’s signature balance of textures and flavors.
A theatrical dinner at Gaggan
Bualoy
At some point in your life, you may have said that you licked your plate clean when enjoying a delicious dish, but at Gaggan, the signature dish called “Lick It Up” is literally meant to be licked off its plate. It is but one of the many inventive dishes that Indian chef Gaggan Anand has created. He once created a whole menu based on emojis, and also served up a dish called “Rat Brains” (don’t worry, it had neither rat nor brain). Indian cuisine remains at the heart of his food, but presented over two dozen courses in ways you have never had it before. Dishes like Yogurt Explosion apply molecular gastronomy techniques to Indian street food, Tom Yam Papad brings together Thai and Indian flavors, and Foie Gras Ghewar adds a French touch to a traditional Indian dessert.
Modern Thai food in a historic neighborhood
Coconut ice cream
The neighborhood of Talad Noi has taken many forms over the centuries – produce market in the 1800s, automotive industrial hub in the 20th century, and now a cultural epicenter filled with street art, cafés, and hip restaurants. One of those restaurants is Charmkrung, where chef “Jai” Aruss Lerlerstkul plays around with.…
By Arundhati Hazra
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