For decades, Bangkok's top Thai restaurants have specialized in Royal Thai cooking, a refined medley of intricately cut fruits, silk-smooth curries, and meticulously layered flavors based on recipes rooted in the palace kitchens.
But when Australian chef and author David Thompson brought his renowned Nahm restaurant to the Thai capital in 2010 (his London outpost was the first Thai restaurant to ever earn a Michelin star), the needle shifted. With refined takes on heirloom recipes from home kitchens around the country, Nahm proved that everyday Thai curries and punchy stir-fries could be elevated to fine-dining heights — and didn't need a dialed-down spice level. A Thai food renaissance followed as a new wave of ambitious young chefs such as Napol Jantraget (who now runs Samlor) and Bo.Lan's Duangporn Songvisava started diving deep into ancient cookbooks or combing through Thailand's jungles and countryside in search for little-known ingredients and tribal cooking techniques.
Today, Bangkok's best Thai restaurants plate up refined takes on regional recipes from all corners of the country. There are bowls of wagyu khao soi (a northern Thai coconut curry) at North, and straight-from-the-South seafood gets the tasting menu treatment at Sorn. Thompson, meanwhile, opened his chefs' table-style Aksorn to zero in on Thai food from the '60s and '70s (think catfish nam prik relish, ma hor appetizers from minced pork and orange, and oysters simmered in coconut cream). With never a more exciting time to eat Thai food in Bangkok, three tapped-in Thai chefs share their favorite spots around town.
PICHAYA SOONTORNYANAKIJ
From her pint-sized kitchen at Potong, set in her grandparents' former medicine dispensary in a narrow alley just off Chinatown's main drag, chef Pichaya Soontornyanakij (better known as Chef Pam) doles out multi-course tasting menus that riff on her Thai-Chinese heritage. Inspiration comes from the surrounding streets: dinners might include bite-sized tartlets with black chicken ragout, pad thai-flavored shrimp from Nakhon Si Thammarat, or lazy Susans — a miniature version of the rotating tabletops you find at the neighborhood's Cantonese mainstays — loaded with stuffed duck neck sausage, melt-in-the-mouth beef char siu, and steamed egg custard with tongue-tingling Szechuan pepper.
Sai Nam Phueng: Kway Teow Gai
"For as long as I remember, I've been coming to Sai Nam Phueng," Soontornyanakij says. A bubbling pot of chicken greets you upon arrival at this hole-in-the-wall noodle joint in the Sukhumvit district, which is run by a friendly mother and son duo. "Their braised chicken wings always hit the spot," Soontornyanakij says. "Order the small dry noodles with chicken wings and soup on the side. The wings are so tender, they slide right off the bone." -- 392/20 Sukhumvit 20 Alley, Khlong Toei
Sri Trat
Southern Thai curries and the funky fermented fish relishes from the northeast commonly show up on Bangkok's restaurant menus, but the seafood-heavy recipes of Thailand's eastern provinces are much harder to find. Sri Trat, taking over a date night-worthy dining room in the Phrom Phong district, zeroes in on eastern Thai family recipes with ingredients such as bitter chamuang leaves, fish sauce and kapi shrimp paste imported directly from the source. "The dishes often have a contemporary twist, but the flavors are still authentically Thai," Soontornyanakij says. "My favorite is the kaeng mu chamuang, a stewed pork belly curry that strikes a perfect balance between spicy, sweet, and salty. It's perfect with a side of rice." -- 90 Sukhumvit 33 Alley, Khlong Tan Nuea, Watthana
Chim by Siam Wisdom
Taking over a gorgeous wooden villa in the old-timey Samsen district, Chim by Siam Wisdom is the culinary playground of chef Thaninthorn Juntharawan, who earned a Michelin star for his playful fusion of traditional and contemporary Thai cooking. Menus riff on recipes from around the country, such as chili-heavy rice salads from the South, or khao jee sticky rice pancakes from the northeastern provinces. "He recently moved to a new location, and upgraded his full menu — it's better than ever before," Soontornyanakij says. "I love how he captures authentic Thai flavors, which especially shine through in his tom yum kung dish." -- 315 Ongkharak 13 Alley, Thanon Nakhon Chai Si, Dusit
CHALEE KADER
Young-gun chef Chalee Kader took a bold step when he spotlighted local beef on the menu at his 100 Mahaseth restaurant back in 2017, when fancy imports were still all the rage. Over the years, he's become a trailblazer in championing local ingredients such as tongue-numbing makhwaen pepper and spicy yanang leaves, and works closely with Thai farmers to continuously improve the quality of their free-reared beef and pork. At his latest venue, Michelin-starred Wana Yook, he gives Thailand's ubiquitous khao gaeng curry-and-rice counters a fine dining spin with 12-course tasting menus that could include frog legs stir-fried with ginger root and chili or an umami-packed egg yolk cured in fish sauce, all served on heirloom rice varieties sourced from around the country.
