Bangkok Cuisine

About Bangkok Cuisine

By the ULTIMATE Bangkok Editorial Team

Editor-in-Chief: Jai Michael

Bangkok cuisine, ahan Krung Thep, is a culinary crossroads: the cooking of central Thailand, the refinements of the royal court and a deep Thai-Chinese heritage, all shaped by a city that grew up on its rivers and canals. This is our guide to the dishes worth ordering and where to find them.

Bangkok cuisine

Bangkok grew up around a web of rivers and canals, and its food grew up with them. For generations, trade arrived by boat, and so did dinner: cooks sold noodles and rice from small craft moored along the khlongs, and that waterborne commerce is the root of the city’s legendary street food. Layered on top are the cooking of central Thailand, the refinements of the royal court and the long influence of the Chinese families who settled here.

Essential dishes

Order these and you will have tasted the city, from a canal-side snack to a royal-court classic.

A city built on the water, where trade came by boat and the street became the kitchen.

Boat noodles

Kuaitiao ruea are served in small bowls, a habit that began on the canals, where a small bowl was easier to hand over, and less likely to spill, from one boat to the next. The broth, pork or beef, is deep and aromatic with star anise and cinnamon, and is traditionally enriched and thickened with blood. They are cheap and quick, so order several bowls; that is the custom.

Crab fried rice

Khao pad poo is fried rice raised to an art. The best Bangkok versions are tossed over fierce heat so that the rice takes on the smoky “breath of the wok”, then finished with generous pieces of fresh crab meat, a wedge of lime and a little fish sauce with chilli on the side.

Tom yum goong

The hot and sour soup that travelled the world: a fragrant broth of lemongrass, galangal and kaffir lime leaves, sharp with lime and chilli, with plump river prawns. In Bangkok you will meet both the clear version and the richer, creamier style.

Green curry

Kaeng khiao wan is sweet, savoury and fiery at once: a coconut curry built on fresh green chillies and Thai basil, usually made with chicken or fish balls, and eaten with rice or, in some kitchens, with roti.

The five flavours

Thai cooking is a balance of five flavours: sweet, sour, salty, spicy and bitter. Bangkok’s central Thai style tends to lean a little sweeter than the cooking of the north and north-east, and every table carries condiments, fish sauce with chilli, sugar, chilli flakes and vinegar, so that you can adjust each dish to your taste.

The Chinese table

Generations of Teochew immigrants brought stir-frying, deep-frying, soy sauces and a whole family of noodle dishes, and their influence runs through the city’s cooking. You taste it most clearly in Chinatown, where Yaowarat Road becomes an open-air kitchen after dark, with stalls for noodles, seafood, roast meats and sweets.

Where to taste it

Begin in Chinatown (Yaowarat) in the evening, and graze from stall to stall rather than sitting down for one meal. For dessert, K. Panich on Tanao Road, in this guide, has made its name with mango sticky rice. For the city’s great restaurants, from street-food counters to MICHELIN-starred dining rooms, see our story of the Bangkok table and our restaurant list.

Our advice: eat boat noodles by the bowlful, order crab fried rice at least once, and spend one evening on Yaowarat Road. Ask for “phet nit noi”, a little spicy, if you are new to Thai heat.

Opening hours, prices and seasonal openings change, so please check with Bangkok Cuisine before you go.