Things to Eat in Bangkok: Must-Try Dishes and Where to Eat Them

The things to eat in Bangkok that most visitors put first are pad thai, a crab omelette, curry crab, tom yum kung, a proper Thai curry and som tum, and each has a restaurant in the city famous for it. Thipsamai has fried pad thai at the same Old City crossroads for generations, Jay Fai earned a MICHELIN star for a street-food kitchen best known for its crab omelette, and Somboon Seafood has served its fried curry crab since 1969.

This guide takes the dishes one by one and names places that serve them, using the restaurants' own menus and the current MICHELIN Guide rather than hearsay. Hours, prices and booking details are in the FAQ at the end.

Pad thai

Stir-fried rice noodles with egg, tamarind, palm sugar, dried shrimp or prawns, tofu, bean sprouts and peanuts: Thailand's best-known noodle dish. The address for it is Thipsamai on Maha Chai Road in the Old City. The family traces the shop to 1939, when Samai Baisamut opened a footpath stall here with her husband; it took the name Thipsamai in 1966. The Basic Padthai is the traditional version with dried shrimp and egg. The Superb Padthai, which the restaurant says it created, fries chan noodles with shrimp oil and fresh deep-sea prawns on a charcoal stove and wraps them in a thin layer of egg. There is a vegetarian version too, and the flagship stays open late.

Crab omelette

A Thai omelette, khai jiao, is deep-fried until puffed and crisp at the edges. The famous crab version belongs to Jay Fai, a shophouse kitchen on the same stretch of Maha Chai Road, run by Supinya Junsuta in her trademark goggles. The MICHELIN Guide, which awards Jay Fai one star, describes the crab omelette as crispy and golden-brown and also recommends the stir-fried prawns in yellow curry and the noodle dishes. It is walk-in only with a queue, and the guide lists it as cash only.

For a crab omelette without the queue, Krua Apsorn, a family restaurant cooking what it calls grandma's recipes, lists a fluffy crab omelette packed with crab meat among its favorites. The MICHELIN Guide gives its Samsen Road branch a Bib Gourmand.

Curry crab

Fried curry crab, whole crab stir-fried in a curry sauce with egg, scallions and chili and eaten with jasmine rice, is the order at almost every table at Somboon Seafood. The restaurant has served it since 1969, when its founders opened in a single shophouse beside Chulalongkorn University, and calls it its original signature. A version with picked crab meat saves you the shell-cracking. Somboon now has eight branches, all in Bangkok; the MICHELIN Guide lists the Surawong branch among its selected restaurants.

Tom yum kung and tom kha

Tom yum kung, the hot and sour prawn soup scented with lemongrass, galangal and makrut lime leaves, is on the menu at Somboon Seafood (as tom yum goong) and at The Island, an all-day Thai restaurant near Khao San Road whose menu covers most of the dishes first-time visitors want to try.

Its gentler cousin, tom kha, is made with coconut milk. At Paste, which reworks recipes from Thai culinary history, the dinner menu's coconut-cream soup of galangal and chicken is credited to the first tom kha recorded in print, in an 1890 cookbook.

Curries

Thai curries range from the coconut-rich green curry of central Thailand to the fiery, coconut-free curries of the south. Three places to try them:

• Yellow curry with lotus stems and prawns is a Krua Apsorn signature, and the MICHELIN Guide singles it out.
• Green curry with Isan wagyu beef, eaten with pan-fried roti, is on the menu at Supanniga Eating Room in Tha Tien, which cooks the family recipes of a grandmother from Trat and Khon Kaen. Its crab curry with cha plu leaves is a dish from Trat.
• Green curry of chicken on the bone and a southern curry of pork ribs are on the menu at Err, the casual sibling of Bo.lan on Sukhumvit.

If you want to learn to make one, Baipai Thai Cooking School has included Massaman curry in its rotating class menus.

Som tum and Isan food

Green papaya salad pounded in a mortar with chili, lime, fish sauce and palm sugar comes from Isan, the northeast, and so do many of the grilled and cured dishes that go with it. The Island pounds som tum to order. Err's menu reads like a tour of Thai preserving, with Isan sausage cured with gaba rice, northern-style naem and Chiang Rai sai ua sausage, plus moo ping, the grilled pork skewers sold on street corners across the city. Supanniga's menu draws on Isan cooking alongside the food of Trat.

Stir-fries with holy basil and chili

Pad kra pao, meat stir-fried with holy basil and chili and served on rice with a fried egg, is the everyday lunch of Bangkok. The Island serves it with your choice of protein, and Err makes it with minced beef and a fried egg. At Krua Apsorn, the MICHELIN Guide points to the stir-fried pork with bird's-eye chili.

Miang and small bites

Miang are one-bite leaf wraps filled with sweet, sour, salty and hot flavors. Krua Apsorn serves miang kana, with Chinese kale leaves; Cabbages and Condoms, near Asok, lists miang kham among its appetizers; and Paste has served a miang of minced prawn with galangal jam.

Mango sticky rice

Sweet sticky rice with ripe mango and salted coconut cream is the dessert most visitors remember. It is sold widely, especially in mango season, and The Island has it on its dessert menu alongside other fruit-led Thai sweets.

When you want the whole cuisine: tasting menus

Bangkok's top Thai kitchens go deep into one region or tradition, and each needs booking well ahead:

• Sorn cooks Southern Thai food, and the MICHELIN Guide calls it the world's first three-star Thai restaurant.
• Baan Tepa serves a seven-course Thai menu built around native crops and producers, with two MICHELIN stars.
• Le Du builds seasonal Thai menus from Thai farms and fisheries, with one MICHELIN star.
• POTONG serves a progressive Thai-Chinese tasting menu in a restored Chinatown shophouse, with one MICHELIN star.

Tips for eating your way around Bangkok

• Plan around the queues. Jay Fai and Thipsamai are walk-in; go early or expect a wait. Jay Fai and Thipsamai are on the same stretch of Maha Chai Road, so you can see both in one trip.
• Carry cash for street-food kitchens; the MICHELIN Guide lists Jay Fai as cash only.
• Check for "++" on menus in sit-down and hotel restaurants: 10% service charge and 7% VAT are added.
• Tell the kitchen about spice levels and allergies. Many dishes use shrimp paste, fish sauce and peanuts.

For every restaurant we cover, see our Bangkok restaurants guide.

Sources: Thipsamai, story and menu, MICHELIN Guide, Jay Fai, MICHELIN Guide, Krua Apsorn (Samsen), Somboon Seafood, history and dishes, MICHELIN Guide, Somboon Seafood (Surawong), Supanniga Eating Room, Err, menu, The Island, menu, Paste, menus, Cabbages and Condoms, menu, Baipai Thai Cooking School, MICHELIN Guide pages for Sorn, Baan Tepa, Le Du and POTONG. Checked September 26, 2026.