One (Big!) Day of Eating in Bangkok
We proudly acknowledge the Bunurong as the first people to love, live and dine on the lands on which Attica sits today.
We recognise that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island Peoples were the first sovereign nations of Australia from time immemorial, and they never ceded this sovereignty.
One (Big!) Day of Eating in Bangkok
Kylie Shewry
Published 28.01.25
Bangkok
One (Big!) Day of Eating in Bangkok
Bring your appetite and a sense of adventure to explore one of the greatest food cities in the world - Bangkok.
Jok with Pork Meatballs from Jok Prince
Bangkok has long been known as one of the best food cities in the world, and every time I visit I am blown away the quality and variety of food you can find in smaller restaurants.
A small disclaimer here; the below list is a LOT of food. Try spreading it over a couple of days if you have time. The first three restaurants are all in the same location, so can easily be grouped together. The last three restaurants are also all close by each other.
A couple of tips before you get started:
Skip the average hotel breakfast - the food outside of your hotel will be better 9 times out of 10.
Comfy shoes, lots of water and sunscreen are a must.
Bring cash with you - lots of places don't take cards.
Be kind, order up big and try as many different tings as possible!
6am
Jok Prince – rice porridge with pork meatballs cooked right in the giant Jok pot, served with a very runny egg yolk to mix through to make the whole bowl delightfully creamy. Best eaten with a serve of deep-fried doughnuts and seasoned with fish sauce, white pepper and chilli. One of the best breakfasts in the world.
Roast Duck over Rice at Prachak Roasted Duck
8am
SorBoonprakobpanich – for Thai sweets such as the famed mango sticky rice and steamed coconut custards. The pandan custard with coconut milk is the best – tiny little sweet green set custards topped with the salty white coconut cream layer. Buy as many as you can, there’s no such thing as having too many of these.
10am
Prachak Roasted Duck – very close to the first two places on this list. The duck is roasted until extremely tender and served with a sweet and savoury sauce and plenty of spices. Served over rice or noodles, it comes on a plate with added roosted pork and stewed trotters. The duck is the most popular dish and they can sell out by early evening.
Noon
Raan Yaam Jae-Euang at Chatuchak Weekend Market – prawn tom yum is heady and almost too delicious to contemplate. The fish cakes are made to order and puff up like giant, fishy balloons as they hit the table, served with the most delicious dipping sauce (step aside sweet chilli sauce!). And, finally, the garlic prawns – stir-fried to perfection with heaping mounds of fresh and dried garlic, adding layers of garlicky sweetness and bite.
Spend some time looking around the markets and walking off all that food – there is more to come. These markets are so big and a little overwhelming, so take your time and refuel as you go with a fruit juice or coconut smoothie.
Prawn Tom Yum from Raan Yaam Jae-Euang
Green Curry from Jek Pui
4pm
Jek Pui – green chicken curry with Chinese sausage. Nothing like the green curry commonly served in Australia, although travelling down a dark alley and eating dinner while perched on a milk crate had echoes of some memorable Melbourne nights. This place has been made famous by Netflix and lives up to the hype. Rich, green curry over bone-in chicken and white rice, with a crispy, sweet and spiced Chinese sausage on the side.
6pm
Kha Moo Tee Sam – khao kha moo (braised pork legs on rice) with bird’s eye chillis and raw garlic and chilli vinegar. The first time I tried this was just the pork leg by itself, no rice (I know – a total no-no in Thailand). The sauce was really savoury and rich compared with some of the sweeter versions I’ve tried. Slicing up the raw garlic with a spoon to accompany the pork is well worth the trouble, and the chilli vinegar cuts through all that pork fat superbly. My favourite bit was chomping on a beautiful bird’s eye chilli in between mouthfuls of pork. They have so much flavour and the spice level borders on unbearable (for me!) in the best possible way.
Explore the crush of Chinatown. Spend as much time as you have left exploring the street vendors and markets around Chinatown. It really is an extraordinary food experience in and of itself.
10pm
TEP Cultural Bar of Thailand – a gorgeous little bar serving cocktails mainly based around Thai herbal liquors and spirit. The service was friendly and kind and the bar seems to be popular with locals and tourists alike. They also have traditional Thai music and bands playing most nights.
