Bangkok’s Delicious Street Food! All over Bangkok, you will find cheap and delicious Thai food on the street! Some places are pop-up food stalls that move around on trolleys, while others are more or less permanent, serving fresh and tasty Thai food at small tables on the street pavement. Street food in Bangkok is tasty, quickly delivered and super cheap. You can usually have a feast for under 150 Baht!
We used to love and recommend the food market at Sukhumvit Soi 38 but after serving delicious street food for decades, it has now sadly closed down. But fear not, Bangkok is the street food capital of the world, and there is plenty of fantastic options to sample the street food.
Bangkok’s Chinatown known locally as Yaowarat, is a great place to sample some street food, and is arguably Bangkok’s street food center. All along Yaowarat road, street stalls and small restaurants serve up some seriously tasty treats. The mix of Thai and Chinese dishes on offer is staggering, and the smells are heavenly. A good strategy is usually just to try what looks and perhaps most importantly smells best to you.
Barbecued seafood is seriously popular here, as is flat noodles in pepper broth, dim sun and all sort of fruit deserts. Walking around you can find all kinds of Thai food, from satay, pad Thai, barbecue spears with peanut butter, chicken in different variations, fried rice, noodles and different soups, crispy duck and curries of all kinds.
Make sure to sample small portions, and do not fill up all in one place. While you can find food here all day, it comes alive in the evening when people come out to eat. Delicious juices and smoothies, all freshly made! If you are in this area and find yourself with a craving for Indian food, Bangkok’s little India district (Pahurat) is also not far away.
Address: Yaowarat Street
How to get there: Taxi or MRT to Hua Lamphong station then walk 15 minutes.
Opening hours: All day, but best in the evenings
Saphan Taksin and the Bang Rak Area
This is an old part of town with many restaurants and food stalls that have been there for decades! These guys know some cooking secrets that would put the finest French chefs to shame. The stretch of road going from Saphan Taksin BTS station to the crossing of Charoen Krung Road and Silom Road is a foodies dream walk.
Prachak – Bangkok`s best roasted duck
There are simply too many food gems along this road to mention them all but here lies Prachak Pet Jang famous for its Chinese-style roasted duck with a dark, spicy sauce over rice. It is delicious! The skin is perfectly crispy while the duck meat is super juicy. The rice is cooked perfectly and the Chinese sausage is delicious slightly sweet. Address: 1415, Charoen Krung Road, Silom, opposite Robinson’s department storeHow to get there: Take the sky train to Saphan Taksin sky train station, and walk from there.
Opening hours: 08:30 – 20:30
Boonsap Thai Dessert
After having delicious crispy duck at Prachak, walk across the street for some mouth-watering Mango sticky rice dessert at Boonsap Thai Desserts. You can either sit there and have your dessert or have take-away. They also sell other lovely Thai desserts, cookies, and sweets. Sticky rice with mango and coconut milk.
Address: Along Charoen Krung from Saphan Taksin BTS to the crossing of Charoen Krung Road and Silom Road
How to get there: Take the sky train to Saphan Taksin Station
Some other great places to sample street food in Bangkok is around the Victory Monument and on Pectchaburi Soi 5 and many others. Bangkok’s street food is everywhere and is almost always tasty and freshly made, so step out of your hotel and explore!
Take a Food Tour
Another great way to explore Bangkok’s street food is to take a food tour. By going on a food tour with an expert English-speaking guide, you will get to sample a lot of food you might otherwise have missed. It is also an excellent way to learn more about Bangkok’s culture and food.Our friends at Expique just started an Evening Food and Tuk Tuk Adventure tour!
It looks absolutely awesome and we can’t wait to go back to Bangkok and try it out. What better way to spend an evening in Bangkok than whizzing around from one fabulous food experience to another in a Tuk Tuk!
It’s for the “adventurous” eater, so it goes beyond the normal green curry and Pad Thai dishes. Don’t worry, there are no bugs on the menu.
If you’d rather do a walking food tour during the day, then the Old Town Food Tour is a small group, half-day tour of five different locations, including more than eight food and drink samples. In between the food stops, it also explores several historic temples hidden inside this neighborhood.
Somtum Der – Som Tam (Papaya Salad)
Somtum Der is a small cozy restaurant serving delicious northeast Isaan Thai food! The restaurant has a great outside area where you can sit and eat and drink their tasty martinis of vodka and lemongrass or Rosella. Their specialty is the Som Tam (Papaya Salad), of which they have eight versions of the menu.
The easiest for beginners is the Tum Thai, the base papaya salad made with papaya, limes, tomato, chilies, peanuts and palm sugar. The Tum Thai Kai Kem with salted boiled egg and the Tum Kor Moo Yang with savory grilled pork neck are also delicious!
All of the Som Tams are however quite spicy, even the one-chili versions are hot, but you can ask for a non-spicy version. I am not that good at eating spicy food, but I try. Whatever Som Tam you try, order the black or regular sticky rice and dip it into the leftover sauce. The real star on the Somtum Der`s menu is the Moo Ping Kati Sod, thin-sliced pork (or beef) skewers marinated in coconut milk, and then grilled until the marinade caramelizes. Served with nests of coconut-scented rice noodle. So tasty! Also, the house special grilled marinated Pork is delicious!
Somtum Der also has desserts on the menu, like the Thai-styled Ice Kajang, a dish that looks intimidating and impressive but is mostly air. Harder to get past is its flavor. Let’s just say that if you’re a real fan of white bread and pink bubble gum; this is probably the desert for you!
Somtum Der is an affordable, friendly place with delicious and authentic north Isaan Thai food. The atmosphere is great! They also have a restaurant in New York with the same name.
Address: 5/5 Sala Daeng Road, Silom
How to get there: Take the sky train to Silom station, and walk from there (very short).
Opening hours: 11 a.m. – 12 p.m. Closed on Sundays.
Sawang Noodle- Bangkok’s best Noodle Soup
The famous and legendary noodle cafe that used to be called Bamee Sawang Noodle, moved and switched its name to just Sawang Noodle in 2016. It was originally located in the Hua Lam Phong are, next to Bangkok train station, but has moved to 982 Phetchaburi Road close to Central World at Siam.
Sawang still serves one of Bangkok’s best noodle soups. The egg noodles are hand-made, the barbecued pork is delicious and honey sweet, and the crab is salty and tasty. There is the feeling that a new generation has taken over the restaurant. But the noodle soup is still tasty and worth a visit if you find yourself in its new neighborhood. The noodle soup is still cooked outside the restaurant on the street, but you have to sit inside and eat.
The Sawang noodle cafe has moved from the original Hua Lam Phong location (near Bangkok train station Hua Lamphong) and is now at 982 Phetchaburi Road. The sign is on the glass door rather than on the main sign above so you have to look for it and it says Sawang Noodle.
How to get there: Take the Skytrain to Siam or Chit Lom station, and walk from there.
Opening hours: 9:30 – 23:00
Thip Samai – Bangkok’s Best Pad Thai
The small restaurant Thip Samai apparently has the best Pad Thai in Bangkok! Not bad considering that they sell Pad Thai EVERYWHERE in this city. So we had high expectations about this Pad Thai, and it did not disappoint!
So is it the best in Bangkok? Impossible to say, but we have eaten a lot of Pad Thais over the years, and this one was seriously delicious!
Thip Samai also has the most amazing orange juice I have ever tasted! It was so fresh and full of flavor! I could just feel it`s healthfulness as I was drinking it, filling me up with vitamin C. So if you go here, make sure to order the orange juice and not just another Singha (which you can buy everywhere in Thailand).
Address: 313 Th Maha Chai, Banglamphu
How to get there: It is best to take a taxi or tuk-tuk here.
Opening hours: 5 pm. – midnight
T&K Restaurant – China Town
Serving delicious seafood, T & K restaurant (Toy and Kid are the names of the two brothers who own the place) on Yaowarat road is busy as a bee every single evening, come rain or shine. Just like many other popular restaurants in the area, it’s not about fancy design and glamorous decor, but about great simple food and the rustic charm of eating on the pavement of a hectic street.
The outdoor area is the most popular but as it’s permanently packed you can eat inside or even upstairs with air-con! Now if you associate air-con room with any kind of luxury you would be very wrong. The room is bare with the usual plastic chairs and iron tables, and the cleanliness applies no further than the top of your table, which by street food standards is all you need.
T & K is dedicated to seafood and once you tried their amazing whole fish served with different varieties of sauce either steamed or deep fried, huge barbecued prawns, crabs, a large array of great seafood soups, and best of all their delicious shells, then you will know why people queue up outside, even in the rain!
Location: Intersection of Yaowarat Road and Thanon Phadung Dao Street, (China Town).
Street Markets
In Bangkok, it goes without saying: Where there are people, there will be food, (Hint – this means there’s food everywhere you look in Bangkok). However, though you’ll find street food everywhere in Bangkok, not all areas of this food haven of a city are created equal.
Some areas of town, and certain streets, are more blessed with beautiful things to devour than others. So in the confusion of Bangkok’s bright pink taxi’s, ginormous modern shopping malls, and flashy motorbike racers, where are all these neighbourhood eating coves, these dining Shangri-La’s, these street food sanctuaries where a hungry soul can gobble down excessive portions of affordable and insanely delicious Bangkok street food? The best fresh food comes from one of many of Bangkok’s morning markets.