Central Thailand
ภาคกลาง
Bangkok and the rice plains: balanced, coconut-rich curries, soups and the dishes the world knows as “Thai food”.
The central plains around the Chao Phraya river are Thailand’s rice bowl, and the cooking here is the one most people outside Thailand know. It is the food of Bangkok and of the old royal courts of Ayutthaya: polished, balanced, and generous with coconut milk and palm sugar.
Central Thai cooking aims for harmony. A good dish hits sweet, sour, salty and hot together, and the table is built so that every flavour appears somewhere in the meal.
Flavours
Coconut milk and palm sugar soften curries and soups. Fish sauce is the main seasoning, lime and tamarind bring the sourness, and fresh chillies the heat. Herbs are central: lemongrass, galangal, makrut lime and Thai basil appear again and again.
Signature dishes
- Green curry (gaeng keow wan) and red curry (gaeng phed)
- Tom yum goong and tom kha gai
- Pad Thai and pad kra pao
- Khao man gai, Bangkok’s chicken rice
- Mango sticky rice in the hot season
How people eat
Meals are shared: a few dishes in the middle of the table, eaten with jasmine rice, a spoon in the right hand and a fork in the left to push food onto it. Bangkok also has one of the world’s great street-food cultures, with single-dish stalls that often cook one thing for decades.
Where to eat in Central Thailand
Street Food
Pa Lek Boat Noodles
A third-generation Bib Gourmand stall in Ayutthaya's old city, serving small, rich bowls of pork and beef boat noodles.
Ayutthaya · ฿
Markets
Hua Hin Night Market
Hua Hin's original evening market, a long strip of seafood grills, street snacks and souvenir stalls on Dechanuchit Road.
Hua Hin · ฿฿
Street Food
Victory Monument Boat Noodle Alley
A canal-side lane of boat noodle shops by Victory Monument, where tiny bowls are stacked high on every table.
Bangkok · ฿
Markets
Chatuchak Weekend Market Food Zone
Bangkok's giant weekend market, where snacking between thousands of stalls is as much the point as shopping.
Bangkok · ฿
Markets
Or Tor Kor Market
Bangkok's cleanest and most polished fresh market, famous for top-grade fruit, curry pastes and ready-made Thai dishes.
Bangkok · ฿฿
Restaurants
Charmgang
A modern take on the Thai curry-and-rice shop in Talat Noi, run by chefs who trained under David Thompson.
Bangkok · ฿฿฿
Restaurants
Saneh Jaan
Refined Thai classics drawn from royal and regional recipe archives, and one of Bangkok's most affordable Michelin-starred meals.
Bangkok · ฿฿฿
Restaurants
Paste Bangkok
Chef Bee Satongun's take on historic Thai recipes, served in an airy room at Gaysorn Village with tasting menus and à la carte.
Bangkok · ฿฿฿฿
Restaurants
Nusara
An intimate tasting menu named after chef Ton's grandmother, beginning on a rooftop that looks straight onto Wat Pho.
Bangkok · ฿฿฿฿
Restaurants
Le Du
Chef Ton's seasonal Thai tasting menu in Silom, named Asia's best restaurant in 2023 and holder of a Michelin star.
Bangkok · ฿฿฿฿
Restaurants
Err Urban Rustic Thai
Bo.lan's casual sibling: cured sausages, charcoal grills and sharp salads made to go with a drink, now on Sukhumvit 32.
Bangkok · ฿฿฿
Restaurants
Supanniga Eating Room (Tha Tien)
A grandmother's recipes from Trat and Khon Kaen, served beside the Chao Phraya with Wat Arun across the water.
Bangkok · ฿฿฿
Street Food
Khao Gaeng Jek Pui
A decades-old Chinatown curry rice stall where diners perch on red stools with plates in hand, no tables in sight.
Bangkok · ฿
Restaurants
Krua Apsorn (Dinso Road)
A family-run old town dining room near Democracy Monument, loved for fluffy crab omelette and yellow curry with lotus shoots and prawns.
Bangkok · ฿฿
Street Food
Lek & Rut Seafood
A corner seafood stall at Yaowarat and Soi Texas, where grilled river prawns and steamed lime squid fuel Chinatown nights.
Bangkok · ฿฿
Street Food
Somsak Pu Ob
A Thonburi street cart with a Michelin Bib Gourmand for crab and prawns steamed in small pans of glass noodles.
Bangkok · ฿฿
Restaurants
Polo Fried Chicken (Gai Tod Jay Kee)
Soi Polo's family-run Isaan shop, famous for whole fried chicken buried under a heap of crisp fried garlic.
Bangkok · ฿฿
Street Food
Rung Rueang Pork Noodle
An open-air Sukhumvit 26 noodle shop with a Michelin Bib Gourmand for its pork noodles in clear or tom yum broth.
Bangkok · ฿
Street Food
Jok Prince
Bang Rak's favourite congee shop, known for silky, faintly smoky rice porridge with chunky pork balls and egg.
Bangkok · ฿
Restaurants
Wattana Panich
An Ekkamai shophouse where a giant pot of beef broth has been kept simmering and topped up for around half a century.
Bangkok · ฿
Street Food
Nai Mong Hoi Tod
A tiny Phlap Phla Chai Road shop frying crisp oyster and mussel omelettes over charcoal for more than three decades.
Bangkok · ฿฿
Street Food
Guay Jub Ouan Pochana
A Yaowarat Road cart serving fiercely peppery rolled-noodle soup with crispy pork belly for more than half a century.
Bangkok · ฿
Street Food
Nai Ek Roll Noodles
A Chinatown shophouse famous for peppery rolled-noodle soup and crackling pork belly, open from breakfast to midnight.
Bangkok · ฿
Street Food
Go-Ang Kaomunkai Pratunam
Pratunam's pink-shirted chicken rice shop, serving Hainanese-style khao man gai since 1960 to a constant queue.
Bangkok · ฿
Restaurants
Prachak Roasted Duck
A Charoen Krung institution roasting Cantonese-style duck since 1909, with plates of duck and pork rice at everyday prices.
Bangkok · ฿
Restaurants
Thipsamai Pad Thai
The Pratu Phi shophouse that has defined Bangkok pad thai since 1966, famous for noodles wrapped in a paper-thin egg.
Bangkok · ฿฿
Street Food
Jay Fai
The goggle-wearing wok master of Maha Chai Road, whose Michelin-starred crab omelette draws queues that can last hours.
Bangkok · ฿฿฿฿
Recipes from Central Thailand
Stir-fries
Phak Boong Fai Daeng (Stir-fried Morning Glory)
Morning glory flash-fried in a roaring hot wok with garlic, chillies, yellow bean sauce and oyster sauce: crunchy, savoury and done in a minute.
13 min · Easy
Braises & Stews
Moo Palo (Five-Spice Pork and Egg Stew)
A sweet, aromatic Thai-Chinese stew of pork belly and boiled eggs in a soy and five-spice broth, simmered until meltingly tender.
110 min · Easy
Braises & Stews
Khao Kha Moo (Braised Pork Leg on Rice)
Pork leg slow-braised in soy, palm sugar and five spice until it falls apart, sliced over rice with kale, pickles and chilli vinegar.
210 min · Medium
Desserts
Sangkaya Fak Thong (Pumpkin Coconut Custard)
A whole kabocha pumpkin filled with palm sugar and coconut custard, steamed until set and cut into striking orange and gold wedges.
90 min · Medium
Desserts
Kluay Buat Chi (Bananas in Coconut Milk)
Ripe bananas simmered in salted, sweetened coconut milk with pandan: a warm, simple Thai dessert ready in twenty minutes.
25 min · Easy
Desserts
Mango Sticky Rice (Khao Niao Mamuang)
Steamed glutinous rice soaked in sweet, salty coconut milk, served with ripe mango and a spoonful of coconut sauce.
45 min · Easy
Noodles & Rice
Khao Man Gai (Thai Hainanese Chicken Rice)
Silky poached chicken, rice cooked in the chicken stock and fat, and a punchy fermented soybean, ginger and chilli sauce.
95 min · Medium
Stir-fries
Pad Kra Pao Moo Sap (Holy Basil Pork)
Minced pork stir-fried with garlic, bird’s eye chilli and holy basil, served over rice with a crisp-edged fried egg.
20 min · Easy
Soups
Tom Kha Gai
A mellow coconut and galangal soup with chicken and mushrooms, sharp with lime and gently hot.
35 min · Easy
Soups
Tom Yum Goong
Hot, sour and fragrant prawn soup with lemongrass, galangal and makrut lime leaves, finished with lime juice and nam prik pao.
40 min · Easy
Curries
Green Curry with Chicken (Gaeng Keow Wan Gai)
A homemade green curry paste fried in cracked coconut cream, with chicken thigh, Thai aubergines and a fistful of Thai basil.
65 min · Medium
Noodles & Rice
Pad Thai with Prawns
The street-stall classic done properly: tamarind-sour, palm-sugar sweet, fish-sauce salty, with chewy rice noodles and a bit of char from a very hot wok.
40 min · Medium