How to Order Food in Thailand: Phrases, Spice and Rice Dishes

Ordering food in Thailand is easier than it looks. Most stalls and small restaurants sell a short list of dishes, the cooks are used to customers who speak little Thai, and pointing gets you a long way. A few words, though, change the experience. They let you control the heat, avoid what you cannot eat, and order the dishes locals order rather than whatever is on the tourist menu.

The romanisations below are approximate. Thai is a tonal language, and there is no single standard way of writing it in English letters, so you will see the same words spelled differently on signs and menus. Said with a smile and a little patience, they are almost always understood.

Polite particles: krap and ka

Thai speakers soften almost every sentence with a polite particle at the end. Men say krap (often written khrap), and women say ka (often written kha). They have no meaning of their own but make a request polite rather than blunt. Sawatdee krap is hello, khop khun ka is thank you, and adding the particle to any phrase in this guide is always a good idea.

Two more words help with requests. Ao means want, so ao an nee is I want this one. Khor means may I have, and is a little more polite: khor nam plao, may I have some water, or khor menu, may I have the menu.

Useful phrases

A handful of phrases cover most situations at a stall or restaurant:

• Mai phet: not spicy.
• Phet nit noi: a little spicy.
• Phet mak: very spicy.
• Mai sai...: do not add... For example, mai sai prik, no chilli.
• Mai sai namtan: no sugar. Wan noi: less sweet.
• Mai sai phong churot: no MSG.
• Phom pae... (men) or chan pae... (women): I am allergic to... Pae thua lisong is peanuts, pae kung is shrimp, and pae ahan thale is seafood.
• Tao rai: how much?
• Gin tee nee: eat here. Sai tung or glap baan: to take away.
• Aroy: delicious. Aroy mak: very delicious.
• Check bin or gep tang: the bill, please.

For a serious allergy, spoken Thai is not enough. Carry a card that explains it in Thai script, and show it before ordering. Peanuts, shrimp paste, fish sauce and dried shrimp appear in many dishes where they are not visible.

Pointing and ordering at stalls

At a stall with no menu, the food on display is the menu. Point at the ingredients, the trays of cooked dishes or what someone at the next table is eating, and hold up fingers for how many. Pointing at food with a finger or an open hand is perfectly normal. The numbers are worth learning too: nueng is one, song is two, sam is three.

Many stalls also sell a dish in two sizes. Tammada means regular, and phiset means special, a larger portion or one with extra meat. Asking for phiset costs a little more and is a common way to make a one-plate meal more filling.

Rice over curry and made-to-order dishes

There are two main ways to order a rice meal, and knowing which kind of shop you are in saves confusion.

At a rice and curry shop, called khao gaeng, the dishes are already cooked and laid out in trays. Ask for khao rad gaeng, rice topped with curry, and point to one, two or three dishes. A dish over rice in this way is called rad khao, poured over rice. You can say song yang, two kinds, or sam yang, three kinds, and the price rises with each extra dish.

At a made-to-order stall, called ahan tam sang, everything is cooked fresh in the wok. Here you name a dish and a meat: pad kra pao moo, stir-fried holy basil with pork, or khao pad gai, fried rice with chicken. The common meats are moo (pork), gai (chicken), neua (beef), kung (shrimp) and moo krob (crispy pork belly). The usual pattern is dish, then meat, then any changes, so pad kra pao gai mai phet is basil chicken, not spicy.

Kai dao: the egg on top

The most popular addition to almost any rice dish is kai dao, a fried egg, cooked in plenty of hot oil until the white is puffed and crisp at the edges. To add one, say sai kai dao or simply kai dao after your order. Thai fried eggs are often cooked until the yolk is set, so if you prefer it runny, ask for kai dao mai suk. If you would rather have an omelette, kai jiao is a fluffy, deep-fried Thai omelette, eaten on rice or alongside other dishes.

Ordering noodle soup

Noodle shops ask you to build your own bowl, usually in this order:

1. Choose the noodle, such as sen lek (thin rice noodles), sen yai (wide rice noodles), sen mee (vermicelli) or ba mee (egg noodles).
2. Choose soup or dry: nam for a bowl with broth, haeng for noodles with the broth on the side or left out.
3. Choose the topping, which might be pork, beef, fish balls or a mix. Sai tuk yang means put in everything.
4. Choose the size, tammada or phiset.

Some shops also offer different broths, such as a clear soup, a tom yum style broth with lime and chilli, or nam tok, a dark, rich broth thickened with blood. If you do not know the options, ask the cook what most people order and have that.

How spice levels really work

Spice in Thai food comes from three places, and only some of it can be changed. In stir-fries and salads, fresh chillies are added to each order, so mai phet or phet nit noi makes a real difference. At som tam stalls, the chillies are pounded into each serving, and many regulars ask for a specific number of chillies. In curries, the heat is in the paste, which was made in advance, so a curry cannot be made mild after the fact. Choose a gentler curry instead, such as massaman.

Cooks often ask gin phet dai mai, can you eat spicy food? Answering dai nit noi, a little, is a safe start. Many cooks will already go easy on chilli for foreign customers, so if you want proper heat, say so. The condiment rack on the table, with chilli flakes, chilli vinegar and fish sauce with sliced chillies, lets you add more as you eat. It is always easier to add heat than to take it away.

When the plate is clean, catch the cook's eye, say aroy mak krap or aroy mak ka, and ask for gep tang. It is the simplest way to be remembered next time.