Thai food

We both love Thai food, always have done. As with anything it’s so hard to know whether what you get at home is anything like the genuine article. One of the main draws of visiting Thailand was to try Thai food in Thailand – it didn’t disappoint!

Our trip took in all aspects of Thai food (as well as some other bits of Thai culture…but this is just about the food!). From street food prepared on a cart to 2 Michelin star fine dining – this is our Thai food journey.

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Thai food in Bangkok

We started our Thai adventure in Bangkok. On our first night we took the Skytrain to a restaurant called R-Haan. R-Haan has 2 Michelin stars and was one of 2 Thai restaurants in Bangkok with this recognition. There is actually now a third but this was added to the guide after we’d planned our trip. In Bangkok there are a few other ‘two star’ restaurants but these serve European food. We didn’t fly halfway across the world to eat what we could at home! I’ve long wanted to try fine dining abroad having enjoyed it in England so this seemed the perfect opportunity.

We chose to eat at R-Haan due to its menu, overall ethos and a seemingly welcoming, unpretentious manner. It proved to be a really good choice! From when we arrived, entered the lounge and were handed cold towels (Bangkok was hot!) alongside our cocktails, we were treated like royalty. Every member of staff that we interacted with was helpful, friendly and polite as well as knowledgeable. The explanations of the dishes and wines were great, and insightful. Everyone spoke perfect English (which is lucky as we’d only learnt ‘hello’ and ‘thank you’ in Thai).

The food itself was incredible – each dish was beautifully presented and tasted amazing. At the start we were asked how much spice we wanted and all of the dishes were modified to reflect this. It was nice to have the option for a bit of variation. The food all worked perfectly with the wine pairing, as well as with the cocktails we started and finished with. We were served a lot of food but it didn’t feel as intimidating to eat as it could have done. The type of food and the unrushed service spread it out perfectly for us to be able to savour every course.

The first thing we were served was a box containing an edible ‘sand’ map of Thailand and some snacks. This was a food tour of the country reflecting the different styles from across Thailand. It was a great start to the meal. The flavours used to represent the areas were totally different to each other. In the space of one dish we ‘visited’ the north, south, east, northeast and central region of Thailand.

Five further starters followed, each one was exquisitely presented and full of flavour. The corresponding wine pairing complimented the dish perfectly each time. A sorbet followed to clear the palette ready for the main course.

There were six main course items on the menu and the idea was that you chose 3 each – this was designed perfectly for us to experience everything between the two of us. We had so much food on the table but there was no rush and we enjoyed every last bit. Everything was delicious but the Tom Yum soup and Waygu beef massaman deserve a special mention as they were so good! Unusually it was just one wine for the mains, a really nice Beaujolaise that worked with both meat and fish.

The two desserts were as colourful and beautifully presented as the mains. We had a Sauternes with one and sherry with the other – both worked superbly,

Last, but not least, we had four petit fours each along with coffee. These were little explosions of flavour too – amazing!

I’m really glad we ate at R-Haan. The whole experience was amazing from start to finish. Everything there worked well – the food was great, the wine pairings complimented the food, the staff were excellent and it was all set inside a stunning, contemporary building. We left feeling just the right level of full, and that we’d had just the right amount of alcohol too. It was great to ‘tour’ Thailand from a very comfortable setting and we were both excited to find out what the food would be like as we travelled around for real!

Day 2 – Thai food in/around Bangkok

Breakfast at the hotel for me was the Signature Rose Residence Rice Soup, served in a teapot. It was so tasty and a great way to start the day. The soup was exceptionally hot (temperature wise) though so not the one for if you’re in a rush to get out and explore!

Today we had a guided tour lead by ‘Phil’, he was a lovely chap. Yesterday he had picked us up from the airport and spent the journey to the hotel explaining Thailand, a tiny bit of the language and some of the customs. During the journey into Bangkok he persuaded us to use the Skytrain instead of a taxi to get to R-Haan, and even wrote out step by step directions. He also explained that his English name was Phil as when he was younger he used to always be deep in thought. Philosophical became Phil and the name stuck.

We stopped for lunch at Phak Wan, Ayutthaya District. Phil was really excited to take us to this Michelin guide restaurant, and it was easy to see why! There was a relaxed atmosphere which was great and we were able to chat to Phil while enjoying our food. The fresh spring rolls and crispy spring rolls were amazing.

This evening we ate at Harmonique, Bangkok. It was recommended, and booked for us, by Phil. All bookings need to be done over the phone. This is explained in their intro on Facebook ‘Harmonique is a small family restaurant opened by 3 sisters who wanted to share their love of home cooked traditional food… The owners are in their 70s and not up to date with technology.’ I was sold reading this and the food was as good as anticipated. It was a busy little restaurant so I’m glad we had booked. There was little chance of getting a table otherwise. The food was really good and the accompanying sauces were full of flavour. The satay sauce with the chicken skewers was exceptional.

Day 3 – railway market and creative food

This morning we sampled some street food at the railway market at Mae Klong. Starting with a Thai coffee we then had a tray of pomelo, a lot of coconut pancakes and some sausages. We shared these with Phil and our driver. Pomelo is a Southeast Asian citrus fruit, similar to a grapefruit. They are brilliantly refreshing and seemed to be available for sale everywhere.

Next up was the floating market. We didn’t have any food here but we did have a couple of bottles of Chang on the boat. Once back on dry land we each had a slushy type drink. Gill had watermelon and I had lemon, these were perfect to cool down on a hot day as well as tasty and full of real fruit.

Back in Bangkok for the afternoon it was too hot to be hungry, then too late to eat. We had some snacks in the room (and a great big cake) so we ate enough to get us through to dinner.

We ate at Sra Bua by Kiin Kiin this evening. They had one Michelin star when we booked but unfortunately lost it in the December 2023 revisions. Based in the Kempinski hotel, it is strikingly styled for a stunning contemporary look, coupled with some classic features. Entering the restaurant through a set of double doors that must be 5m tall makes you feel that you are in a special place. The pond of lotus flowers adds to the opulent feel as you walk to your table from the lounge.

The food was as striking as the décor. We ate a flamboyant ‘16’ course dinner, presented with extravagant show cooking to complete the experience. I’m not 100% sure where the advertised 16 came from for the number of courses as I’m certain there were 17 plus petit fours. It’s a lot better to get more than less I suppose!

We started with cocktails (and a double espresso each) in the lounge area. The cocktail menu was on an iPad (rather than a menu we could take away and refer to later) so I’m not sure what it was called. We both had the same, it had lemongrass, chilli and kaffir lime leaf so was sweet and spicy. We were served ‘street food’ with our cocktails, initially in the lounge, then moving into the dining area.

The menu was designed to be 8 (9!) courses of ‘street food’, 5 courses of starters, a main and two desserts. The ‘street food’ was brilliantly presented and ridiculously tasty. One of the courses, miang kham, was prepared in front of us on a trolley. Miang kham is a mix of various ingredients wrapped and eaten in a wild pepper leaf and was a lovely. Having the food prepared in front of us set the tone for the rest of the meal!

We went in different ways with the wine pairing, ordering one of the standard pairings and one Signature Beverage Pairing. Consisting of 7 glasses of drink, this went from rice whiskey to craft beer, to Thai rum, to Limoncello with a few stops in between. It was unusual to try this with a meal, but it certainly worked. The craft beers (one guava flavour, and the other mango and melon) were the stars of the pairing. They were arguably better with their respective dishes than the wine.

The first starter that we were served was a duck consommé which was heated through on the table using a burner. Once heated and dished up we had to make our own noodles which involved squeezing them out of a syringe. They turned from a liquid into noodles on contact with the consommé. Alongside this we were served duck sausages and Laab duck. This was a strong start to the meal itself.

The courses kept on coming, each equally beautifully presented. There was smoke, fresh truffle, green curry ice cream and more…and these were just the starters!! One was lobster with a Tom Yum lobster bisque. It really was a great ‘fusion’ menu. Anything that could be prepared at the table was, and any ingredients that could be were brought out with the food to explain each dish. It was an interesting way of presenting a meal and the experience was made all the better because of it.

The main course was a massaman curry, served with perfectly cooked Australian Black Angus Beef, onions and rice. This was delicious, and light enough to follow the large variety of starters.

The first dessert was a pomelo sorbet with a lime foam. This was a brilliant palette cleanser and set us up perfectly for what came next. Flambé pineapple with coconut and pineapple ice cream…the effort level for this was set to 100! When I say about effort, this wasn’t ours – it was all from our waiter. First he made the ice cream…he had a trolley complete with everything he needed, including liquid nitrogen. Once the ice cream was made next to our table it was time for the flambé. This was of course done on the table right in front of us!

Coffee and petit fours rounded off the meal. You can probably guess that they weren’t just popped on a plate! The petit fours were perhaps the most imaginative part of the meal. Each disguised as other objects, the aim of the game was to identify them, then enjoy them. We had edible ‘cigarettes’ in an ashtray, a sweet treat disguised as a chilli and another as a pearl. Perhaps my favourite was the petit four disguised as a block of Lego, surrounded by real Lego!

This was a great experience, and one that I’d definitely recommend. The food was good, but the presentation, and the show itself was the star of the show. Would I go back? Probably not…but I’d definitely recommend it if time and budget* allowed while in Bangkok. It might not have been traditional or 100% authentic but it didn’t pretend to be, and was just really good fun.

* Regarding budget I should mention that Sra Bua by Kiin Kiin was really expensive – more expensive than R-Haan. It’s not enough to make me not think it was worthwhile, but it definitely felt like we got more value for money at R-Haan. I don’t usually get too tied up with the price of meals like this as they are all about the experience and don’t happen very often but do feel like the mismatch in pricing between here and R-Haan should be mentioned.

After leaving the Kempinski we ended up on a rooftop bar drinking champagne and eating oysters. Walking to get to a main road to try and find a tuk tuk we saw a lit up skyscraper, with laser lights. I did a bit of Googling and found out it was Cru Champagne Bar. This is one of Bangkok’s highest rooftop bars and is on the 55^th floor. We made our way towards the light, then up 3 separate lifts to the rooftop. It was a really cool place, probably much too cool for us but we were there by then. We ordered a bottle of champagne – not realising that there was a promotion on where you got nibbles, including oysters with an eligible purchase.

We enjoyed the views, and the cooling breeze from being up high, before getting a taxi back to the hotel.

Day 4

We at breakfast at the hotel – I had Surawongsa’s Breakfast. This was minced chicken with basil, topped with crispy Thai style fried egg. It was another delicious breakfast!

Day 4 continued – Thai food in Chiang Mai

We flew to Chiang Mai and arrived at the tail end of the flower festival. The town was buzzing. We tried loads of street food including chicken wings, cheese balls(!), meat skewers, sausages and more. All of it was delicious, and washed down with fresh fruit juice from another stall.

We stopped at a really cool roadside bar for a beer before heading to the night walking market – another excuse to enjoy more street food.

Day 5 – off to the elephant camp

I tried a Thai pork and rice noodle broth at breakfast at the hotel. It was a tasty and light way to start the day. This was cooked fresh, and I was again able to ask for more/less of each part during the prep process to make it suit my taste.

After breakfast we set off for the elephant camp. On the whole this was not noteworthy in terms of food but being up close and personal with the elephants was remarkable all the same. A post of our time at the elephant camp may well follow. We (as a group) did do a bit of Thai cooking, including scraping out the flesh of a coconut to make our own coconut milk for a recipe. As the sun set we enjoyed cocktails and snacks around the pool. In true Thai fashion even the buffet dinner was really nice food, as was breakfast the next day.

It’s really unusual but Gill didn’t get a picture of the cocktail list. I’m sure we completed it though – as you can see above we enjoyed a great selection of drinks!

Day 6 – back to Chiang Mai

We arrived back in Chiang Mai late afternoon so we did a bit of research on where to eat. After some debate we ended up deciding on The House by Ginger – a great choice (even if we say so ourselves). The House by Ginger opened in 2004 and are in the Michelin guide. They pride themselves on authentic food, and utilising recipes that may otherwise be forgotten or lost.

We emailed to book a table but were told there was nothing available but if we wanted we could pop down and see if any gaps appeared. We did this, and ‘had’ to sit outside with a beer and plate of prawn crackers until a table came available, which it did at almost exactly the same time as we attempted to book for.

The food was amazing – we had a sharing platter as a starter. This included prawn spring rolls, hot and sour minced chicken in crispy rice paper parcels and meang kham (the leaf wrapped parcels that we tried at Sra Bua by Kiin Kiin (just spelt differently in a different area). Also on the sharing platter was ma hor (marinated chicken, prawn and peanuts on pineapple) and pak bung grob (tempura coated morning glory). The ma hor was as tasty as it sounded – a brilliant combination and full of flavour.

We shared mains too – unlucky Gill! The Chiang Mai platter and some Rod Fai pork belly fried rice. The platter included curry, chilli relish, crab paste and mini pork crackling. There was also some delicious Chiang Mai spicy sausage and ‘northern style larb’ Larb is my perfect idea of a salad, it’s more meat than veg – minced meat flavoured with fish sauce, lime, chilli and fresh herbs. Toasted sticky rice is added to the meat mix to give the dish a bit of texture…so tasty! The fried rice was huge, it came with loads of pork belly, crispy bacon and a stack of chillis that could be added to taste.

I’m really glad we took the chance to visit The House by Ginger. The food was great, and so were the cocktails. We tried our best but didn’t quite manage to sample all of the ‘Local Flavours’ cocktails on offer. The service was brilliant too, relaxed but attentive.

Thai food in Krabi, day 7 onwards

We flew down to Krabi on day 7 and it was early evening by the time we arrived at our hotel. We stayed at Dusit Thani Krabi Beach Resort and popped out to local restaurants on the main Klong Mung road for dinner most nights. The food here was mainly tasty and the flavours were different to what we had tried in Bangkok and Chiang Mai. The service did seem to be very different in Krabi – less friendly, maybe more worn out by serving tourists?

The days were spent mainly filled with trips. Phi Phi Islands, snorkelling and island hopping sunset tour, night-time snorkelling the in bioluminescent sea, scuba diving, visiting the Emerald Pools and loads more. Whenever food was included in the trip it was great…it’s funny how nice a lunch on a beach or a boat can taste when it’s been prepared well.

During our scuba diving trip on day 10, one of the guides recommended a place to eat in Ao Nang so that evening we hopped in a taxi to try and find it. On the way we got distracted by the Ao Nang night market and ended up there instead.

The night market was big, had loads of street food options and, perhaps most importantly, a cocktail stall! We enjoyed a couple of cocktails and then went to find some food. First up were insects – deep fried scorpion, grasshoppers and some grub type things. I’m glad we tried them but definitely wont rush to again! More normal food followed – spring rolls, satay skewers etc until we were full.

After the night market we bought tickets for the nights’ fighting at the Ao Nang Muay Thai arena. This was a fab night out and the fights were accompanied by beer and a tray of mango. The mango was served with chilli sugar to sprinkle – so tasty!

food at the hotel in Krabi

We did eat at the Italian restaurant at the hotel one night – nice food, but not really in keeping with this Thai food post!! Eating at the hotel was two-fold, it meant Gill could dress up. It also meant we could be around for a few beers for the football at the onsite sports bar that evening (Arsenal smashed West Ham if you’re wondering!).

The hotel had a soup station at breakfast time. I found this a great way to start the day as I had in Bangkok and Chiang Mai. Sprinkling a bit of brown sugar and some chilli on it made the flavour different every time.

On our last day we did a Thai cooking lesson at the hotel. This was great fun and the amount of effort put in by the chef made it extremely memorable. The kitchen was beautifully laid out for us and had distant sea views over the herb garden that was used to provide some of the ingredients.

We made, and enjoyed eating, 4 courses under chef’s careful instruction. Gill made soup for starter, then I made beef massaman. Next up was a chicken red curry made by Gill, then the meal was rounded off with sweet sticky rice and mango for desert . All the recipes were from a cookbook; Simple Thai Food (Classic Recipes from the Thai Home Kitchen) by Leela Punyaratabandhu and we got a copy of this to keep. I’m really pleased that we did this session. It was great to be alongside a pro in the kitchen and receive the tips and tricks that we did. Our food tasted insanely good – even if I say so myself. I’m really looking forward to taking these lessons into cooking at home!

Thailand was amazing for so many reasons. The Thai food and drink was a big part of why it was such a good trip. I love the idea of eating as many authentic things as possible when away, and we definitely did that! It was great to try such a wide variety of Thai food in a two-week period and immerse ourselves in the country through it. Coming home with a cookbook, and some of the required skills, to enable us to carry on experiencing that at home was brilliant too.

There is so much more of Thailand to discover, and so much more Thai food to eat. Hopefully one day we’ll go back and explore further.