Bangkok has the best range of restaurants in Thailand (and probably in Southeast Asia), with food from all over the world and all types of prices.

Bangkok is a food heaven; a sensational culinary journey and taste experience that is unrivalled and guaranteed to delight your taste buds. Apart from renowned Thai cuisine, the smorgasbord includes every other famous type of cuisine found in the world.

Eating options are limitless, night or day. Great value-for-money food courts, riverside eateries, Thai-style dining in antique teak houses, dinner cruises, trendy restaurants and food markets are only some of the options available. And if you're in the mood for fast food, you can count on finding any of the big brand chains in Bangkok too.

Thai food

Thai Cuisine is well-known for being hot and spicy and for its balance of five fundamental flavors in each dish or the overall meal - hot (spicy), sour, sweet, salty, and bitter.

Although popularly considered as a single cuisine, Thai food would be more accurately described as four regional cuisines corresponding to the four main regions of the country: Northern, Northeastern (or Isan), Central, and Southern, each cuisine sharing similar foods or derived from those of neighboring countries.

Southern curries, for example, tend to contain coconut milk and fresh turmeric, while northeastern dishes often include lime juice.

The cuisine of Northeastern (or Isan) Thailand is heavily influenced by Laos.

Many popular dishes eaten in Thailand were originally Chinese dishes which were introduced to Thailand mainly by Teochew people who make up the majority of the Thai Chinese.

Such dishes include jok, kway teow rad na, khao kha moo (also known as moo pa-loh) and khao mun gai.

Thai food is known for its enthusiastic use of fresh (rather than dried) herbs and spices as well as fish sauce. Thai food is popular in many Western countries.

Pad Thai                                                Paenang chiken                                            Fish cake

Street Food & Food Courts in Mall

While there are many high end and high quality restaurants and food experiences to search for on this planet, perhaps the most reliable quality food experience in the world is street food. Of course there are exceptions, and some countries are better than others, but in general I believe this. Street food is most of the world's answer to fast food and there are several reasons why it's often your best bet for something great to eat. Mostly it's because quality is about focus and street food vendors have no choice but to focus. The space limitations alone require it. They also help force the street food vendor to restock with fresh ingredients each day. And in much of Asia the street food is a local tradition and authentic. It doesn't get much better than that.

After that type of introduction you'd think that I'd have a seriously detailed survey of Bangkok street food. You'd be wrong. But only because I suck. I think it would have taken me weeks to really get even a shallow but semi-complete view of the street food experience. Instead you'll get a super basic (and incomplete) intro as well as a decent number of pictures of what I was able to find in my few days in Bangkok.

In Bangkok they're also a lot of 'Food Courts' in mall, almost in every mall (MBK, Emprium, Siam Paragon, Siam Center, Central World...). Food Courts are the perfect places to sample the wide range of Thai, Asian and international cuisine available in Bangkok, in the sanctuary of modern, air-conditioned malls.

They are places where two of the city's most popular pastimes, eating and shopping, seamlessly merge - with great success, and to the delight of millions of hungry shoppers.

Street Food                                                Street Food                                               Food Court

Bangkok Cooking Classes

If you've always wanted to know how to capture that authentic Thai taste, take a day or two to find out. Thai cooking lessons are now offered throughout the city in most major hotels and by local cooking schools.

Get to know why certain  ingredients are essential, how to balance those flavors and what a 'tom yum goong' (hot and sour shrimp soup) should really taste like.

Basic preparations, types of ingredients and in some, a visit to the local market are included.

Thai cooking courses here

Restaurant's review