Where to eat and drink in Bangkok
I lived in Bangkok before Cambodia and rated most places I went. These are the ones that held up, with what to order, and a few that are not food at all but belong on the list.
Last checked · 43 places
KhuaKling PakSod, Thong Lo
Eat · Thong Lo Soi 5, down a narrow side lane · Bangkok · ฿500–900 a head, about $15–28
Order: The khua kling with pork, the braised pork belly, and bai liang in egg to put the fire out
Southern Thai from Chumphon, the grandmother's recipes, with the owner and her mother still on the floor. I ordered a signature dish once and the staff read my face before I had said anything, took it back to the kitchen, turned the heat down without charge, and brought it back so I could taste it rather than just survive it. That is the review. Khua kling, the dry fried curry, is the dish the place is named for; the braised pork belly falls apart; the crab in yellow curry is the splurge. Open until eleven. It was a Bib Gourmand for a while and does not need to be.
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Cadence by Dan Bark
Eat · Phra Khanong, Soi Pridi Banomyong 25 · Bangkok · Dinner ฿4,900++, lunch ฿1,990++
Order: The tasting menu; the weekend lunch if you want the cooking without the full bill
Dan Bark is Korean American, came up through the Chicago tasting menu kitchens, and cooks a progressive American ten courses in a quiet room off Pridi 25. In the Michelin guide as a listed restaurant, not starred, which says more about the guide than the food. Closed Monday and Tuesday; lunch only at weekends and at less than half the dinner price, which is the way in. My one honest five star splurge on this list.
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Boon Tong Kee, Piman 49
Eat · Sukhumvit 49, in the Piman 49 complex near Samitivej · Bangkok · ฿150–350 a head
Order: Boiled chicken rice, thigh, and the three egg spinach
The Bangkok branch of the Singapore chicken rice house that started on Balestier Road in 1979. White chicken, the rice cooked in the stock, chili and dark soy on the side, a sweet and sour pork for the table, the three egg spinach which nobody orders the first time and everybody orders the second. Food five, which is the number I gave it, and the portions of soup are large enough to be a meal.
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K Terrace
Eat · Phra Khanong, inside the Kluaynamthai hospital grounds · Bangkok · ฿100–250 a head
Order: The Vietnamese noodle soup and the crispy shrimp pancake
A Vietnamese café on a hospital campus off Sukhumvit 44, which is not where anyone expects to eat well, and the food was five stars and the service three, which is what I wrote. Open nine to half past seven. If you are visiting someone at Kluaynamthai this is the answer; if you are not, it is still a better lunch than most of the soi.
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Praya Kitchen, Marriott Surawongse
Eat · Bang Rak, Surawong Road · Bangkok · Lunch buffet about ฿1,000++, dinner ฿1,900–2,300++
Order: The dry aged beef from the butchery counter, cooked to order, and the river prawns
The all day restaurant at the Marriott on Surawong, a seafood wall, a butchery, a Thai section built on old recipes, and Peking duck for no reason anyone has explained. I ate there for free, so it was always going to be good; that was the review I left and I am leaving it here for honesty. It is a good hotel buffet, which is a real category and this is a good one.
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Tasty Daily, K Village
Eat · Sukhumvit 26, K Village zone B · Bangkok · ฿100–300
Order: The toffee cake, a box of six, and a curry puff for the walk
A small less sugar bakery in K Village whose entire reputation is a toffee cake with a thick caramel top, which went round Line and Wongnai and deserved to. Tasty toffee cake, food five, was my review, three words of it. Open from around nine until seven. Buy the box, not the slice.
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Luk Kai Thong, EmQuartier
Eat · Phrom Phong, sixth floor of EmQuartier · Bangkok · ฿800–1,500 a head
Order: The blue crab stir fried with curry powder, and the fried rice with Chinese sausage and salted fish
Thai Chinese cooking that has been around more than thirty years, rooster crockery and benjarong, a Michelin plate a few years back. The crab with curry powder is the dish; the khao yok, pork braised with pickled vegetables over two days, is the one regulars order. Four stars: the food is better than the service and the prices are high for a mall, which every review says and is true.
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CHUNN
Eat · Ekkamai side of Sukhumvit 61 · Bangkok · ฿400–1,000 a head
Order: The signature beef rice bowl with the egg yolk, and a grilled beef tongue to share
A meat room with a speakeasy feel on Sukhumvit 61, Australian beef, a beef rice bowl with a yolk on top that is the whole reason it exists, truffle mash, a proper steak if you want one. Dogs welcome, which in Thong Lo is a selling point. Closed Mondays, split lunch and dinner service. Five stars from me and I would give them again.
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The Hansik Korean BBQ, Lat Krabang
Eat · Lat Krabang, near Suvarnabhumi airport · Bangkok · Buffet from ฿359, with seafood ฿499, with beef ฿629
Order: The pork and seafood buffet; let the staff grill, go back to the banchan bar twice
Out by the airport, a Korean barbecue where the staff grill at the table, the banchan bar is self service and deep, and the buffet with prawns and salmon is under five hundred baht. Five stars because it is exactly what it says and it is near the one place in Bangkok everyone passes through. Eleven to eleven every day. Not the Chaeng Watthana branch, which is a different place.
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Rintaro
Eat · Phra Khanong, Sky Walk building at W District · Bangkok · ฿100–150 a cone, about $3–5
Order: Two flavours in a waffle cone baked while you wait: camembert with nuts, and Okinawa black sugar
A Japanese gelateria from Chiba, the overseas branch of a shop that sweetens with honey instead of sugar and rotates through about three hundred flavours, twenty at a time. Two flavours are compulsory, which is the right rule. Camembert gelato sounds like a mistake and is the thing to order. Tiny, mostly takeaway, open until ten.
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D'ARK, EmQuartier
Eat · Phrom Phong, ground floor of EmQuartier · Bangkok · ฿400–1,200 a head
Order: Eggs benedict and an iced latte on their own roast
All day brunch and home roasted coffee on the ground floor of EmQuartier, with outdoor tables that face the walkway and live music some nights. Eggs benedict, avocado toast, nachos, the menu you expect, done well enough that I gave it four stars and kept going back when I was in the mall anyway. Open from eight, until ten or eleven depending on the night.
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Tonkotsu Kazan Ramen
Eat · Asok, Jasmine City on Sukhumvit 23 · Bangkok · ฿200–400 a head
Order: The Kazan ramen, the volcano bowl, and a plate of gyoza
The gimmick is a stone bowl heated to three hundred and fifty degrees with a cone over it; they pour the tonkotsu in at the table and it erupts. The gimmick is also good ramen, Hakata straight noodles, proper chashu, which is why it gets four stars and not two. Bangkok was this Japanese chain's first step outside Japan. Eleven to eleven every day.
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Shakariki 432 NEO, Thong Lo
Eat · Thong Lo, Soi Sukhumvit 55 · Bangkok · ฿200–1,200 a head
Order: Takoyaki, a round of yakitori, and a highball; then the wagyu curry noodles if the table is still hungry
An Osaka izakaya chain that claims four hundred dishes and is open every day of the year, this branch with karaoke rooms in Thai and Japanese out the back. Loud, cheap for what it is, and the takoyaki is Osaka takoyaki. Four stars: the place you go with six people who cannot agree. Book on weekends.
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Sushi Masato
Eat · Phrom Phong, Soi Sawasdee 1 off Sukhumvit 31 · Bangkok · Omakase ฿4,000, premium ฿6,000, plus service
Order: The standard omakase; the premium only if you want the crab, abalone and uni added
Masato Shimizu spent twenty odd years behind counters in Tokyo and New York before opening this room off Sukhumvit 31, and it has held one Michelin star since 2021, still the only sushi counter in Bangkok that has one. Fish comes in from Toyosu daily, the rice is seasoned properly and the pace is Edomae, not theatre, which is what I want from a counter. Open from half past five to ten. The waiting list runs to about two months, so book before you book the flight.
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Sushi Ichizu
Eat · Huai Khwang, behind Phetchaburi Road · Bangkok · Nigiri ฿4,000, mini omakase ฿6,000, omakase ฿8,000, plus service
Order: The mini omakase; the full one if someone else is paying
Riku Toda's counter out in Huai Khwang, which is not where you expect the city's most serious sushi to be and is part of why it works. Seasonal fish from Japan, a small room, no music, the chef talking you through each piece. One of two sushi rooms in the country that Tatler picked in its first Thailand list, and the four hands dinners it hosts with Tokyo chefs sell out in a day. Not cheap and not trying to be; I go for the mini omakase.
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Sushi Zo
Eat · Lumpini, Wireless Road, in Athenee Tower · Bangkok · Premium omakase ฿7,000 plus service, sixteen plus courses
Order: Whatever the chef serves; the lunch seating is the same food with daylight
The Bangkok outpost of the Los Angeles counter, ten seats in Athenee Tower on Wireless Road, about twenty courses from appetisers through nigiri to dessert. Booked two days ahead minimum, one lunch and two dinner seatings Monday to Saturday. Of the three counters on this list it is the most polished and the least personal, which some nights is exactly what I want.
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Sorn
Eat · Phrom Phong, Sukhumvit Soi 26 · Bangkok · Set menu ฿7,200 plus service
Order: The menu; there is only one, and wear a collar
Supaksorn Ice Jongsiri's southern Thai house off Sukhumvit 26, the first restaurant in Thailand to reach three Michelin stars, in the 2025 guide, and still one of only two. Southern food cooked with the heat left in, ingredients flown up from the south, a dining room that feels like a family home with staff. Bookings open on TableCheck at noon on the 25th of each month for the month after and are gone within minutes. Smart dress, no shorts. The southern food I measure the rest against.
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Sühring
Eat · Chong Nonsi, Soi Yen Akat 3 · Bangkok · Tasting menus ฿7,800 to ฿9,800 plus service
Order: The longer menu, and say yes to the Wildpastete when it comes
Twin brothers Mathias and Thomas Sühring cooking modern German food in a restored 1970s villa off Yen Akat, which sounds like a joke in Bangkok until you eat there, and I did. Promoted to three Michelin stars in the 2026 guide, the first German restaurant in Asia to get them, after years at two. Game pâté in pastry, spätzle with white truffle, a Black Forest cake that has nothing to do with the one you know. The wine list leans German and Austrian and the staff know it cold.
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Potong
Eat · Chinatown, Vanich 1 off Yaowarat · Bangkok · Tasting menu ฿6,300 plus service, about three hours
Order: The twenty course menu; the dry aged duck is the dish people come back for
Pam Soontornyanakij cooks Thai Chinese food over twenty courses inside the 120 year old Sino Portuguese shophouse that was her family's herbal medicine business. A Michelin star and the guide's opening of the year award straight away, the world's best female chef title in 2025, and the dining room still feels like a house rather than a trophy. Three hours, five floors, a rooftop bar at the end. I book weeks ahead; Chinatown tables this good do not sit empty.
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Jay Fai
Eat · Old City, Maha Chai Road near Samran Rat · Bangkok · Crab omelette ฿1,000 to ฿1,800 by size; cash
Order: The crab omelette, and the drunken noodles if there are two of you
Supinya Junsuta, in her late seventies, in ski goggles over two charcoal burners on Maha Chai Road, with a Michelin star since 2018 and a queue to match. The crab omelette is a fat roll of egg around a fist of crab and costs what a dinner costs elsewhere, which is the point of contention online and not the point of the dish. Open Wednesday to Sunday from nine until half past eight. Go at half past eight in the morning and the wait is half an hour; go at noon and it is three. I went early.
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Ms.Jigger
Drink · Langsuan, Soi Tonson, inside the Kimpton Maa-Lai · Bangkok · ฿340–420 a cocktail, about $11–13
Order: The Feast of Ferragosto, genever and egg white with shaved parmesan on top, and an affogato made at the table
The bar on the ground floor of the Kimpton Maa-Lai, built around an invented Siamese woman who travelled the world and came home to open a bar, which is a silly story told with a straight face and the drinks back it up. Hand carved ice, an Italian kitchen behind it, a cocktail with parmesan on it that should not work. Open from half past eleven until midnight every day now. Good vibes is what I wrote at the time and I stand by it.
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The Cassette Sky Bar, SO/ Bangkok
Drink · Sathon, 29th floor of SO/ Bangkok, facing Lumpini Park · Bangkok · Hotel rooftop prices, ฿350–500 a cocktail
Order: A beer and the angel hair pasta with chili, garlic and bacon, and stay for the band
The rooftop version of the old Ekkamai cassette bar, twenty nine floors up over Lumpini Park with an eighties and nineties covers band. I gave it four stars and that is about right: go for the view and the band, not the service, which other people complain about more than I did. The original Cassette Music Bar on Ekkamai 10, all pink with a wall of a thousand tapes, has closed, so this is what is left of it.
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Sometimes I Feel
Drink · Phrom Phong, Sukhumvit Soi 31 · Bangkok · ฿100–160, about $3–5
Order: The Lil Wayne, a cold brew with cocoa and flowers, or the peanut butter caramel coffee
A specialty coffee room hidden inside a building on Soi 31, run by owners who will talk beans and roasting with you if you give them an opening. The peanut butter caramel coffee is the one I remember; small, and worth it. Quiet enough to work, closed Mondays, half past eight to half past five the rest of the week. Not a bar, despite the name.
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Black Cabin Bar
Drink · Phra Khanong, Soi Farmwattana off Rama IV; it started on Thong Lo 16 · Bangkok · ฿300–400 a cocktail
Order: Whatever is on the Past, Present, Future menu, and the ant eggs if they have them
A speakeasy you enter through a wall of steel lockers, red and black inside, with a menu that takes the classics and bends them. Live sets by night of the week: blues on Tuesday, folk Thursday, electronic Friday, soul Saturday, jazz Sunday. It has moved since I went, from Thong Lo to Soi Farmwattana, so check the address before you get in the taxi. Closed Mondays, book.
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Margarita Storm
Drink · Nana, corner of Sukhumvit Soi 13 · Bangkok · ฿200–1,000, happy hour pints ฿99
Order: A Don Julio margarita and the carne asada; chicken tortilla soup if it is late
Tex-Mex on the corner of Soi 13, open twenty four hours, a free pool table upstairs and a hidden margarita bar above that since late 2024. It is exactly what it looks like and it does it properly. The kind of place that is useful at three in the afternoon and at three in the morning for different reasons.
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SINGLE LANE Specialty Coffee
Drink · Phra Khanong, Sukhumvit Soi 69 · Bangkok · ฿100–180 a drink
Order: A flat white, then a pour over on whatever imported bean is on the shelf that week
A tiny Australian-minded coffee bar near BTS Phra Khanong with a rotating shelf of beans from roasters like Reuben Hills and Onyx, a grilled cheese toastie, and a handful of seats. Quiet place to work with a wide choice of beans and not overly pricey, which is what I wrote four years ago and is still the review. Weekdays from half past seven, weekends from half past eight.
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MiVana Organic Forest Coffee
Drink · Srinakarin Soi 57, near Paradise Park · Bangkok · ฿110–200 a drink
Order: The Thai-style iced coffee, and sit upstairs
A two storey glasshouse buried in trees off Srinakarin, with beans from MiVana's own organic forest farm in Chiang Rai, run as a social enterprise. No free wifi on purpose, which tells you the kind of place it is. Out of the way for most people and worth the drive if you are that side of the city. Open half past seven to half past six every day.
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Artis Coffee
Drink · Asoke, Sukhumvit Soi 18 · Bangkok · ฿100–200 a drink
Order: The Black Orange, coffee with orange, or a dirty coffee and a butter croissant
Roasts its own single origins, much of it from the Golden Triangle, and rests the beans three days before serving. Decent coffee in a small place by the main road, which was my four star review and is still fair. Open seven to eight every day, indoor and outdoor seats, useful if you are staying around Asoke.
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Y'EST WORKS Coffee Bar
Drink · Asoke, Sukhumvit Soi 23 · Bangkok · ฿100–200
Order: A pour over on Chiang Mai beans where you choose the roast, or the espresso pudding
A Japanese style slow bar where you pick the bean, the roast level and the extraction, in an industrial room that is easy to open a laptop in. Orange espresso, hojicha latte, scones. Four stars from me: good, careful, a little serious. Open eight to five every day.
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Library Café, Pridi 26
Drink · Phra Khanong, Soi Pridi Banomyong 26 · Bangkok · ฿100–200
Order: The pandan waffle made with fresh pandan juice, and a caramel macchiato
Two floors of what feels like a friend's living room, with outlets at every table and a quiet that makes it a place to read or work rather than talk. The pandan waffle is the thing, made with real pandan juice rather than flavouring. Eight to six every day, on the Pridi side of Phra Khanong where the good small cafés hide.
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Cazz Hostel & Coffee Shop
Drink · Phra Khanong, Sukhumvit Road, ten minutes from the BTS · Bangkok · ฿60–120 a drink, no entry fee
Order: An iced americano at sixty baht and a brownie, and let the cats decide the rest
A cat café on the ground floor of a hostel on Sukhumvit Road, ten or so resident cats, fast wifi, a classical guitar you can borrow. Friendly cats, friendly staff, reasonable price, which is the whole review I left and there is not much to add. Nobody charges you to sit with the cats.
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After TE Time
Drink · Thong Lo 25, upstairs from the TE Time and Space teahouse · Bangkok · ฿250–280 a cocktail, about $8
Order: The Chamomile Gin Fizz, then whatever Por is making with tea that week
A tea cocktail bar above a teahouse, run by Por, who is the reason to go: every drink built on a blend from downstairs, gin and rose tea, rum and rosemary smoke, an oolong gin toddy when it is raining. I had a chamomile fizz and a bourbon something and did not want to leave. Quiet, which people call the bar for introverts. Only Thursday to Saturday evenings, so plan it.
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TUBA
Drink · Ekkamai Soi 21 · Bangkok · ฿800–900 a head for a night, about $25
Order: A two for one happy hour cocktail before eight, a pizza, and a chair you might end up buying
A vintage furniture showroom that is also a bar and restaurant: everything you sit on is for sale and the stock changes, so the room never looks the same twice. Half the menu is Thai, half is Western, the pizza and the carbonara are the safe orders, happy hour is two for one until eight, and there is a pub side with live music that runs until about two. Check the bill; recent reviews say it pads. Still five stars for the room.
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THAY Ekkamai
Drink · Ekkamai, Sukhumvit 63 between Soi 12 and 14 · Bangkok · ฿500–1,000 a night
Order: The beer buffet if you are staying, and the fries
Two open air floors of Thai pop covers from the two thousands, a young crowd, a queue from six in the evening and an ID check at the door. Great atmosphere, which was my whole review and is still the point. Not for conversation. For a Thai Friday night with a hundred and fifty people who all know the words.
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Mi Onsen & Spa
Else · Asok, Soi Sukhumvit 16, five minutes from the BTS · Bangkok · ฿450 for the day, about ฿900 more for a Thai massage
Order: The full day sauna pass, then the Korean body scrub
A Korean run jjimjilbang over three floors off Soi 16, said to be the largest in Bangkok, opened in 2023. Clean and predictable, which is exactly what you want from an onsen; a full day in the sauna was four hundred and fifty baht when I went and a Thai massage on top about nine hundred, and it was worth it for the quality of the service. Open ten until eleven at night.
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Yunomori Onsen & Spa
Else · Phrom Phong, Sukhumvit 26 · Bangkok · About ฿600 entry, packages with massage ฿1,300 up
Order: Entry plus the Thai massage; try the carbonated soda bath and the sixteen degree cold plunge
Thailand's first Japanese style onsen, open since 2012, seven pools a side at forty degrees and a bit, with the water trucked in weekly from a hot spring in Kanchanaburi. The soda bath and the cold plunge are the pair to alternate. Four stars from me against Mi Onsen's five: older, busier, still good. Open ten to midnight.
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Best Tailor 24
Else · Phrom Phong, Sukhumvit Soi 24 · Bangkok · Under the usual Bangkok quotes for the same cloth
Order: A suit and two shirts, with the fabric decided on the first visit
A tailor on Soi 24 that answers WhatsApp late, turns a suit around in a day or two when it has to, and gets the details right, which was my review at the time and the reason I still send people there. Time Out lists it for the same reasons. Open nine to nine every day.
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Jidapa Thai Massage
Else · Phra Khanong, Sukhumvit Road between Soi 50 and 52 · Bangkok · Neighbourhood rates, a few hundred baht an hour
Order: An hour of Thai massage, foot massage if you have been walking
A small local massage shop on the main road near BTS Phra Khanong, no website, no reviews to speak of, five stars from me because it was the one I went back to when I lived down the road. That is the whole qualification and it is enough.
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The Bangna Golf Driving Range
Else · Bang Na Tai, eastern Bangkok · Bangkok · A bucket of balls for the price of a coffee
Order: A bucket at dusk when the bays empty out
Eighty bays in the suburbs on the Bang Na side, open seven in the morning to ten at night, more relaxed than anything inside the city. Five stars from me, three likes from strangers, which for a driving range is a crowd. Free parking.
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The Bangkok Club
Club · Sathorn, top four floors of Sathorn City Tower · Bangkok · Reciprocal guest; members and guests only
Order: A drink at the bar on the 30th floor at dusk, then dinner in the grill
Founded in 1995 on the 28th to 31st floors of Sathorn City Tower, the biggest city club in Thailand by floor space and by members. Dining rooms, a bar with the whole skyline, a gym and a spa, and the usual reciprocal arrangements, which is how I come in. Membership is by invitation. Of the three city clubs on this list it is the one I bring a visiting business contact to.
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The British Club
Club · Silom, Soi 18 off Surawong · Bangkok · Reciprocal guest; members and guests only
Order: Lunch on the verandah, or the Friday night bar if you want to meet people
Founded in 1903 after a group of British members walked out of the United Club, on this site off Surawong since 1910, and still on 1.4 hectares of grass and pool in the middle of Silom, which is the miracle of it. Tennis, squash, cricket nets, two pools, a bar and a dining room. The membership is mostly British, Australian, Canadian and Kiwi by name but runs to 48 nationalities, and I come in on the reciprocal; the club is far less stiff than the name suggests.
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Pacific City Club
Club · Nana, top three floors of Two Pacific Place, Sukhumvit · Bangkok · Reciprocal guest; members and guests only
Order: The Chinese restaurant for lunch; the bar and library later
Opened in February 1995 on the 28th to 30th floors of Two Pacific Place, founded by a board of Thai business figures, and for thirty years the city club people mean when they say the Pacific City Club. Chinese and Western dining rooms, private rooms, a bar, a library, meeting rooms, a gym, spa and pilates. Invitation and committee approval only; I come in as a reciprocal guest. Quieter and more Thai than the Bangkok Club, which is its charm.
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Royal Varuna Yacht Club, Pattaya
On the road · Pratumnak Hill, between Pattaya and Jomtien · Bangkok · Club rates; go as a member's guest
Order: A Laser or a Hobie off the beach, then the clubhouse bar
Not Bangkok. The sailing club on Pratumnak between Pattaya and Jomtien, founded in 1957 off a newspaper advertisement and under royal patronage since 1965, with a private beach, dinghies to rent and a clubhouse bar. I wrote the sailing piece on this site about learning to lose arguments with wind here. A must for anyone who wants the best of yachting culture in Thailand, which is what I said then and still think.
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