Restaurants in Thailand
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A
Blue Elephant
The Blue Elephant got its start in Brussels more than two decades ago as an exotic outpost of royal Thai cuisine. After spreading to other cities, the owners boldly chose Bangkok, the cuisine’s birth mother, as its ninth location. Set in a stunning Sino-Portuguese colonial building with service fit for royalty, the restaurant also features an impressive cooking school.
reviewed
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B
Dada Kafe
Promoting itself as a healthy alternative, this eatery is very popular for breakfast. There are simple but comfy chairs and tables and a menu featuring freshly prepared food that has a good stab at sandwiches, pasta dishes and Thai mains. It specialises in juices and claims to have the liquid fruit answer to many ailments including acne, heart disease and high-blood pressure. True or not, they are delicious.
reviewed
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C
Café Primavera
If the coffee was just a tad better, this dark-wood and marble-topped table trattoria is just the kind of place we’d like to make our local cafe. The pizzas and homemade gelati offer more hope, and the friendly and efficient staff seal the deal.
reviewed
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D
Babylon Beach Club
Accessible by dirt road are the seaside, polished, whitewashed environs of the Babylon Beach Club. Under new Italian management, lunch is more casual 'beach fare' such as burgers and salads while dinner gets more lavish with mains such as prawn and asparagus risotto.
reviewed
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Chopper's Bar & Grill
So popular that it's become a local landmark, Chopper's is a two-storey hang-out where divers and travellers can widen their beer belly. There's live music, sports on the big-screen TVs, billiards and a cinema room. Friday nights are particularly popular; the drinks are 'two for one', and dishes are half-priced as well. Cheers for scored goals are interspersed with exaggerated chatter about creatures seen on the day's dive.
reviewed
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E
Love at First Bite
Tucked deep into a residential soi on the east bank of the river, this famous dessert shop is filled with middle-class, cake-confident Thais. Don't be surprised to see folks posing in front of the dessert display case for a souvenir photo. It's on the eastern side of the river about 500m north of the tourist office.
reviewed
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F
Da Stefano
An intimate, well-decorated, air-con place, Da Stefano focuses on fresh Italian cuisine, with one of the better wine lists in town.
reviewed
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G
MBK Food Court
The granddaddy of the genre, MBK’s expansive food court offers vendors selling dishes from virtually every corner of Thailand and beyond. Exchange cash for tickets and burn them at the tasty vegetarian food stall (stall C8) or the decent northeastern Thai food vendor (C22). Any tickets you don’t use can be refunded at another desk.
reviewed
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H
Anusan Night Market
Anusan is a buzzing food market best known for its Thai-Chinese seafood restaurants. Stalls surround a large cluster of tables where each 'restaurant' has a section allocated with its own waiters. Nearby are other stand-alone restaurants, some of which have their own prawn holding ponds acting as centrepieces for their menu speciality. The prices are higher than they ought to be but these are special-occasion splash-out restaurants for Thais. Try Lena Restaurant here, where a kilo of succulent grilled prawns will set you back 300B. Or have a stab at the fish in Thai spices and basil leaves.
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I
Le Banyan
Sukhumvit’s trendy diners demand change every six months: new menu, new décor, new chef, anything to chase away restaurant boredom. But for the monogamous eaters who value a stiff-lipped experience, this classy French restaurant proves its dinosaur wisdom with formal efficient service and traditional fare. A lush garden surrounds the charming house illuminated with candles and gleaming wine glasses. The house speciality is pressed duck, but the seared foie gras steals the show.
reviewed
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J
Taling Pling
Locals and tourists feel equally at home at this cosy Thai restaurant. Flip through the thick photo-album-like menu of largely seafood- and vegetable-based Thai dishes, including a handful made with the eponymous tart vegetable. Tasty pies and cakes and refreshing drinks round out the choices, but slow service means you should go elsewhere if you’re in a hurry.
reviewed
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K
AUM Vegetarian Food
Aiming square at the health-conscious traveller is AUM's vegetarian delights. There's organic coffee from Laos, seasonal juices and a range of all-veggie Thai-style stir-fries, soups, salads and rice dishes. The restaurant has an eating area with floor cushions and low tables. A more expensive, limited Japanese menu (that includes sweet chilli maki) is also available.
reviewed
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L
May & Mark
One of the first places in town to start serving Western food way back when, May & Mark still does it best thanks to recipes collected from helpful faràng (foreigners of European descent) over the years. Specialities range from excellent fresh bread to bangers and mash and cordon bleu meals.
reviewed
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M
Hot Bread
This cheery, foreigner-friendly restaurant does breakfasts and coffee, as well as a lengthy menu with heaps of veggie options. The attached noodle shop sells kâo soy and other noodle dishes until 5pm.
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Starbeam
One of Surin's many expat hang-outs, this one has a broad menu that includes pizza, breakfast burritos and an almost-good-as-home grilled cheese. It's north of the bus station.
reviewed
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N
Face
Housed in several interconnected Thai-style wooden structures, this handsome dining complex is essentially three very good restaurants in one. Lan Na Thai does flawless domestic with an emphasis on regional Thai dishes, Misaki handles the Japanese end of things and Hazara dabbles in exotic-sounding ‘North Indian frontier cuisine’.
reviewed
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O
China Inn
The organics movement meets Phuket cuisine at this turn-of-the-century shophouse. There's red curry with crab, a host of veggie options, homemade yoghurt and fruit smoothies with organic honey. There's also a gallery here with textiles, carvings and clothes from Myanmar and Laos.
reviewed
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P
Khun Churn
Thais love their buffets – it's the all-you-can-eat allure for these food-loving people. This place is certainly one of the best going around. There's a plethora of well-prepared vegetarian dishes and salads to choose from and basic fruit drinks are included. The shady outdoor setting will entice you to linger.
reviewed
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Fame Restaurant
A farang (foreigner) depot, Fame does a little bit of everything; cooks up Western breakfasts and Thai stir-fries, books ferry tickets and rents out day-use showers. It's open from before the crack of dawn until late at night.
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Baan Benjarong
This converted house serving central Thai dishes is where the locals come for a ‘nice’ Thai meal. Dishes like stewed, salted crabs in coconut milk, and spicy banana flower salad are delectable. Out the back are tables with views of the rice paddies.
reviewed
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Drunken Sailors
This hip, ultra-relaxed, octagonal pad is smothered with beanbags. The coffee drinks are top-notch and go well with interesting bites like the chicken green curry sandwich.
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Q
Taste From Heaven
This fine vegetarian restaurant makes delectable curries and fusion dishes incorporating Indian cuisine (such as veg samosas). It's also very friendly, ethically sound – with proceeds going towards the Elephant Nature Park – and has a cooling garden out the back for outside dining.
reviewed
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R
May Kaidee's
A longstanding restaurant that also houses a vegie Thai cooking school.
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S
Cabbages & Condoms
This longstanding garden restaurant is a safe place to gauge the Thai staples. It also stands for a safe cause: instead of after-meal mints, diners receive packaged condoms, and all proceeds go towards Population & Community Development Association (PDA), a sex education/AIDS prevention organisation.
reviewed
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Viking Steakhouse
Offering a fine line in pizzas, pastas and Nordic meat feasts, this is a longstanding favourite. The cosy, open-fronted interior features all sorts of welcome trimmings.
reviewed