14 Must Eat Thai Foods – Bangkok Edition

There is never enough good things I can say about the city of Bangkok, and that rings especially true when it comes to the food. So I am giving you 14 must eat Thai foods on your visit to Bangkok. If you have followed this blog or my YouTube channel at all, you know that Thai food is my favourite cuisine in the world. And Pad Kra Pau is without question my favourite Thai dish. I have already written where to find the best one in the city which you can read here: Thai Food To Die For

So today I will be focusing on 14 Thai dishes not named Pad Kra Pau. These dishes will be scattered around the city with a focus on a few areas in particular. And I promise to do my best to not ramble on endlessly. Now let’s dive in.

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14 Must Eat Thai Foods – Here Hai

This small spot located in Ekkamai has 3 of my 14 must eat Thai foods. Here Hai holds a Bib Gourmand designation from Michelin guide and most of the Michelin recommended starred or Bib Gourmand establishments I have visited, I normally leave underwhelmed. That is not the case with Here Hai. This place completely blew my mind

Here Hai specializes in crab dishes and holy mother of God do they do it right. Em and I visited Here Hai right at their opening time, arriving around 9:45. They open at 10:00 and when we arrived there was a line down the street with people trying to get in. We waited about an hour to get a table and by this point I was annoyed thinking, oh brother another mediocre Michelin restaurant with a huge wait.

You would think an established Michelin recommended restaurant would expand their current location or perhaps even open more locations. Nope, they are committed to their craft and want to maintain quality control over everything. So one location is all you will find and you will have to deal with the waits. Just an FYI, there operation hours are Tuesday-Sunday from 10:00-3:00 and from 4:00-5:30 and they do not take reservations.

Here Hai Dishes

We ordered four dishes and everyone of them were delicious. Let’s start by talking about their signature dish. Crab Fried Rice! Peefectly cooked and savoury fried rice is topped with ungodly amounts of steamed crab. If you’re from North America you will recognize the flavour of the crabs immediately. That’s because they use flower crabs in their dishes which we know as blue crabs. The sweetness of the crab meat stands out against the savoury rice immediately. Crab frickin’ heaven

We also got their crab omelette. We ordered this because they didn’t have their giant river prawns or scallops in stock. A little weird considering they just opened, but I guess this happens. At any rate, the carb omelette was another heavenly find. Soft gooey eggs and once again, a gigantic portion of blue crab. I’m telling you, you have to try their crab dishes!

Our final dish here was their large portion of mantis shrimp and rice. Not my first rodeo with mantis shrimp and I usually find that their not worth the extra money you pay for them. In my opinion, they don’t taste much different than a regular prawn and the meat is a bit tough. Once again, not the case at Here Hai. They are using a younger mantis shrimp here so they are much smaller. The meat is sweet and flavourful and they have that nice snap that you would expect from any other shrimp as opposed to being very chewy.

While Here Hai is not cheap for Thai standards, If you’re a westerner there is absolutely nothing wrong with their prices. This meal in particular cost me $40 and we also ordered a vegetable dish of cabbage and shittake muchrooms stir fried in soy sauce and fish sauce.

This Video Features Here Hai and the Next Location on Our List

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Hom Duan

Hom Duan is also located in Ekkamai and was recommended to me by a local who insists that this will be the next Michelin guide recommendation. They focus on Northern Thai food and they are doing it right. If you have spent any time in Thailand you know that finding good northern Thai food in Bangkok is not easy to accomplish. Hom Duan would be considered more of a canteen style restaurant. Large buffet style line when you walk in the door and you point to what you want.

Here I tried three Northern Thai staples. Nom Prik Noom, Tam Khanun and Hung Lay. On another occasion to the restaurant I also tried their Khao Soi and it is fantastic. One of the few places I know of in Bangkok to get a decent Khao Soi.

The Nom Prik Noom is quite honestly one of th best I have ever had. This is normally served as a condiment for vegetables or sticky rice. Or it’s used as a dip, normally with pork cracklings. It’s made from roasted green chilis, shallots and garlic all pounded in a mortar and pestle. Hom Duan’s has an excellent kick to it and the freshness of the ingredients is evident. Often times you find this, it tastes good but when it’s freshly made there is a distinct flavour difference.

Hung Lay is northern style pork curry. Super sweet and extra savoury and full of complex flavours. Add some chili’s if you’re like me and need to tone down the sweetness a bit

And finally the Tam Khanun. This is a young jackfruit with minced pork salad and it is extremely spicy. If you’re western, this is not the type of salad you are thinking of where the jackfruit and pork would be mixed into leafy greens. Thai salads tend to use meat, seafood or noodles as the main ingredient and they would normally be served with rice. The spiciness of their tam khanun along with the kaffir likme leaves mixed in makes this one a must try.

14 Must Eat Thai Foods – Hoi Thod

Foreigners often think Pad Thai is the national dish of Thailand. Truth is, most Thai’s won’t eat Pad Thai. It’s a relevantly recent invention to attract tourism. Thai food incorporates the 4 main flavour profiles of sweet, salty, spicy and sour into every dish, and while Pad Thai has them all, it is very heavy on the sweet side which most Thai’s don’t like.

If there was one iconic dish outside of my favourite Pad Kra Pau that is emblematic of Thai food it would be Hoi Thod. This 14 must eat Thai foods will be found on every street corner in the country and for good reason. This bit of deliciousness may sound weird to westerners when first hearing the ingredients, but trust me when I tell you it’s delicious.

Hoi Thod is a Thai style pancake that consists of rice and tapioca flour, oysters or mussels and eggs. The rice and tapioca flour is mixed with water and thinly poured onto a wok and removed within seconds to create the “pancake shell”. Oysters and eggs are then mixed with more rice flour and tapioca flour and stir-fried over high heat. The final product is then poured on top of the shell that was made earlier and topped with bean sprouts, green onions, fried garlic and doused in a heavenly sauce.

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Kuay Jab

Kuay Jab is a rice noodle soup known for its peppery broth and wide rolled rice noodles. The rice noodles are cut into small triangular sheets and they roll themselves when dropped into boiling water. The broth of this soup is a flavourful mixture of pork and white pepper. The bowl of soup comes served with crispy Pork belly and pig offal. Unfortunately the version I had only had the crsipy pork belly in it because Em was with me.

What I love about this dish though, is the pepperiness of it. Not chili peppers here, but white pepper. With just a small sample of only broth, you initially get the subtle porky flavour of the broth. Once you swallow you get this beautiful pepper burn down your throat. It seems very odd that the pepperiness does not coat the inside of your mouth when trying the broth. And then when you take a bite of one of the noodles, the pepper burn is on the top of your tongue and the roof of your mouth but it is noticeably missing in the throat. A very overall satisfying dish that you should definitely seek out on your trip to Bangkok.

You can find this all over the Chinatown area but the best would have to be Guay Jub Ouan Pochana in Chinatown. Another Michelin Gourmand designation restaurant and they have held that distinction for more than 6 years

Tung Chae Tao Tan

This establishment is home to two of my 14 must eat Thai foods. Tung Chae Tao Tan is located in Ban Tad Thong and you should get yourself familiar with this area and this street in particular because voters recently named it the 14th coolest street in the entire world. Tung Chae Tao Tan is known for their fried noodles they are a hit with both tourists and locals.

Rad Na Moo

The first dish is Rad Na Moo. This dish as well as the next one breaks all the norms when it comes to Thai food. No chili’s, lemongrass, coconut milk or fish sauce in these dishes. I am assuming this is the case because these dishes origins are based on Chinese cuisine. Rad Na Moo is a wide rice noodle dish with pork gravy and at Tung Chae Tao Tan they fry these noodles in a special oil. Pure pork lard.

Each noodle clings to the other in a mass of fatty goodness all covered in a succulent gravy made from dark soy sauce for the salty, oyster sauce for a touch of umami and a touch of sugar to bring it all together. Throw in some Chinese broccoli for some bitterness and top it off with the chili condiments at your table and we have completed the multi-flavour profile that Thai food is known for. At this point the chunks of pork within the gravy are just an added bonus

And to make it even more interesting, the owner will bring by a container of crunchy deep fried pork lard to top it all off. This ain’t a health spa meal, this is pure, unadulterated, artery-clogging bliss.

Lor Ne Moo

For another 14 must eat Thai foods, try Lor Ne Moo. As best I can tell, this dish can only be found at this restaurant. Despite searching high and low online and within Thailand for it elsewhere, I can’t seem to find it. The only reason I remember it’s proper name is from a viewer on YouTube that informed me in the comments of the video that featured this restaurant. It would appear that this dish is the staple dish of Tung Chae Tao Tan as the staff was very quick to recommend it when I sat down.

The above makes knowing the actual ingredients almost impossible. But rest assured those same wide rice noodles fried in pork lard star in this dish as well. When first seeing it I assumed it would be coconut milk that made it up, but nope, this dish contains a pure milk gravy. It looks rather off putting at first site but once you take a bite, Katie bar the doors.

Very similar to Rad Na but the milk gravy in this one makes all the difference in the world. Whereas the Rad Na gravy is almost gelatinous, the Lor Ne Moo is a creamy savoury gravy that hits the spot. And you still have that container of deep fried pork lard bits to top it off. For me, this was just like discovering Pad Kra Pau for the first time. Unfortunately, this dish will be much harder to find.

This one may be my favourite of the 14 must try Thai foods

14 Must Try Thai Foods – Pak Kachet

Let’s add some vegetables into the mix of this 14 must eat Thai foods and this one is unique. When you come to Thailand, many of the vegetable dishes will be a new experience for you. Most notably, morning glories will be the vegetable dish you find everywhere and is a new experience for most westerners. They are delicious and I love them cooked a variety of ways but I love finding new dishes and pak kachet, or water mimosas, was a great find.

Known for being notoriously stinky, I don’t find that to be the case. They are certainly a bit more pungent than most vegetables but stinky is not a word I would use to describe them. Water mimosas are an aquatic plant that I would describe as having a crisp texture with a cabbage like flavour. The leaves can be slightly bitter but the shoots are very crisp and crunchy. One thing I really love about them is that crispier texture whereas morning glories are a bit more fibrous, leaving strands stuck in your teeth. Water mimosas just have a beautiful crunch to them.

You can find them many places if you know what your looking for, but if you’re already in Ban Tad Thong stop by Jay Sri Chao Tam for the best in Bangkok. The owner hand picks these every morning from their own organic farm and makes them in a variety of ways. I would recommend their yum pak krachade(spicy water mimosa salad) filled with squid, octopus, pork and lot’s of chili’s. They also do an excellent Pad Kra Pau as well as a variety of delicious seafood dishes

Satay Jae Aeng

I know you’re saying, everybody knows what satay is, why is that on this list? And more often than not I would agree with you. Jae Aeng is unlike any satay you have ever had though. And I am bold enough to say it is the best satay I have had anywhere in the world. The magic happens in the cooking and their special peanut dipping sauce. Jae Aeng have been perfecting their pork satay for over 40 years now. And their secret recipe has been passed down through multiple generations

The most I can tell about their recipe is, it’s a slow marinade in turmeric and other spices. That’s the first key. Next up is the grilling process. It’s not just grilled to the point that they dry out. They slather them in coconut milk as they they cook over open flames. The result is a juicy and flavourful piece of pork.

Finally we come to that amazing peanut dipping sauce. Coconut milk, chili paste, tamarind, soy sauce and freshly ground peanuts as opposed to peanut butter. You end up with a nutty, sweet, savoury and spicy mix that works perfectly with the juicy satay. Literally one for the record books.

Jek Pui Curry

Jek Pui has been serving their awesome green curries to patrons for more than 80 years. What sets Jek Pui apart from every other green curry you will find their is their fusion style, as opposed to a traditional Thai style green curry

A traditional green curry will be a straight forward lemongrass, galangal, green chili paste, coconut milk, Thai baby egg plants and chicken meat. Jek Pui follows the same basic recipe. But in place of the eggplant they use winter melon adding a touch of sweetness to the dish. And bone in and skin on chicken parts as opposed to just the meat. They also introduce Chinese sausage into the mix.

Top your green curry and rice with a little prik nam pla(fish sauce, sugar and chili mixture) and you have a flavour explosion that will make your head spin.

Things to do in Bangkok:

Jok One Table

Another Michelin Bib Gourmand designation which goes against what I said earlier about not finding good ones. I am going to chalk that up to being lucky on my latest visit. They have held the distinction for 6 straight years and Anthony Bourdain suggested that if there is one place to stop at in Chinatown, this is it. They are so famous that they even serve the Thai Royal family regularly. Jok One Table got it’s name from a time when they had only one table. Today they boast about four tables.

So what does Jok One Table do? They have a very limited menu and serve only a couple of pork and seafood dishes as well as some dumplings. What I’m here to talk about is those dumplings. Springy and light wrappers, stuffed full of shrimp, chopped lemongrass, galangal and kafir lime leaves. Top it off with dark sour soy sauce and crispy fried garlic and you have the most perfect dumpling you will ever eat.

Much like Michelin recommendations, I have visited several Bourdain recommendations with mixed results. He knocks it out of the park with this one. These dumpling are more than just a bite to eat, they are an experience for all of your senses.

14 Must Try Thai Foods – Conclusion

These are just a few of the numerous dishes to try when you arrive in Bangkok. Whether you’re a seasoned traveler or a first timer, Bangkok’s culinary scene has something to excite every taste bud. So, tell me in the comments below, which Thai dish are you most excited to try? Have you ever been to Bangkok? If so, what was your favourite food experience in this magical city?