14 Best Restaurants in Silom and Bang Rak, Bangkok

Atop the Mandarin Oriental, this legendary French restaurant has been the city's most respected French dining room since it opened its doors in 1958, with impressive views of the Chao Phraya and remarkable food. Chef Alain Roux creates dishes that taste classically of the old country yet with a haute personal touch—tasting menus are of good value compared to à la carte, with the three-course lunch priced at B2,950 and the evening menu gastronomique of seven courses for B7,500. The restaurant has been awarded a star in Michelin Thailand.

This neighborhood restaurant has little in the way of atmosphere, but seafood aficionados still brave the traffic to Yannawa in order to splurge. Pen is expensive by Thai restaurant standards, but it's still a bargain compared to most hotel restaurants for charcoal-grilled seafood and a range of classic Thai fare.

This two Michelin-starred restaurant from twin chefs Thomas and Matthew Sühring has evolved German cuisine past the stereotypes of schnitzel and sauerkraut. The brothers, who can be seen working together in a sleek open kitchen most nights, serve tasting menus inspired by their childhood in East Berlin—it's no wonder Sühring is one of Bangkok's trendiest restaurants. The setting is a 1970s Thai villa with several dining rooms, each with its own ambience. Tasting menus (there is no à la carte) start at B7,800 without wine.

This restaurant in a converted house with a pleasant outdoor garden balances a casually upmarket feel with fairly authentic Thai cuisine oriented toward less adventurous palates. The basics are done well here, from chu chee goong mae nam (curried river prawns) to khao yum (southern Thai-style rice salad). Local artwork adorns the walls.

This old wooden house is an oasis in the concrete city; the decor is turn-of-the-20th-century Bangkok, with antique prints and old photographs adorning the walls. Ban Chiang is a Thai restaurant popular with the foreigner and tourist set, so your food won't come spicy unless you request it that way but despite this caveat, the dishes are otherwise prepared true to form.

A good sign of quality, this restaurant is packed with Thais sharing tables filled with northeastern favorites like grilled chicken, spicy papaya salad, and minced duck salad. The open-air dining area can be hot, it's often crowded and noisy, and the staff don’t speak much English, so you’ll need to pick and point from the menu—but that's part of the fun.

This small house near the river is filled with Thai antiques and antique chests scattered with bric-a-brac, which all give the ambience of dining at a relative's house. The staff is very good at helping indecisive diners choose from the brief menu, and although the restaurant has become more touristy over the years, it also retains a loyal and regular local clientele.

Cha Cha, who cooked for Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, died in 1996, but his recipes live on and are prepared with equal ability by his son Kovit. Typical Indian-themed decor and a long-standing menu of traditional dishes as well as intriguing daily specials make this restaurant an oldie but a goodie, with two other locations in Bangkok also available.

This simple family restaurant serves plenty of Thai-Muslim dishes, but it’s most famous for the khao mok gai (chicken biryani), a spicy rice dish that’s served here with pickled eggplant and a side dish of sweet yogurt sauce. The restaurant is a 15-minute walk from the Saphan Taksin Skytrain station. If arriving by taxi, tell the driver to come in via Soi 40.

Set in a rambling 1920s Thai-European villa with colorful decor by Dutch interior designer Hans B. Christensen, Issaya both surprises and charms with its delightfully laid-back atmosphere. The dining room is cozy with big couches and lots of antique touches, coupled with fun platings and garnishes and impeccable service. Lamb shank in Massaman curry is a highlight of the carefully curated menu. Both à la carte and prix fixe are available. A tropical garden outdoors is peppered with colorful bean bags during dry season. 

Fresh pasta made with 100% Italian semolina and organic duck eggs is the signature at La Dotta, a Mediterranean-inspired dining room on Convent Road. Standouts include the wagyu bolognese with tagliatelle and bucatini all'amatriciana, topped with a sauce that is slow-cooked for 4 hours and served with dry-cured pork cheeks from Rome. Appetizers lean towards fresh seafood, including clams sautéed in white wine and garlic and grilled octopus with cannellini beans and chorizo stew. A short but well-curated list of Old World wines pairs well with the food.

This little place with bare walls and a tile floor is beloved by locals for its juicy pet (roast duck) and moo daeng (red pork). Getting here early is a good idea—by 6 pm there's often little duck left—and allow yourself time to find the entrance, which is easy to miss on busy Charoen Krung Road.

This small two-story shophouse serves some of the best Isan (northeastern Thai) cooking in the entire neighborhood, and since it opened a decade ago, the owners have expanded to branches in New York, Tokyo, and Taipei. The menu boasts several varieties of the namesake somtum, including a few that use plaa raa, a more pungent version of the fish sauce used in most Thai cooking. The varieties of laap---the spicy minced-meat salad---are done particularly well here, as is the goi, a similar salad heavy on fresh lemongrass. Almost everyone orders the fried chicken, served here with a thick dark-red chili sauce called jaew.