Where to Eat in Thailand, Restaurants in Thailand

Food is possibly the best part of Thailand – the restaurants, the open-air markets, the street food and immense variety of food is found almost everywhere. The Thai food scene is mouth-watering – it is rich and delicious.

Most Thai restaurants can be divided into two categories: stand-alone restaurants and store-front restaurants. The "stand-alone" restaurants are more professionally managed as opposed to the store-front kind. The store-front variety, often family-run, typically are found as part of a group of store-fronts and just happen to be serving food. Usually they have some sort of food display out front so you can see how fresh things are and select seafood to be cooked. They may be noodle shops – where noodles are displayed along with the type of meat that goes in the noodles.

Street food is alive and flourishing in Thailand. On the street there is food of all varieties at all time of the day and night – from fresh fruits (mangoes, Thai oranges, longan, apples from Washington, strawberries, durian, rambutan, mangosteen) to coconut rice pancakes (kanom krok), to lip smacking trays of prepared foods such as curries, basil pork and Chinese broccoli with oyster sauce.

The night markets is where every night the streets are lined with vendors in their carts selling everything from Thai food cooked to order, to noodles, to fresh fruit drinks or satay.

In areas where tourists reside there is less street food but usually you need only to walk a little towards a residential street and there it is again.

Then there are the "hawkers" – vendors carrying their wares in two baskets suspended on a bamboo pole.

Then there are the western fast-food outlets. The most visible are McDonald's, Kentucky Fried Chicken (300 outlets nationwide) and Dunkin' Doughnuts, with Swenson's, Baskin &Robbins, Pizza Hut, Dairy Queen and others are beginning to appear in greater numbers.

Thai Restaurant Chains

S&P has been around since 1973 and now has over 150 restaurants and bakery shops in supermarkets, office buildings. Snack items and frozen meals are also available. Although they serve mostly Thai foods, they offer Chinese and Japanese dishes and one of their trademarks is the display of western-style desserts such as frosted cakes, cookies, sundaes and ice cream.

Another chain is Kruathai – meaning "Thai Kitchen." As with S&P, the menus are in both Thai and English with photographs of most dishes with the choice being a bit more Thai-oriented. All the desserts here are Thai – dishes such as pandanus, sago and cantaloupe in coconut, dried taro jam in coconut, and water chestnut ruby in coconut milk.

Another growing chain in Thailand is the Black Canyon coffee chain. Western foods along with Thai food is available here.

Thai Food Centres

Thai food centres are the ideal place to get good Thai fast-food. Normally, they will be found at the top floor of a department store or somewhere in a high-rise catering to businesses. These centers are essentially street food stalls brought under one roof.

Apart from these Thailand has many restaurants to cater to the needs of those who wish to sit in a comfortable ambience and enjoy a meal at their leisure. A brief description of where to eat in locations like Bangkok, Ching Mai, Kabi and Pattaya are as follows: