Bangkok: Moderate Restaurants
 

Looking for recommendations on places that two people can eat (no wine) for about $15-$20 each.

Prefer "good value" places with a nice setting teak and friendly service. Don't need super fancy places, dress up places with snippy waiters and small portions. Okay, that semi-serious last part might draw fire! Like Italian, Thai, Chinese, and Asian fusion.

How do these rate:

Blue Elephant

Bed supper Club

Baan Khanitha

Loft at Central Store Chitlom (Lunch)

Shangrila

Harmonique

Le Dalat Indochina

You might want to consider the Greyhound Cafe at Central Chitlom for lunch, too. Nice place. Casual, cool and relaxing.

Harmonique and the Food Court at Central Chitlom definitely fit in to your description. You should also try the Gallery Cafe (near the Royal Orchid Sheraton off the New Road), Tongue Thai (across from Oriental Place, which is unsuprisingly enough near the Oriental Hotel) and Cabbages and Condoms (off Sukhumvit). Each fits.

Bed Supper Club is a bit more than your budget but well worth it. I would skip Baan Khanitha and try Lemon Grass instead.

Thanks for the feedback. I started to write settings with Teak Houses, gardens and white colonial buildings but realized that was most likely above my limit. Bet most of you think we are real cheap charlies!

Lemongrass is located in a teak house, and I like their food (Thai). I'd also recommend Harmonique. It's Thai with a Chinese accent (indeed, many of their dishes are Chinese dishes prepared in a Thai style.)

You'll find lots of very good restaruants in Bangkok in your price range. Really, only the top tier places will be out of your range.

Hi Kathie

That is good to know - I was looking at some old threads and they seemed to
focus on $50-75 a person places.

Anybody know about these?

Sweet Basil - Vietnamese

Bussaracum - Thai

Zanzibar - Thai/Italian

i went to zanzibar last month, and was turned off, as nearly half of the menu was lined through, in other words, no longer available. i take this as an indication that all is not well.

a few yards down from the zanzibar is the german restaurant mentioned earlier. on fridays, they roast a pua'a all day in front of the restaurant, and you can have a great meal at dinner, well within your budget.

I;ve heard good things about Sweet Basil but have not eaten there. I would not recommend Bussaracum. It's basically all tourists and mediocre overpriced food.

You could try Cabbages and Condoms -- nice setting, decent (but not great) food but the cause is a good one -- money supports AIDS agencies.

Thanks - Cabbages and Condoms sounds like fun.

I have been to Sweet Basil and it is really good and great prices. We never spend $10-15 for 2. Check their hours because sometime we miss out because of the time. On Silom, close to the Holiday Inn Crowne Plaza is a place called Maria's. It has good Thai, Chinese, Italian (their wood burning oven produce great pizzas, Vietnamese, and American. Again the prices are great!

An impertinent question. I've noted your several posts and am curious as to your monicker of "NorthShore". NorthShore of What? Chicago? Boston? etc?

Gpanda, no problem. I live in Hawaii -never been to a cold climate.

Hi

I actually prefer Baan Khanitha over Lemongrass. The menu is more extensive in Baan Kanitha. But both are actually very good.

I love Le Dalat - there are two. Le Dalat is Vietnamese only. Le Dalat Indochine covers (you guessed it!) the foods of IndoChina. I prefer the first one, but the second has a cuter setting - lots of posters of Tintin around!

Blue Elephant has a wonderful setting, but I thought you could get better food elsewhere.

Also Suppatra River House is a wonderful restaurant just across from Tha Chang pier.

I don't like Baan Khanitha. Find it very touristy. INstead try MahaNaga. ON an average your meal budget should be fine tho restaurants like MahaNaga and BED will be above it. You can make up at Loft at central Chitlom and such places. I would suggest make up at lunches and splurge on dinners and you can manage your budegt easily. In that vein for lunches I suggest Loft at Central Chitlom, Greyhound Cafe for fusion or Aoi for Japanese, both at Emporium (I love Aoi - def ordfer edamame beans if you go there). Thang Long for Vietnamese at Soi Lung Suan (find the food much better than Dalat). I'm not a huge Harmomique fan. For dinners do MahaNaga for fusion Thai, BED for a great experience, Blue Elephant for a great setting and decent Thai food, Biscotti at the Four Seasons for Italian.

Hi
I'd love to know where MahaNaga is and try it out!

Just for Thang Long - I went there once and agree the food is very nice indeed. But I found the environment rather 'dark' and modern. Even worse, the service was terrible. Slow, lacklustre and completely uncaring e.g. we asked if sthg had peanuts in cos of an allergy - they just shrugged their shoulders. Had to emphasise that something serious would happen otherwise before they could get their act together.

Sorry to hear that re Thang Long. I never had that experience with service. Also, agree it is very modern but I quite liked the minimalist white look. Guess it must have deteriorated (I went more than 18 months ago). Mahanaga has a webiste - www.mahanaga.com. Check it out.

I recently returned from Bangkok and surprisingly found that Bua Restuarant was quite a bargain for the price. Years ago, the restaurants were more of the al fresco type dining, but from my last visit, I've noticed they've renovated and made them comfortably air conditioned (exceptionally nice when you are visiting during Song Kran in April). I found the atmosphere casual and relaxed and my parents and I must have confused our waitstaff between them speaking Thai to me and my answering in English. Also, if near Silom center, there are plenty of relatively inexpensive places to pop in for a bite.

On Shangrila, I guess you mean the Shangrila restaurant near Silom, rather than the Shangri-La Hotel. The Shangrila restaurant is not very good at all. If you want Chinese seafood, I suggest Je Ngor's Kitchen (see http://www.jengor-seafoods.com). Very local, clean and reasonable price. It's located in a office building next to Sukhothai Hotel.

North Shore...$50-$75. PER PERSON to eat in Bangkok? I have never paid anywhere near that even at restaurants in five-star hotels. Happy Travels!