Can you BYO wine to (non hotel) restaurants in Bangkok - I know that you can at Harmonique but waht about others like Bann Kanritha etc I am going to be bringing Champange for NYE and wondered wether a should bring a couple bottles wine that are well suited to thai food

baan khanitha is not really the type of place that you would bring your own wine, but i suppose you could ask them...it is quite upscale....also did not know you could at harmonique either, as i do know they sell beer and have never seen anyone bring anything in on my many visits there......around where we live, if a place sells wines, etc. they do not allow any imports

i only asked because of Harmonique and here in oz you can take wine to most restaurants even if licenced but they may charge a high corkage to discourage the practice in most cases unless taking a special bottle

For a small corkerage charge you can bring wine or champagne into 99 percent of the restaurant in Thailand. Non hotel restaurant the fee is around 300 baht and for those hotel restaurant it is around 500 - 900 baht. The 900 baht fee is extreme and that is for places like Lord Jim and the Normandie at the Oriental.

Can wine from Italy, France and/or Australia be purchased at local stores at reasonable prices in Bangkok and Chiang Mai to take with you to dinner vs. paying the 21/2 times mark-up you find in the US and many other countries?
Thanks.

yes you will find that grocery stores have a supply of wines from abroad...an especially good place is the stores in the basement of robinson's dept stores....don't know where in CM...maybe convenience stores...ask a tuk tuk driver

rhkkmk; Thanks for the info.

also there is a good store in the basement of the pleonchit center which is at the corner of sukhumvit and soi 2, next to the jw marriott hotel....good grocery as well..