6 Best Restaurants in Around Bangkok, Thailand

Handsome locally fired floor tiles are among the original features of the century-old teak home this atmospheric old restaurant occupies. Step onto the riverside terrace and you could be in Venice—the waterway throbs with life, with tiny tugs pulling impossibly large barges loaded with rice and a small jetty where guests get picked up for a dinner cruise.

This large restaurant with white tablecloth seating inside and a pleasant garden seating outside is just the sort of local restaurant that you shouldn't miss. The menu is Thai-Chinese and you can feast on regional specialties and good seafood.

Founded by two award-winning Bangkok chefs, this relatively new addition to the local culinary scene focuses on traditional Thai recipes made with the best ingredients available locally. The air-conditioned dining room is famous even among visiting Bangkokians for phat ka-phrao (meat stir-fried with fresh chilies and holy basil), available in pork, chicken, beef, and seafood versions. Thai omelets and southern Thai-style kaeng leuang (thick spicy soup made with fish) are also highly recommended. Curry and rice plates cost a reasonable B89 to B179.

It's worth the effort to get to this excellent restaurant in the countryside, located just over the river Khwae Yai on the way to Sai Yok National Park, with views of local rice fields. Classic offerings like tom yum (hot, sour soup) and expertly rendered hor mok (steamed Thai fish custard) have authentic and uncompromising Thai flavors.

This old-school seafood joint occupies a rambling open-air structure with a bamboo-thatched roof, sitting on a pier with views of the river mouth and the Gulf. Crab curry with huge chunks of fresh crabmeat, yam pla meuk (spicy squid salad), and local razor clams stir-fried in chilies and basil are highly recommended.

An appealing mélange of local flora and traditional Thai decor greets patrons as they enter this charming bar and restaurant on the bank of the Pa Sak River. The visual delights continue in the low-ceilinged dining areas, which are packed with collectibles, from old bottles to timepieces, and half the restaurant sits on a pontoon floating on the water. Try the grilled river prawns: an Ayutthaya signature.