Bangkok’s best food is not where you’d expect

Chateau d’Yquem seems like it would be a dessert wine. That would make it the mother of all dessert wines, given this one of the greatest wines on the planet, intensely complex and rich, sweet and yet racy, regularly chiming in at upwards of $2000 a bottle – but it still appears to the uninitiated, thanks to its high sugar levels, to be a wine to finish the meal.

So what’s it doing here on the table during the seafood courses? What’s it doing next to a plate of lobster? Come to think of it, what am I doing next to this plate of lobster and this glass of Chateau d’Yquem?

There’s a lot to unpack here. You need to understand, first, that I’m in Bangkok, a city synonymous with good food, though not always very expensive fine-dining food.

You also need to be aware that this restaurant is German. Like, properly German. Run by Germans. Serving German food (spaetzle, huhnchensalat, labskaus). Very expensive, fine-dining German food. In Bangkok.

And most importantly, you need to know that it’s very, very good. Wildly successful. Almost transcendental.

The restaurant is Sühring, the project of twin brothers Thomas and Mathias Sühring, set in a carefully restored 1970s villa amid a lush tropical garden in a residential area of Sathorn. At white-clothed tables surrounded by wooden bookcases and views of the garden, the Sührings serve 15-course meals of food inspired by the home cooking of their grandmother in their native Germany.

There’s corned beef on a petite toast, topped with a twinkling wodge of caviar; pickled herring with mustard in a tiny tart; waffle wafers encasing thick foie gras with hazelnut; a pate en croute of deer, boar and pheasant; spaetzle – German egg noodles – with cheese and white Alba truffle; Kagoshima wagyu with grilled persimmon and vanilla.

These are clever dishes. They’re also incredibly tasty.

And then there’s the wine pairing, which is even smarter and more daring. Sauternes wines such as Chateau d’Yquem are classically paired with foie gras, the richness offset by the sweet. At Sühring, someone has thought to match the saline sweetness of just-cooked lobster, a finger of meat lightly grilled and served with root vegetable puree, with a wine that has sweetness, but also acidity, and complexity, and beauty.

The Chateau d’Yquem. What a wine. What a match. This place is serious.

This is also a string to the bow of Bangkok’s modern dining scene that visitors may not be aware exists. The street food that the city is world-famous for is there, of course; the Thai cuisine, both native to the Bangkok area and imported from around the country, is still so exciting and affordable and easy to access.

There’s also a vast middle ground of smart eateries doing both Thai and international cuisine at reasonable prices. And then there’s the fine-dining scene, again both local and international in style, that is taking the globe by storm: as it stands right now, there are four Bangkok eateries on the World’s 50 Best restaurants list; one has been awarded three Michelin stars, while another seven eateries hold two stars.

Sühring is one of those two-star establishments, surely unlucky to not have a third. It’s No.23 on the World’s 50 Best list.

You could spend weeks in this city just running through the range of dining options, taking yourself from bargain-basement streetside noodles to steamed seafood to blistering papaya salads, rich curries to elevated classics, to the finest of upper-echelon cuisine. There is not even close to enough space in this story to list all the best options. But we’ll give it a shot.

The obvious place to begin is breakfast, and you’re not having bacon and eggs. Try Rung Rueang (3 Soi Sukhumvit 26, Khlong Tan), a modest Sukhumvik eatery – stainless-steel tables, open shopfront – that specialises in Thai-style pork noodles, a cherished day-starter.

The options here are dry noodles or soupy noodles, with various cuts of pork and various styles of noodles (rice, wheat), with a condiment tray to spike the dish to your liking: sweeter, saltier, spicier, much, much spicier.

But Bangkok is buzzing with breakfast options by about 8am on any given day. You could eat poached chicken with noodles at Sae Phun (112 Thanon Mahannop, Sao Chingcha); bouncy fish balls in intense tom yum soup at Nai Ngieb (Phutthamonthon Sai 4 Rd, Salaya); nourishing Thai-style congee at Jok Sam Yan (11 Wang Mai, Pathum Wan).

Or you could just wander the already sweltering streets and see what takes your fancy. There are plenty of Western-style brunch spots and high-end hotel buffets if that’s your craving.

By far the most difficult aspect of a stay here is deciding what to eat, and when. The options feel endless.

Consider the Thai food you already know: coconut-milk-based curries, noodle stir-fries, meaty dishes served on rice. You can eat all of those in Bangkok. But then you will also find Chinese-Thai cuisine with its warming spices; Isaan-style char-grilled dishes served with sticky rice; fragrant northern Thai sauces and soups; southern-style fermented noodles and seafood curries. And sweet treats such as khanom thuai, a steamed, hardened custard of coconut milk and pandan.

Bangkok at any time of day is humming with life as thousands of restaurants produce the finest of this cuisine. The ever-present stink of car exhaust and scooter fumes here is always balanced by the smoke of hot coals, the scent of sauces bubbling and herbs being chopped and torn.

Don’t miss som tam, the searingly spicy green papaya salad, served in pleasant surrounds at Baan Somtum (1 Thanon Si Wiang, Sathorn), or slung streetside with no ceremony but maximum skill at Som Tam Jay So (Phiphat 2, Silom). Enjoy pad Thai, the classic, the old friend, at Michelin-recommended Pad Thai Fai Ta Lu (5 Dinso Rd, Wat Bowon Niwet).

Sometimes the good food is where you least expect it. Though Bangkok authorities have eradicated some street food markets and vendors, Singapore-style hawker centres have appeared in shopping malls, the perfect places to peruse and sample. Try Terminal 21, Siam Centre, and Siam Paragon. Or go for the more recognisable street markets at Yaowarat, Chatuchak, or Soi 38 Sukhumvit.

And finally, sample the fine-dining, because it’s a whole different side to Bangkok. Local chef Ton Tassanakajohn is the star here, the cook behind Le Du, a beautiful venue where he uses high-quality local ingredients to lovingly reinterpret Thai classics. Try squid with aloe vera and fermented tofu, or aged duck with pumpkin and Jo-Rang curry.

Le Du is No.40 on the World’s 50 Best list, and it shows.

At Nusara, meanwhile, Ton presents a more approachable and yet equally delicious take on Bangkok’s native cuisine, with share platters of salads, relishes and stir-fried dishes.

Over at Potong, chef Pichaya “Pam” Soontornyanakij produces one of the tastiest roast duck dishes you will ever have the chance to savour, crackling and juicy, served in the building that used to house her family’s Chinese pharmacy. History and innovation are interwoven here with fine thread.

And then there’s Sühring, the restaurant that makes no sense at all, the German fine-diner in sweltering Bangkok, where lush tropical gardens are framed by Nordic design, where amuse bouche come in the form of little beer steins filled with radler (German-style shandy), Chateau d’Yquem is paired with lobster, and dessert pralines are served with the Sühring brothers’ family-recipe eggnog. In Bangkok. And it works.

The details

Eat
Many of the abovementioned restaurants do not require reservations, and are very affordable to visit, with meals from little over a few dollars.

The higher-end restaurants, however, require reservations weeks, if not months, in advance. For Suhring, see restaurantsuhring.com; for Le Du, see ledubkk.com; for Nusara, see nusarabkk.com; for Potong, see restaurantpotong.com

Stay
Public House Sukhumvit 31 is a modern, stylish hotel in central Sukhumvit, close to Phrom Phong BTS station, and Sukhumvit MRT station, vital for getting around Bangkok. Rooms from $140 per night. See publichouse-hotels.com

The writer travelled as a guest of the restaurants Gaggan, Sühring, Le Du and Potong.