To sum Siam Square up in a word, 'eclectic', would be about right. An abundance of food options pepper the streets, from classic Thai street food to global delicacies, to sweet and simple sandwiches and pastries. The Siam Discovery Centre and Siam Paragon are home to the ultimate fashion café – Greyhound (he of the sculptured smock). Greyhound is a gimmick restaurant, riddled with quirks and an impressive fusion menu, a haunt of high-society and media types.
The Hard Rock Café is another popular choice, for those who enjoy dining alongside Jimi Hendrix and John Lennon memorabilia. The usual burgers, steaks and Tex Mex are thrown in for the ultimate Rock 'n Roll dining experience. For upscale dining, the high concentration of five-star hotels around the area provides some of the city’s most delectable dishes in unparalleled surroundings.
After You Dessert Café is diminutive in size, but massive in reputation; this bright and airy café is located next to the Gourmet Supermarket and is recognisable by the queue of people lined up outside. The cakes and desserts, obviously, are mouthwateringly good, and they also serve a limited selection of savoury food including fried breakfasts, pancakes with bacon and waffles with smoked sausage. The ice coffees and frappuccinos look as though they've been crafted into shape by a sculptor. Owing to their success, After You has maximized their floor space so tables leave scant room for elbows, but it all helps to create an atmosphere that is lively and exciting.
This Boston-owned bakery ('Au Bon Pain' meaning 'the place of good bread') gives customers the option to design their own sandwich through ticking off preferences of bread and fillings via a clipboard, so fear not any language barriers. Beyond sandwich design you can opt for a tailor-made treat or choose from the delicious selection of pastries (both sweet and savory) on offer. Even if you’re not feeling that hungry, the coffee here is great; both iced and hot.
Belguardo’s head chef Marco Camarrata sums the restaurant's ethos up as, "fresh, simple, and imported". The open kitchen and predominant use of natural light lends an extra sense of space to the restaurant – Belguardo fittingly translates as 'beautiful vista'. The menu features all your typical Italian treats from pastas, pizzas, steaks to risottos and Belguardo also rustles up some mean desserts.
For those serious about Japanese ramen, this noodle house offers award-winning recipes whipped up by the 2002 TV Champion’s Best Ramen Chef, Yasuji Morizumi. The menu features eight types of ramen, including the signature shoyu zaru ramen, plus a selection of side dishes such as gyoza and chicken tatsuta-age. Besides the pedigree title, what makes Chabuton different is the perfectly cooked noodles that goes so well with the complex taste and aroma of the soup.
As Chinese restaurants go in Bangkok this is a contemporary and up-market affair, offering no compromise on food, quality and service, unlike some of the cheaper Cantonese venues around the city. In between shopping we recommend a pit stop here where you can sample the array of Hong Kong-style dim sums on offer at lunchtime. The menu offers a large selection of mains from seafood, lobster and prawn dishes to specialty bird's nest and shark fin soup.
If you stop at Doo Dee Siam for the first time and think this is a restaurant for teens, you would be right. This is the place for a proper local experience, a simple place where young groups come and eat at great prices. Located just behind the old classic Lido Cinema on the second floor of a rather run down shopping gallery, this colorful restaurant serves a lot of Vietnamese and Thai dishes including classic Phad Thai, Som Tum and fried rice, but the most interesting is their variety of spicy noodle soups. If you have a craving for hot stuff, the well illustrated menu comes with something unusual: each dish is 'Spice Rated', from 0.5 which is what you would call 'pretty spicy' to a level 3 which is what locals would call 'seriously spicy'. Broth is dark and has an intense flavour, using more lime juice than average, creating the signature taste of Doo Dee Siam restaurant. Doo Dee Siam is a fun place in the back of a cinema but might not be for everyone, it's fun to go and do as the locals do.
Specialty roast duck restaurant originally from London, this is only the second branch worldwide and has remained true to its traditional Chinese-inspired menu with a variety of seafood, crispy pork belly and tofu dishes. The real draw card, however, is the dish on which the restaurant made its name: succulent roasted duck. The signature dish can be ordered in two sizes: half duck for 600baht or a whole duck for 1,100baht. The duck sauce is rich, yet delicate, and the cooking method is tried and tested to deliver consistency. This is a classy restaurant with an international reputation and should be the first choice for duck lovers.
Fast, friendly and efficient, the cafe presents an imaginative selection of Thai food, pasta, great sandwiches, and a few Western favourites. All are reasonably priced with generous servings, accompanied by a hearty choice of beers, wine and many creative cocktails.
Location: Siam Centre, Ground floor.
This Japanese fusion restaurant features an array of imported meats including red whale meat, horse meat, kobe beef, and Matsuzaka beef. For a fusion touch, try grilled foie gras sushi, or romaine lettuce and cheese salad. The extensive sushi menu comes highly recommended as does the prime tuna belly and spring onions.
Two decades old, this 30-cover restaurant has Hong Kong-style noodles with grilled duck or pork. Homemade egg noodles, shrimp wonton soup and khao moo deang (rice and grilled pork topped with red sauce) are other specialties.
This sweets café serves up a range of delectable a la carte ice creams, waffles and cakes. Housed inside a tastefully decked out shop, with DIY chandeliers, rough-painted brick walls and buffed concrete floors, iberry is a welcome alternative to existing ice cream chains like Swensens, Baskin Robbins and Haagen Dazs. For starter, it offers a creative selection of flavoured ice creams, most with a local touch, such as santol sorbet, Thai iced tea, green mango, pandanus, and a whole lot more that will keep you going back for more. There’s also an array of themed ice creams, such as the high-tea ice cream set, which you can share with your friends.
Fusing culinary techniques of the East and West, this cosy dining establishment is all about creativity and freshness. The menu highlights an exciting range of colours, tastes and textures, presented as edible art on a plate. Ingredients are selected daily and prepared according to traditional Japanese cooking style, whereas Western techniques are applied to enhance the flavour and presentation. The atmosphere is laid-back and contemporary, with sakura blossoms painted on a deep red background, black leather chairs and bright yellow sake wall. Coupled with impressive service, Izuya has all the elements for a pleasant dining experience.
Feast away on spring greens with fried shrimp, beans, pork crackling with herbs and a tasty pork dip. Savoury gourami fish salad is highly recommended, with its explosion of spicy onions, lemongrass, mint and other piquant ingredients spread on crispy pieces of fish. Bean curd and mixed vegetables with minced chicken in gravy is served in a big bowl alongside baby corn, carrots and thinly sliced mushrooms that balance with extremely soft chunks of tofu.
This quick-and-easy eatery is a good place to drop by for a casual meal. With wooden square stools and tables, the place almost feels like a dim sum joint in Hong Kong, except for the sleek white floors and brightly lit interiors. The menu offers everything from roasted duck noodle soups, barbecued pork over rice and congee to a whole spectrum of Issan dishes like som tam, bamboo shoots salad and grilled marinated chicken. Service is quick and efficient.
Fusing fast food and casual dining concepts, Pepper Lunch serves up sizzling sukiyaki, teriyaki, steaks (Australia and New Zealand imported beefs) and meat over rice dishes on an iron hot plate. Your order arrives at the table raw but slowly cooked through as you season the dish with either honey brown sauce (amakuchi) or garlic soy sauce (karakuchi). The innovative concept has proven popular among new-generation Thais, who enjoy an element of fun, even while eating. Pepper Lunch is a franchise of the Japanese chain with the same name.
Rot Dee Det (which translates to Tastes So Good) is slap bang in the centre of Siam Square, the fashion centre of Bangkok, and attracts an intriguingly eclectic mix of Bangkok society all drawn by the rows of Thai dishes presented in metal trays, and a noodle station with dark, dense and flavoursome broth. Items start from 40 baht and the white tiles and barren interior design is a clear sign that Rot Dee Det is a local Bangkok restaurant with its focus clearly on the food. Dishes here are served on the small side but come bursting with flavour so we recommend ordering at least a couple of options. Come around lunch and you will struggle to find a seat, as local restaurants are slowly pushed out of Siam Square with Japanese and American franchises taking their place.
What to Order: Browse the cooked selection for anything that takes your fancy, and a bowl of beef noodles.
This shabu-shabu franchise is a ubiquitous presence in shopping malls across Bangkok, often with lines of people waiting to get inside to feast for 1.5 hours for 350 baht. Each Shabushi branch is designed in the same way, very much like a sushi train restaurant. Stools are lined up along a revolving conveyor belt which delivers the variety of ingredients to your seat, which you then boil in your pot of either spicy tom yum flavour broth or a lighter, salty broth. Ingredients range from fish, clams and shrimp, to beef, chicken and all manner of vegetables. There is also a sushi area, free soft drinks and ice cream.
If you like the taste of your noodle soup complex and spicy, then sample a bowl of original boat noodles here. The portions are small enough to allow for a few bowls, and the prices are also minimal. Decked out with wooden square stools, tables and the signature rowboat out front, this compact-sized eatery is always packed with diners. With early success, the restaurant now offers additional items on the menu, including som tam, Issan-style spicy pork rib soup, Thai-style sukiyaki, phad thai, and more.
Vanilla Industry in Siam Square announces its presence with an intriguing old fashioned wooden door front that stands out amongst the fashion boutiques in this part of Bangkok. Step inside and you are greeted by a vintage looking counter that displays some of the tastiest cakes we have seen, from banoffee pie to crumbly cookies. This bakery opened in 2004 and has been delighting customers ever since with their blend of yesteryear, delicious sweet treats and excellent prices.