Café Tartine

B75 for mixed greens with a choice of salad dressing
We know your type. You like it fresh. You like to stick with the basics. And so we’d like to set you up with this café.
Toppings: More than 30 items available with prices ranging from B15-B55. Smoked salmon, smoked turkey, smoked duck, blue cheese, anchovy, walnuts and more.
Varieties: Not in the creative mood? Try their Salade Nicoise (tuna, eggs, tomatoes and black olive with mixed vegetables, B220) or see if their “Today’s Special” is your thing.
Athenee Residence, 65/2 Witthayu (Wireless) Rd., 02-168-5464. Open Mon-Fri 8am-8pm, Sat-Sun 9am-8p

House of Salad

B44 for mixed greens with five toppings and one dressing.
The new Rain Hill mall on Sukhumvit Road houses this salad spot, with a long list of meat options and ten salad dressings from which to choose.
Toppings: Free toppings include grilled sweet pepper, grilled Japanese pumpkin, eryngii mushroom, pasta and many kinds of beans. There are also more than 30 extra toppings, mostly meat. Prices range from B69-B320, and choices include bacon, grilled duck breast, New Zealand mussels, grilled scallop with herbs—even foie gras.
Varieties: Other options include pasta, pizza and steaks.
2/F Rain Hill, Sukhumvit Rd., 084-931-7711. Open daily 10am-10pm

Inspire Salad

B79 for greens, one dressing and three toppings
Tucked away in Baan Silom, this place offers you the whole salad bar to choose from. The vegetable options are not that enticing, but you can pick up one of their eight salad dressings at wholesale prices (B200/kg).
Toppings: Grilled salmon, grilled beef, chicken teriyaki and tuna.
Varieties: Teriyaki salad (B109) is the popular pick here, if you want an a la carte dish.
Baan Silom Shopping and Dining Arcade, Silom Soi 19, 082-074-7171. Open Mon-Fri 8am-8pm

Salad Days

B99 for mixed vegetables with five toppings and one dressing.
This option is one of The Salad Gallery’s other ventures. Their big selling point is the use of the extra virgin olive oil in all of their eight dressings.
Toppings: There are more than 20 veggie toppings you can add to your green leaves, such as black olive, celery, radish and Job’s Tears. Not enough? Go for their special B30 toppings: 10 meat options like ham, crispy fish, dried shredded pork and grilled chicken. A word of warning, though, low prices mean small portions.
Varieties: Check their special of the day or try their dessert, tofu ice cream (B45 for one scoop).
E104 The Nine Center, 999 Rama 9 Rd., 02-716-7814. Open daily 11:30am-9:30pm

Salad on Demand

B55 for five vegetables with salad dressing
The Khao San/Banglumphu area may have loads of places to drink and grab some greasy pub grub, but they sure don’t have much choice when it comes to a healthy meal. But located amid the slew of bars on Phra Arthit Road, you’ll spot a bike in front of a small, white shop that offers low-fat dishes. All of the salad dressings here are oil-free because they only use vegetable stock. Our recommendation is the sesame sauce.
Veggies: Grilled eggplant, zucchini, olive, asparagus, Japanese seaweed, grilled pumpkin and more.
Toppings: Grilled chicken, bacon, tuna, smoked salmon and parmesan cheese.
Varieties: Try their pad thai rai nam mun (fettuccine pad thai without oil, B75). What’s special about it is that their pad thai is, again, cooked with vegetable stock. Also, try the nam fak khao or gac fruit juice (B25), one of the fruits that has the highest concentration of beta-carotene and ranks first as a source of lycopene, 20-times more than tomato juice.
60 Phra Arthit Rd., 02-629-3982. Open daily 8am-9pm

The Salad Gallery

B100 for mixed greens and a choice of salad dressing
The Salad Gallery is quite popular for its Moroccan-style décor—patterned floor tiles and some Arabian lanterns. But moreover, their meat toppings are also generous in size. You can have fun choosing more than 12 homemade salad dressings, including the popular honey mustard, pepper blend or Persian nutty.
Toppings: Roast chicken, tuna, egg, ham, cheese and sirloin steak (B150).
Varieties: The owner is working on the food copyright of her Samantha Salad or salad pla ra (Northeastern style fermented fish in salad served with crispy fish and boiled egg, B150). Their pastas and soups also go well with salads.
Tower A, Room A103 The Nine Center, 999 Rama 9 Rd., 02-716-7858, 082-323-2240. Open daily 11am-10pm

Know your Leaves

Beef Black Burger (B97)

Sounds pretty standard when Casper Burger grills ko khun beef with tomato sauce and Dijon mustard, but what will blow you away are the buns: they’re black. The color is from squid ink, which gives the bap a briny flavor. Or if you’re on strict diet, they also have a pork veggie burger where they substitute the buns with lettuce.
Casper Burger, Mansion 7, 14 Ratchada Rd., 02-275-0952 (delivery is available). Open Sun-Thu 11:30am-midnight, Fri-Sat 11:30-1:30am

Numero Uno Foie Gras Burger (B570)

Keeping in line with their New American cuisine concept, The Garret, boasts an array of burgers, including a foie gras one. In order to maintain their fine-dining reputation, all of their specialty burgers’ signature ingredients are homemade just like their berry salsa that is put together with caramelized onions, balsamic and rocket.
The Garret, Rooftop, Mini Showroom, 99/99 Ekkamai Soi 7, 02-711-6999. Open daily 11:30am-2:30pm and 6pm-midnight

Collagen Burger (from B75)

Burgers have a “bad for you” reputation, so this Japanese franchise wanted to give the guilty pleasure a positive spin—changing the baked buns to steamed, fluffy buns (like Chinese salapao) and mixing in their 5-million-year-old salt imported from Japan with different meat choices. Not nuanced enough for you yet? One of the buns’ ingredients is marine collagen, meant to improve your skin, and they pride themselves on being the first to add it into a burger. Um, congrats?
R Burger, Siam Square, Rama 1 Rd., 02-654-6242. Open daily 10am-11pm

Laab Lamb Burger (B150)

It’s rare to find a spot that’s solely devoted to Thai-inspired burgers. Here, they have types like masaman and green curry. They’ll even give you the seasoned sauce on the side, too, so that you can spice your burger the way you like. The ingredients are also healthier—they use whole-wheat buns—and the patties vary from pork to lamb.
Heawen For Burger Devils, Room Zone A, 2/F, K Village, Sukhumvit Soi 26, 02-661-5052. Open Tue-Sun 11am-10pm

Mean Bean Burger (B225)

This honest American-style diner serving solid burgers has a wide menu selection including some unusual ones. We think their rarest is their veggie burger—a patty made with a mix of spicy black beans and vegetables. Another option a little out of the ordinary but more comforting is their Carbonara Burger (B255), offering a tender beef patty topped with carbonara sauce and cheddar cheese.
Bangkok Burger Company, Unit 103, G/F Opus Bld., 139 Thonglor Soi 10, 02-715-9407. Open daily 11am-11pm

Pork Burger with Namtok Sauce (B250)

Feeling like a burger and namtok? Problem solved. Now you have the all-in-one burger from this new wine bistro. Here, they replace regular buns with their homemade French bread. Moreover, the pork is fermented with Moroccan spices and topped with namtok (Thai herbal spicy salad) sauce.
X Wine Z, A1, 1/F Manor Complex, 32/1 Sukhumvit Soi 39, 02-662-5427, 087-675-7779. Open daily 10-1am