Now in its 11th edition, Top Tables is Bangkok’s most trusted guide for discerning foodies, sponsored by Citi, Sanpellegrino and Peroni.

 

Which Bangkok restaurants do the people who know Bangkok’s food scene truly rate? Where can you find a fine-dining experience with food that matches the price tag? Where has service that’ll treat you like royalty? Which chef’s tables will actually leave you feeling satisfied? Those questions and more are answered in Top Tables 2018, BK’s annual restaurant awards where every of the 100 entries is selected by a panel of 30 foodies—no buy-ins allowed.

To make sure Top Tables remains Bangkok’s most trustworthy dining guide, we personally select each panel member, discount any votes for places they’re affiliated with, and guarantee that each choice remains independent from our advertisers (see exactly how Top Tables is made here: goo.gl/KBCmbN).

For the second year, Suhring is on top, which might not come as a surprise to anyone who’s eaten there. (Seriously, does that kitchen ever put a foot wrong?) But 2018 also made space for 13 newbies in their first year of business, while 26 fell out altogether. Weirdly for a city so obsessed with Japanese food, the land of the rising sun was this year’s biggest casualty, with nine Nippon all-stars falling by the wayside (sorry, Misaki, Yuutaro, Tempura Kanda: it’s nothing personal).

Some more numbers for you: 2018 marks the best year ever for Thai cuisine, with 24 of the restaurants in this year’s guide dedicated to local flavors. And we think that’s pretty awesome. Top Tables began as a BK cover story in 2007 celebrating Bangkok’s poshest fine-dining spots. They were moody steak houses. They were rosewood-clad Italian joints. They were French outposts affiliated with long-won Michelin stars back in Paris. Now, Bangkok’s not only got its own Michelin Guide; it’s also got a local fine-dining culture to match the best that we can import from abroad. And if you want proof, just look who’s biting at Le Normandie’s heels in this year’s Top 10.

 

 

The buzz: Twin German chefs Thomas and Mathias Suhring left Lebua’s long-established Mezzaluna, opened a restaurant dedicated to German fine dining on Yen Akat Road, and created a local sensation. No. 1 in Top Tables in its guide debut; and still no. 1 a year later. If you had access to how our panel voted, you’d also see that their win is a walkover.

 

The food: Dishes such as brathering hausfrauenart and pfannkuchen are hardly duck confit and spaghetti carbonara in the familiarity stakes. But if the way Suhring renders them is anything to go by, then they should be. (The first, FYI, is a traditional German preparation for herring that the Suhrings serve with stunning simplicity, while the second is a sublime dough filled with truffle cream.) Skip the a la carte (Speisekarte) and dive straight for one of the tasting menus—Klassiker for hits like the upmarket takes on currywurst and pork knuckle, or Erlebnis for the chefs’ most up-to-date creations.

 

The vibe: Strikingly homey yet also refined. The setting in a generously portioned mid-century home round the back of Yen Akat Road retains its residential charm (note the warm, accidental details like a printed rendition of the Suhring family farm hanging on the wall), but also adds a striking open kitchen where the brothers work to the constant flicker of open flames. Its position in Michelin and Asia’s 50 Best ensures a steady international foodie clientele.

 

 

 

 

 

The buzz: Welcome to Asia’s most famous restaurant. Gaggan has won Asia’s Best Restaurant for three consecutive years (from 2015-17), in addition to picking up two Michelin stars on the guide’s debut in Bangkok. And for what? Tasting menus of Indian, Japanese and Thai flavors skewed beyond all recognition into everything from Minion ice pops to lumps of coal.

 

The food: The 25-course tasting menu is a three-hour event that’s half dinner, half TED talk. Some of it is pure spectacle—the dish called “Lick it Up” (truffle, green peas, fenugreek and tomato) arrives to Kiss on full volume—while other parts are a hushed deconstruction of food history. Gaggan’s curry, for example, has evolved into raw scallops dressed only in chili oil, curry leaf oil, shallots and a quenelle of cream. Everything save for a couple of courses you eat with your hands. Don’t worry, though; among the history lessons and life-of-Gaggan mythmaking there’s no shortage of stunning flavors, whether a perfectly executed seekh kebab or a lobster dosa that you eat like a taco.

 

The vibe: The whitewashed, colonial-style dining rooms (the Gaggan property was once a residential home) are about the only vestige left of the restaurant that Anand opened back in 2010. While there’s a certain charm to the balloon-back chairs and white tablecloths, the real action at Gaggan goes down in “The Lab” chef’s table, where Gaggan delivers a sermon on the origins and thought process behind every dish.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The long-established restaurant of chef Tim Butler and founder Darren Hausler makes some of the most creative and flavor-packed dishes in town. Open since 1998, the dining room feels as special as ever, while dishes like the Kumamoto oysters in a Champagne granita or clams in a lime broth with naem sausage play with bold flavors while paying total respect to the produce. It’s all served up in a manner that’s conducive to sharing and good times.

 

 

Through a menu that charts in-house rotisserie meats, unctuous stews, Mediterranean seafood and incredible homemade pastas, chef Paolo Vitaletti’s home-style interpretation of Italian cuisine is as close as the city comes to true trattoria dining. Rarer, seasonal items come and go to complement the Roman family recipes, but what seemingly never changes is the restaurant’s mix of class and casual charm, only heightened by an excellent wine list.

 

 

 

Every once in a while, a restaurant concept hits the scene at just the right time. This deli counter-cum-bistro has managed just that, capturing the zeitgeist for fresh, seasonal ingredients cooked well and simply at reasonable prices. Its location—tucked away among a collection of nondescript shophouses—only adds to its allure with foodies who pride themselves on being in-the-know. Such people pack its open courtyard even in the most sweltering heat.

 

 

The Thai outpost of famed “Iron Chef” Masaharu Morimoto of Nobu in New York specializes in the type of fusion-y Japanese cuisine that Morimoto has become world-famous for. A well-heeled coterie of wealthy tourists and expats on expense accounts dine in a soaring Scandinavian-influenced dining room on the signature toro tartare, which comes to the table with nori paste and caviar, hamachi tacos with avocado, and of course, the sushi rolls.

 

 

The second restaurant from Le Du’s Thitid Tassanakajohn focuses on the sort of home cooking that Thais have traditionally enjoyed at their grandparents’ tables. Family recipes are crafted out of traceable ingredients sourced from free-range, organic, chemical-free or sustainable suppliers, resulting in creative renderings of traditional Thai favorites such as kai palo (five-spice stewed egg). The surroundings belie the home-inspired dishes, resembling the sleek, minimalist decor of an Aman resort.

 

 

Dutch chef Henk Savelberg’s classical Continental cooking and clockwork service have won him a Michelin star both back in his native Amsterdam and now here. Championing the sort of bright, delicate flavors that have fallen out of favor with today’s umami-obsessed diners, the kitchen excels in transforming commonplace ingredients such as chicken and cauliflower along with luxe bites like oyster and lobster. The impeccable service and wine list round out the great food.

 

 

If there was ever a restaurant that looked as if it came straight out of an Italian food movie, this is it. The hustle of the servers, the wood-fired red brick pizza oven, the parade of well-coiffed waiters are all sure to delight customers, but the main draw is obviously the pizza, made from dough that has rested for 72 hours. Expect a fun night out in a convivial setting punctuated by Italy’s greatest culinary hits.