Bangkok Restaurants

When we stayed at Anantara Riverside Bangkok, initially we were planning to have dinner at one of the restaurants inside the hotel.

However, we quickly realized that plant-based food options were limited, and nothing really stood out for us.

Luckily there were some restaurants at the mall which was located on the second floor of the sister hotel, Avani+ building.

Bangkok Bold Kitchen was appealing because they had a vegetarian section on their menu.

The dining area was clean and spacious.

I liked that there were a lot of vegetarian options, and many (if not all) seemed vegan.

(I should let you know in advance that we liked the restaurant so much that we went back the next day for lunch. So the pictures you see here were taken from our dinner and lunch.)

This is their Pomelo Salad.

It was not listed on the vegetarian page, so I have a feeling that there may be fish sauce in the dressing.

(I did not notice any “solid” non plant-based food included in this salad.)

It was one of the most positively reviewed dishes, and it was absolutely delicious!

Hands-down the best pomelo salad I’ve ever eaten.

We didn’t think much of these leaves that came with the salad first, but then we realized that there were several leaves, more than what you would place as a garnish.

So we came to the conclusion that we were supposed to eat the salad with these leaves.

Oh my goodness!

I’m glad that we realized that quick enough because the salad tasted even better with these leaves!

This is a MUST-TRY dish at this restaurant.

In fact, the main reason we went back to the next day was we both wanted to eat this salad again.

(My husband even suggested that we should each get one!!)

Another dish I liked was “Caramelized coconut and peanut fresh spring rolls with cucumber relish” from their vegetarian menu.

The filling (coconut and peanut) was packed with umami, and interestingly it had a very nice texture, almost meat-like.

The dipping sauce was pretty sweet; it wasn’t bad, but I would have preferred vinegar-based sauce.

Having said that, I will definitely order this again.

Their flavor is not the only thing that is bold.

Their menu is also bold and offers unique dishes that you don’t see at other Thai restaurants.

This dish was a good example that reflects their boldness.

On the menu it was described as “Rice noodle and fresh vegetables salad with crispy mushrooms” (from the vegetarian menu).

When the server brought this to our table, I was shocked (in a good way).

This was not what I expected.

Yes, there were noodles, and there were crispy mushrooms, but the amount and the variety of vegetables and herbs were insane!

You basically make your own salad from the platter.

The salad came with two small bowls of sauce.

One you see in this picture was spicy, and the other was sweet, and you decide how much you want to use based on your flavor and spice-level preference.

Our server told me that this was only “a little spicy”, but the spicy sauce was “very spicy” for me.

I loved everything about this salad, the freshness of the leaves and herbs, the super crispy mushrooms, and the overall flavor of the sauce.

Except that the sauce was a bit too spicy for me.

It’s such a great dish, and I would happily order it again if they could make the sauce less spicy.

You may think I should just use the other sauce, but the other sauce is basically syrup, so I would still need something to balance the sweetness.

I may have to work hard to improve my Thai speaking skills so that next time I could politely ask them to make the sauce less spicy or get me a different type of sauce.

Anyway, those were the three dishes I really liked.

The following were a few more dishes we tried.

This was listed as “Glass noodle and vegetable spring rolls” (from the vegetarian menu).

I was in the mood for spring rolls, and I quickly decided to order this.

What I didn’t know was that they were deep-fried and not fresh.

In the U.S. “spring rolls” typically mean fresh, and deep-fried ones are called “egg rolls”.

I have seen deep-fried ones sold as “spring rolls” here, so I should have double checked before ordering.

These were not bad, but just not special.

I also tried their “stir fried eggplants with Thai basil”; this was listed on the vegetarian page as well.

I’m an eggplant lover, and I jumped on this one.

Since the menu indicated that this dish was moderately spicy, I asked them not to make it spicy.

The portion was big, but unfortunately it was rather a boring dish, as it lacked flavor.

I wonder if removing the spiciness also took away the flavor somehow…

We had this for dessert on our first visit.

I don’t remember exactly what it was called, but I believe it was described as something like steamed buns with corn coconut custard.

The buns were soft and light, and the custard was creamy and had the right amount of sweetness.

It was very good.

I’m not sure if it was vegan though.

There are two locations, and we found out that the other location was closer to us.

I am looking forward to having the pomelo salad again and trying other vegetarian dishes, maybe curry next time.

I picked Vegan Mahanakhon for my birth-month celebration lunch.

This building is rich in history, and it has been very well preserved.

It’s built entirely with teak wood and the blend of traditional Thai design and Western Colonial influences make this building unique.

A sleepy kitty greeted us (lol).

The dark wood with the white walls creates the perfect background for bright-colored flowers.

Refreshing welcome drinks tasted so good after we walked for 30 minutes from the metro station.

The menu is like a high-quality magazine with professional photos.

They serve traditional Thai dishes, including some interesting unique dishes that you don’t see at other restaurants.

And they are all vegan.

Amazing, isn’t it?

Thai tea.

Excellent.

I saw pictures of this appetizer platter on the google review page, and I was so excited about it.

It was great that we could try various appetizer dishes without getting too full.

Everything was created with amazing attention to detail, and they were all scrumptious!

It’s really a masterpiece.

Other than the appetizer platter we had a hard time choosing dishes because everything looked and sounded so good.

But we decided to try something different and new (to us) for salad, and we ordered Thai-Style Neem with Vegan Sweet Fish Sauce.

The slight bitterness of the “neem” went very well with the sweet sauce.

For the main dish we ordered Massaman curry.

It came with roti, but we additionally ordered two bowls of rice.

It was absolutely delicious as well.

The flavor was rich and perfectly balanced.

It was one of the best restaurants we’ve been to.

We felt everything was very reasonably priced (especially coming from the United States).

The service was wonderful as well.

I’m already planning to have another memorable meal there…

Oh, and I got a cake, too.

My husband ordered it for me!

(I specified the flavor (vanilla) and the design :))

It’s from May Veggie Home .

I wanted my cake to be decorated with fresh fruits, and it looked exactly how I wanted.

This cake was not only pretty but also delicious.

The cake and the cream both had the perfect level of sweetness.

There are so many hidden gems in Bangkok, and Mother May I is one of them.

(Or maybe it’s not that hidden as there was a large group of tourists posing in every part of the property for photos (lol).)

It’s located in a residential area, on a small street, away from the city’s hustle and bustle.

We found it by chance during our afternoon leisurely stroll.

The gate is inviting, and on the other side of the gate is a charming garden.

Currently decorated with the Christmas theme.

The terrace is lovely as well.

I was so sure I wanted to have a table on the terrace, but once inside I was equally impressed.

Since it was quite hot outside, we decided to stay inside, where it was nicely air-conditioned.

They mostly serve Thai food with some western dishes.

They also offer some vegan/vegetarian dishes, but nothing jumped out.

Since we were not hungry anyway, we just ordered something to drink.

Kumquat Thai Tea.

This was tart and refreshing.

Rose Longan Tea.

The flavor was unique and very good.

We enjoyed these drinks, but since they were both quite sweet, we felt we should have ordered one of them unsweetened.

It was such an elegant space.

Pretty spacious too.

It will be perfect for mother’s day celebration, girls brunch, or even a wedding.

My husband found this place and suggested that we should go check it out on Sunday for our Sunday pizza dinner.

When I was not sure how to enter, a gentleman came out and warmly greeted us.

Staff were very nice, friendly and answered all our questions well.

Once inside, you notice all the beautiful bottles displayed.

The place felt like a bar rather than a restaurant.

The place was really hip, decorated with black x white pictures of artists, who, the staff told us, are vegetarians/vegans.

We got there around 7:00 p.m., our usual dinner time, which was probably early for most of their customers (lol).

Apparently we were the first to arrive there that night.

It was nice I was able to take a lot of pictures without bothering other people.

They serve various foods including Thai dishes, but we had pizza as my husband set his mind on pizza that night.

Overall, it was a good vegan pizza.

The vegan pepperoni and cheese were very good.

I will go to Vegano Bangkok if I want to eat pizza, but I would come here to meet friends for drinks and snacks and listen to hip hop music.

When we were there a few weeks ago, the staff told us that they had only been open for three weeks.

I hope they do well.

It is really a fantastic place where you can enjoy music AND various vegan dishes!

Mercy Republic – Website

It was the first time for us to have Thanksgiving outside the U.S., and we spent the day very differently.

No turkey, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, or pumpkin pie.

But nonetheless, we had a wonderful meal with great friends.

If you really want the traditional Thanksgiving dinner, you can find it at several hotels in Bangkok.

But since none of us really loved turkey, we decided to have a very nontraditional meal for that day.

We picked Din Tai Fung.

They offer many vegetarian (most of them if not all seemed vegan), and the pictures and reviews were great, so I was excited to try.

You can watch how their dumplings are made through the glass window.

Din Tai Fung originated in Taiwan, but they have restaurants outside of Taiwan, including the U.S.

In Bangkok there are three locations, and our friend suggested that we should go to the Central Embassy one because of their view.

She was right.

The view was amazing!

They are known for their juicy pork dumplings.

Instead of pork, we had mushrooms ones, “Steamed Assorted Mushroom Xiao Long Bao Infused with Truffle Oil”, and they were delicious.

We also had these “Steamed Vegetarian Dumplings”, and they were equally tasty too.

In addition to the dumplings we had a few more dishes.

This was “Oriental Salad in Special Vinegar Dressing”, and I absolutely loved it.

Stir-fried Spinach with Garlic.

“Deep-fried Homemade Tofu with Water Chestnuts and Mushrooms”

These were scrumptious!

It was crispy outside and soft inside.

I loved the texture of the water chestnuts in the soft tofu.

It wasn’t listed as “vegetarian (or vegan)”, but if anything I would guess there was some egg in the batter.

It came with tasty sweet chili sauce.

We also had three kinds of steamed buns: vegetables, mushrooms, and sweet red beans.

They were all good, but by that time I was already full, so I didn’t need them.

This was our first time, so we didn’t know how much to order.

Next time I will order exactly the same except that I will get 5 dumplings each instead of 8, no steamed buns, but I will get a bowl of Dan Dan Noodle (on the menu it indicates they can make it vegetarian).

Din Tan Fung – Menu

I cannot wait to go back.

After our lunch we went upstairs for a cup of tea.

If you are in this mall, you should definitely check out this area.

It’s a large bookstore with several cafes all over the floor.

Beautiful and comfortable space.

The same night we met with my husband’s ex-colleague who was visiting Bangkok from the U.S. and we went to the Speakeasy Rooftop Bar for a drink.

It was a really cool place, and the view was amazing.

We don’t drink alcohol much, so we hardly go to a bar.

So it was a nice opportunity for us to experience this rooftop bar scene.

Our plan was to check out a popular cafe that is introduced everywhere on social media as “a must visit”, but on our way there, we got distracted.

When the gate decorated with the beautiful flowers was so inviting, and we decided to quickly check out this place.

Straight ahead we saw a cute cafe called Sala Bran Cafe – “fermented food & beverage”.

I always liked fermented food, and my husband recently began to express interest in fermented food, so we were excited to check it out.

When we found out we could try some fermented drinks, we changed our plan and spend our afternoon here instead of the original destination.

The dining room is bright with large windows.

There is a nursery next door, and you feel surrounded by greens even though you are indoors.

My husband had their house-brewed Kombucha.

He liked it.

I had ginger Amazake.

We also had Kinako cookies.

The following day we went back because we wanted to try their lunch.

We had Tempeh lunch set.

I loved that it comes with all the small dishes, many of which included some fermented items.

My favorite was tempeh.

The texture and taste were both excellent.

This is not a vegan meal (it’s NOT described as “vegan”), but I believe it’s mostly (probably close to 95% (that’s my guess) plant-based).

Their menu explains what each dish is on the tray, in English and Japanese for sure, (and maybe in Thai as well?).

We also shared a small piece of cheesecake (not vegan) and a cup of tea.

The cheesecake was delicious.

There is a little shop near the entrance, where you can purchase some baked goods, kombucha, and some other fermented items, like this one.

I am thinking of going back to buy their Shio koji.

The puppy was so friendly!

If you ever go to the cafe, make sure to check out the nursery next door on the same campus, called The Jungle on Ekamai.

It’s a wonderful oasis in the middle of the city.

It’s beautiful, whimsical, and the selection and display of items shows the owner’s good taste.

On the same campus you will also find a salon, where you can take a rice bran enzyme bath!

The cafe staff (owner?), Ms. Kumi, invited us to see the bath, and it was pretty impressive.

Sala Bran Cafe – Website

It was another place that was on our list for a long time.

Broccoli Revolution is located an 8-minute walk from Thong Lo BTS station.

Once you enter, you notice the high ceiling and how bright it is inside.

The place is flooded with natural light.

There are a lot of plants, which also adds organic natural feel to the space.

It’s located on a busy street, but once inside you forget the hustle and bustle of the city.

The menu is pretty big.

My husband had Zen Burger made of jackfruit, and a side of fried potatoes.

He loved it.

(I had a bite, and it was delicious.)

It didn’t look big, but it (minus a big piece taken by me) made him full.

I decided to try something new to me.

It was “Khao Gaeng Som: Thai sour curry served with organic brown rice”.

It had complicated flavor and was very tasty.

I’m glad I tried it.

It tasted something fermented.

I didn’t know exactly what, but I liked it.

The soup had a kick to it, but I wouldn’t say it was overly spicy.

They serve a nice mix of Western and Asian dishes.

I want to try the Broccoli Quinoa Charcoal Burger next time.

They also had some sweets displayed on the counter.

Unfortunately, we were too full to try any.

Broccoli Revolution – Website

We will definitely go back, hopefully soon!