The delights of Sukhumvit Soi 55 in Bangkok
The possibilities to enter Bangkok delicious and unusual to eat are almost unlimited. In many cities you have those typical streets where restaurants in all sorts of variations like the well-known mushrooms sprouting from the ground and exerting a certain attraction on the public.
On Sukhumvit Road, soi 55 is such a street that is also very easily accessible by skytrain.
Just get on and leave in the direction of Bearing and then get off at the Thong Lo stop. You are then close to this street, which is dotted with many international restaurants. ภาษาไทย, Japanese, Korean or Chinese? You'll find them all there, and none of them will cost you a fortune.
Explore the street
If you walk into Soi 55 from Sukhumvit Road on the left side, you will immediately come across a beautiful store where you can find the most beautiful quality mangoes all year round. Almost next to it you see two small Thai restaurants, one of which uses the slogan “Thai food, very good and cheap”. We walk further and see another small restaurant and then a Korean BBQ restaurant. In this street you will encounter several restaurants marked BBQ. A name designation that here has a completely different meaning than the one we assign to it.
You can prepare the ordered meats at the table on a plate or grid. Walking further you will see the Japanese restaurant listening to the name Gyumi and a few meters further the slightly set back Japanese restaurant Kikori. There is even a Japanese bakery and a few meters further you will see the Grand Ramen restaurant, which we will return to later in this story. We pass the Thai restaurant Sararome and walking a little further, for the more romantically inclined, the Anagarden restaurant (www.anagarden.com) located in a garden setting. We walk a little further until we see a small shopping center on the other side of the street, which includes Tops Market.
To the other side
No doubt there are quite a few more 'eateries' if you keep walking, but when we arrive at this point we cross the street very carefully and carefully looking left and right and end up at the small shopping centre. If you need coffee, you will see the famous American Starbucks coffee shop on the corner. When you enter Tops Market - set up years ago by Albert Heijn - you will see a nice sitting area immediately to the right of the entrance where you can enjoy a good espresso from Segafredo. Looking around you also see a Burger King. Walk into the small street where you will find two trendy shops on the corner and also a few steps further. You will also find a shop there called Wine Loft, where you can not only buy the wine but also taste it. More in the mood for an ice cream? Swensen's ice cream parlor is also present around this square.
We now walk back to our starting point on this side of the street towards Sukhumvit Road and pass the Italian restaurant Beccafino and then another Japanese and Yakinki BBQ restaurant. You also pass a Japanese or Chinese tiny restaurant that is always occupied to the last seat. A little further you will find Kun Hyang where you can use the buffet for only 289 baht. It's going to get a bit monotonous, because again you pass a Japanese BBQ and then the Thai restaurant Soul Food with the vegetarian restaurant The Yoga Place next to it. Judging by the many empty seats, the visitors to this street are less concerned with their souls, nor very keen on vegetarian food.
We arrived back at the starting point Sukhumvit and also encountered a few beautiful flower stalls on the walk. The total walking distance is about half an hour and in that time you have seen a lot of restaurants of many nationalities. But where do you want to eat now? Perhaps a little afraid of the unknown?
Recommendation
If you want to try something different and take little risk, then step inside the aforementioned Japanese Grand Ramen with peace of mind. They have an excellently understandable menu on which all dishes are depicted in colorful photos and text. Unfortunately, the text is not indicated in an understandable language for most of us, but even if you don't speak Chinese, Thai or Japanese, you can easily get by here. The name of the restaurant is Grand Ramen and my feeling is that the word 'ramen' just means soup. You will find no less than forty different species on the map. Mind you, you will be served a richly filled bowl of soup, after which you hardly dare to eat anything.
I myself had planned to order another portion of Ebichirirosu after the fish soup. The name alone attracted me. From the picture shown I could tell that 'ebi' are shrimps. After the otherwise excellent tasting fish soup I decided not to, because then I would not have been able to say boo or bah. It is also nice that cold tea is poured regularly, completely free of charge. So I left my beer bottle alone. Of course there are also many other dishes on the menu, but don't start with one of those forty otherwise delicious soups. Next time I will start with the Ebichirirosa, or maybe I will take a chance at one of the many other nice restaurants.
Too bad I don't live in Bangkok because then I would like to try them all.
The walk does not seem to me to have been taken recently! In the meantime, Beccofino has already been flattened for new construction and at the beginning of Soi 55, on the right, near the aforementioned flower stall, a fine Thai restaurant has been built. It's called Sit and Wonder, run by a young Thai who worked in the hospitality industry in New York for 5 years. Excellent and affordable food is served in a Loft-like setting. As a resident of Soi 38, come there often and to be clear: I am not a shareholder!
Had dinner at Sit and Wonder tonight, nice business. Fine food. You will walk right past it, so pay attention…
Very nice and well worded article.
I myself have been living in Thong Lo (Soi 55) for years.
It must be said that what the author writes is correct. He only talks about the first 500 meters inward soi Thong Lo.
However, if you walk further you will come across many more nice and special eateries. Would lead us too far afield to begin listing them.
Also very trendy and extremely cozy cafes and bistros with or without a nice terrace.
Everything interesting in Thong Lo can be found in roughly the first 1,2 kilometers from Thong Lo BTS station.
Now I have to say honestly that Thong Lo is not exactly a pleasant street to walk in. It is extremely busy and dangerous to cross the street, especially since the street is quite wide.
Another negative point is that the footpaths (2,5 to 3m wide) are difficult to walk on easily due to the many eateries that have simply settled on the public road (footpaths). Actually, this is not possible at all, but nobody seems to care about it.
These eateries (on the footpaths) offer cheap food that is mostly used by Thais. You will enjoy your meal in the exhaust fumes of the many cars and motorbikes, with (occasionally) cockroaches walking between your feet. And still silent about the street noise.
So we shouldn't be too romantic about Thong Lo, but the essence of what was written is correct.
Personally, I think Thong Lo is the most “pleasant” in the evening when it is dark.
Then your attention will not be distracted by the rubbish on the street and the extremely ugly electrical cables floating in the air. You don't think this is possible if you haven't seen it with your own eyes.
For the rest, don't worry too much and consent to the nice restaurants.
Be careful and enjoy it.