The other night, a mate who'd just landed from Lyon asked me "so, where do you actually go in Bangkok?" I opened Google Maps and scrolled through my saved places. There are 247 of them. But the ones I genuinely return to — regularly, year after year — I can count on two hands. The rest is noise. Places I tried once, sometimes decent, usually forgotten by the following week.
What follows is my personal list. Not a "best of Bangkok 2025" roundup written by someone who spent 72 hours in the city. These are the places where the staff know me by name, where I know exactly what to order, and where I feel at home after seven years here. Some are well-known among expats, others far less so. None of them paid me to write this — and given the state of my blog, no one ever will.
Café des Stagiaires — My work HQ since 2021
I stumbled on Café des Stagiaires by accident, looking for somewhere with decent wifi near Silom. The name made me smile. The coffee made me stay.
It's a café run by French people (yes, another French café in Bangkok, but this one's actually worth your time). The vibe is laid-back, the wifi is rock-solid — and trust me, stable wifi in a Bangkok café is not a given. I come here two to three times a week to work. The flat white is good, the pastries are solid, and above all there's this unwritten rule: nobody hassles you if you sit there for three hours nursing a single coffee. In some of the trendy Thonglor cafés, you start getting side-eye after 45 minutes.
The crowd is a mix of digital nomads, francophone expats and freelancing Thais. I met my current accountant here. I've also written at least half of this blog's articles at one of its tables.
Practical tip: Get there before 10am on weekdays if you want a seat with a power outlet. After that, it's a battlefield. Weekends are quieter — but the kitchen closes earlier.
CALM — The bar I don't take just anyone to
CALM is my local bar. Well, "local" — you still have to find it. It's a speakeasy-not-quite-speakeasy tucked away in the Ekkamai area. No flashy sign, no promoters at the door, no music at 140 dB. Just seriously well-crafted cocktails, dimmed lighting, and bartenders who know what they're doing.
I go there when I need to decompress after a rubbish day, or when I've got a date I want to impress without falling into the rooftop-bar trap of paying 350 baht for a gin and tonic. Here, cocktails run between 280 and 380 bahts, and every one of them is worth it.
What I love: the menu rotates regularly, but there's always a flawless old fashioned. And the staff remember what you drank last time. After three years, the head bartender makes me "the usual" without me having to say a word.
Playlys — The place that made me believe in a social life in Bangkok
Bangkok is a city where you can have 200 acquaintances and zero real friends. I lived that reality for my first two years. Playlys changed things — not single-handedly, but it helped.
It's a hybrid space: part café, part bar, part coworking spot, part events venue. The concept might sound vague from the outside, but in practice it works. They regularly host themed nights, board-game sessions, screenings. It's the kind of place you walk into alone and leave with someone's phone number — and not in the sketchy sense.
I met two of my closest current friends there during a quiz night on a rainy Tuesday in monsoon season. We were soaked, a bit drunk, and we finished dead last. Five years later, we see each other every week.
My everyday canteens — Where I actually eat
When people ask me "where should I eat in Bangkok?", I can always tell they're expecting the names of Instagrammable restaurants. But the reality of my life is that 80% of the time I eat at places that don't even have a name on Google Maps.
There's the lady from soi 38 — well, the former soi 38, since the market got relocated — who makes the best pad kra pao I've had in seven years. There's the guy on the corner of my soi in On Nut who does a 50-baht khao man gai that would blow any French chef's mind. And there's Jeh O Chula, the only "famous" spot on my list, for tom yum mama at 2am when nothing else is going right.
But for the places with an actual address you can look up, here's my comparison table:
| Place | Area | Type | Average budget | Best for | How often (me) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Café des Stagiaires | Silom | Café / coworking | 150–250 ฿ | Quiet work session | 2–3x / week |
| CALM | Ekkamai | Cocktail bar | 600–900 ฿ | Date / unwinding | 2x / month |
| Playlys | Ari | Café-bar-events | 200–400 ฿ | Meeting people | 1–2x / month |
| Khao man gai coin d'On Nut | On Nut | Street food | 50–70 ฿ | Quick lunch | 3–4x / week |
| Jeh O Chula | Sam Yan | Restaurant / late night | 200–350 ฿ | Late-night feed | 1x / month |
| Iwane Goes Nature | Charoen Krung | Brunch café | 250–400 ฿ | Chill weekend | 2x / month |
Iwane Goes Nature — My weekend sanctuary
Charoen Krung has become the trendy neighbourhood in recent years, and I'm not going to pretend it's "my little secret". But I was going to Iwane Goes Nature before the influencers descended, and I still go now that the hype has died down a bit.
It's a café in an old wooden house, with a small garden. The brunch is excellent — the pancakes are a serious threat to my waistline — and the place has something rare in Bangkok: silence. No blaring music, no giant screens, no staff shouting out order numbers. Just the hum of ceiling fans and birdsong.
I go on Sunday mornings with a book. It's my ritual. When I skip it, the week starts off wrong.
Worth knowing: A lot of "trendy" spots in Bangkok close or reinvent themselves within 18 to 24 months. Every place in this article has survived at least 3 years — that's my rule before recommending anywhere. Still, double-check opening hours before you go, because hours in Bangkok are more of a suggestion than a rule.
Places I've stopped taking people to
If I'm going to be honest, I might as well go all the way. There are places I used to recommend three years ago that I've since crossed off my list.
Khao San Road — I've been once in seven years, to tag along with my sister when she visited. That was enough. It's loud, it's overpriced for what it is, and it's basically a theme park for backpackers. No judgement on those who love it — it's just not my thing.
Rooftop bars in general — at 350–500 bahts a drink, with a view that looks the same from one building to the next, I checked out. I take visitors to Vertigo once, for the photo, and that's it.
Thonglor after 11pm — it was my going-out neighbourhood during my early years. Now prices have climbed, the clubs all look alike, and I'm 38. The cost-benefit calculation just doesn't work anymore.
What I wish I'd known
When I arrived in Bangkok in 2018, I did what everyone does: I followed "Top 10" lists and recommendations from blogs written by people passing through. I spent money and time on places that weren't right for me.
What I wish I'd known is that the best spots in Bangkok aren't found on Google — they're found by talking to people who actually live here. By being willing to walk through the door of a place with no stars on TripAdvisor. By going back to the same spot enough times that it becomes yours.
I also wish I'd known that places change, and that it's normal. Bangkok is a city in permanent reconstruction. Today's incredible restaurant might be a 7-Eleven in six months. It's frustrating, but it's also what keeps this city alive.
My last piece of advice: don't look for "the best spots in Bangkok". Look for your spots. The ones where you feel good, where the coffee is the way you like it, where the bartender knows your name. It takes time. It's worth it.
And if you swing by Café des Stagiaires on a Tuesday morning, look for the guy with the beat-up MacBook and the flat white. That's probably me.