BANGKOK · YAOWARAT ROUTE

Yaowarat Route

Yaowarat, Bangkok's Chinatown. After dark the stalls flood the pavements and the street fills with charcoal smoke and the smell of seafood. From the grilled seafood and curried crab of Soi Texas to Michelin guay jub, oyster omelette, and a closing bowl of grass jelly — a night route through Teochew food, shop by shop.

🚇 MRT Blue Line, Wat Mangkon Stn🚶 ~150 min on foot🍽 6 dishes

What Yaowarat is

Yaowarat is Bangkok's Chinatown, formed from the mid-19th century as Chinese merchants gathered here. The spine is a glittering avenue lined with gold shops, and narrow lanes branch off it. By day it is a trading street of dried goods, herbal medicine and gold; once the sun drops, the street changes face. Stalls are built along the pavements, charcoal smoke and the smell of grilling seafood settle over everything, and the whole street becomes a single canteen. Since the MRT Blue Line's Wat Mangkon station opened, you can drop straight into this night street by subway.

What to eat at the stalls

Chinatown food follows Teochew and Cantonese lines, and seafood is the headline. At the mouth of Soi Texas (Soi Phadungdao), the green T&K and red Lek & Rut face each other, serving charcoal-grilled prawns and pu pad pong — crab stir-fried with egg and curry powder. For noodles there is guay jub, rolled rice noodle in a peppery broth; Ouan Pochana and Nai Ek split the crowd, both Michelin Bib Gourmand. Nai Mong's oyster omelette (hoi tod), a light bowl of bamee, and to close, Teochew grass jelly and sweet bird's-nest soups. Oily seafood and palate-clearing sweets alternate, bite after bite.

How to walk this route

Yaowarat comes alive at night. Most stalls start up around 4–6pm and run until late. Coming out of MRT Wat Mangkon, the basic shape is to walk back and forth through the lanes between Yaowarat Road and Charoen Krung, eating as you go. Build a base on the Soi Texas seafood, change the taste with guay jub and hoi tod, and finish on something sweet. Much of the seafood is market price, so check size and cost before ordering. Popular places have queues, but put your name down and wander the nearby stalls and no time is wasted. Most stalls take cash only (Thai baht), and many sign only in Thai or Chinese, so showing each shop's Thai script makes it easier to find.

Route map

Wat Mangkon → Yaowarat Rd → Soi Texas → Chinatown lanes (nights, ~1km)　·　numbers match the dishes below

The dishes on this route (6)

Tap through to each shop and dish

魚1SeafoodT&K Seafood×Grilled Seafoodที แอนด์ เค ซีฟู้ด × ซีฟู้ดย่างOn the corner of Yaowarat and Soi Texas, staff in green shirts stand over buckets of prawns and crab. After dark the tables spill onto the pavement and charcoal smoke drifts down the street. Order salt-grilled or garlic prawns, or clams stir-fried with basil, and eat them with plain rice. Cheap and generous — the benchmark for street seafood.Nearest Yaowarat Rd × Soi Phadungdao (Soi Texas)Price ฿100–400 麺2NoodlesGuay Jub Ouan Pochana×Guay Jubก๋วยจั๊บอ้วนโภชนา × ก๋วยจั๊บRolled tubes of rice noodle simmered in a clear, heavily peppered broth, topped with pork offal and crisp-fried pork belly, the pepper hot enough to raise a sweat. The rolls come apart in the mouth as you slurp. This cart has stood in front of the China Town Rama cinema for over fifty years, and holds a Michelin Bib Gourmand.Nearest Charoen Krung Rd (by China Town Rama cinema)Price ฿60–80 魚3SeafoodNai Mong Hoi Thod×Oyster Omeletteนายหมงหอยทอด × หอยทอดEgg and rice-flour batter spread on a hot plate, oysters laid in and fried hard. Two ways to order: the thin, crisp orsuan, or the softer, egg-bound hoi tod. The outside crackles; the oysters stay half-cooked and burst with juice. Eaten with a sweet-hot garlic chilli sauce.Nearest Phlap Phla Chai Rd (north of Yaowarat)Price ฿60–120 魚4SeafoodLek Seafood×Pu Pad Pong Curryเล็ก ซีฟู้ด × ปูผัดผงกะหรี่Crab, shell and all, folded through curry powder and egg. Not spicy — the smell is sweet with egg and curry. You pick the meat from the shell and spoon the egg and sauce over rice. It gets messy, so a paper bib comes with it. Served by the red-shirted stall at the mouth of Soi Texas, across from T&K.Nearest Soi Phadungdao (Soi Texas)Price market price, crab ฿400–800 麺5NoodlesYaowarat bamee stall×Bameeบะหมี่Thin egg noodles blanched and topped with char siu, wonton and greens. Choose soup, or dry with just the sauce tossed through — for the dry bowl, mix the sauce up from the bottom before you eat. The curl of the noodle and the sauce differ from cart to cart, and small shops making only this one bowl are scattered through Chinatown.Nearest Stalls around Yaowarat RdPrice ฿50–70 甘6SweetsYaowarat sweet stall×Grass Jellyเฉาก๊วยBlack grass jelly (chao kuai) cut into cubes, crushed ice and syrup poured over. Faintly bitter and slippery, just right to clear the palate after oily seafood. Some stalls serve warm sweet soups of bird's nest or white fungus, close to Chinese tonic cooking. A fitting close to a Chinatown night.Nearest Sweet stalls on Yaowarat RdPrice ฿40–60

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