Destination guide
The Best Bangkok Food Tours, and How to Pick One
Ten or fifteen dishes in an evening, with someone who knows which stall to queue at
A Bangkok food tour is a guided walk or ride between street stalls and old family shops, usually three to four hours with ten to fifteen tastings, and the guide does the ordering, the queuing and the explaining. Most group tours cost ฿1,700 to ฿2,900 a person, or US$59 where they're sold in dollars, with the food included. Three operators come up again and again in the reviews, blog lists and Reddit threads I read.
They're A Chef's Tour, with its small evening walk through Chinatown, Bangkok Food Tours, which runs the midnight tuk tuk tour and a long list of other routes, and Expique, whose evening tuk tuk tour starts across the river in Thonburi. For a first night I'd book a Chinatown walk, and if you'd rather ride than walk, a tuk tuk tour after dark.
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Key Facts
฿1,700 to ฿2,900 a person
Bangkok Food Tours lists its routes from ฿1,700 to ฿2,900, Expique's evening food tour is ฿2,650, and A Chef's Tour charges US$59. The food is included on all of them, and children usually pay less.
Three to four hours
Most tours run three to four hours. The canal and market mornings run longer, about five hours.
Most start in the evening
The Chinatown walks and tuk tuk tours start between late afternoon and about 19:30, when the heat eases and Yaowarat's stalls open. Daytime tours start between 09:00 and 13:30.
Small groups
A Chef's Tour and Expique's food tour take up to 8 people, and Bangkok Food Tours' midnight tuk tuk tour takes up to 16. Every operator here also runs private tours.
Ten to fifteen tastings
Expect 10 to 15 or more tastings with water or a drink, and a beer at one stop on the evening tuk tuk tours. Plan nothing more than a light lunch beforehand.
Check the dietary notes
Most routes are built on pork and seafood and can't swap them out. Bangkok Food Tours runs a vegetarian tour and a halal tour, and Expique sends vegetarians to its Night Lights tour instead of its food tour.
Bangkok Food Tours Compared
| Tour | Operator | Price | Length | Starts | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chinatown evening walk | A Chef's Tour | US$59 | 3.5 to 4 hours | Late afternoon | A first night, in a group of 8 or fewer |
| Yaowarat street food walk | Bangkok Food Tours | ฿1,800 | 3 hours | 18:00 | Chinatown on a smaller budget |
| Midnight food tour by tuk tuk | Bangkok Food Tours | ฿2,500 | About 4 hours | Early evening | Night owls, and vegetarians |
| Evening food and tuk tuk | Expique | ฿2,650 | 4 hours | 18:00 | Meat eaters who want Thonburi and Chinatown |
| Old Bangkok lunchtime walk with a canal boat | A Chef's Tour | From US$59 | About 4 hours | Morning | Daytime eaters |
| Historic Bang Rak tasting walk | Bangkok Food Tours | ฿1,700 | 3.5 hours | 13:00 | An afternoon in the old riverside district |
| Thonburi food and canals | Bangkok Food Tours | ฿2,500 | 5 hours | 09:00 | A morning on the water |
| Old Bangkok by motorbike | Bangkok Food Tours | ฿2,900 | 4 hours | 17:00 | Riders who want the back streets |
| Vegetarian food tour by tuk tuk | Bangkok Food Tours | From ฿2,400 | 4 hours | 13:30 | Vegetarians |
Prices are per adult for a join-in tour, from each operator's own site. Some routes run join-in tours only on certain days and privately on the others, and private prices per person rise for one or two people. Booking sites sell the same tours under different names, sometimes at different prices.
The Food Tours the Reviews Agree On
Ranked by how many independent reviews, ranking pages and Reddit threads recommend each operator.
1. A Chef's Tour, Chinatown (Yaowarat)
Best overallThe evening walk meets on the terrace of the Shanghai Mansion hotel on Yaowarat Road and spends three and a half to four hours in Chinatown's back lanes, with 15 or more tastings over seven or eight stops. Groups are capped at 8, which reviewers often mention, since a small group finds a seat at stalls a big one can't. It's US$59 a person, children 3 to 12 pay half, and it's all on foot, through lanes a tuk tuk can't enter.
There's also a lunchtime tour of the old markets that starts with a canal taxi boat ride, also from US$59. Neither tour is vegetarian, there's no beef, and pork and seafood each show up in three or four dishes with no swaps, so it suits people who eat everything. The evening page allows free cancellation up to 24 hours ahead.
- Getting there
- Shanghai Mansion is on Yaowarat Road, and Wat Mangkon is the MRT station for Yaowarat. The daytime tour has its own meeting point, sent when you book.
- When to go
- Evening departures start in the late afternoon, and the lunchtime tour runs in the morning.
2. Bangkok Food Tours, Sam Yan, Chinatown, Bang Rak and Thonburi
Best for choice, and for vegetariansRunning since 2011, it has the widest range in the city. Its best-known tour is the Best Eats Midnight Food Tour by Tuk Tuk, which meets at Sam Yan MRT in the early evening and rides for about four hours to an Isan restaurant, a noodle stall that flames its wok, the flower market and Banthat Thong Road, then finishes at a rooftop bar facing Wat Arun with a beer. There are 10 or more dishes and drinks, groups of 2 to 16, and a drop-off at your hotel in central Bangkok. It's ฿2,500, ฿1,900 for children 6 to 12, and it suits vegetarians but not vegans.
The cheaper walks are the Yaowarat street food tour at ฿1,800 from 18:00 and the Bang Rak afternoon walk at ฿1,700, and the longer days include a Thonburi canal morning and a motorbike tour of old Bangkok. It also runs a vegetarian tour and a halal tour, both by tuk tuk, from ฿2,400. You pay a 50% deposit and the rest in cash, and the refund shrinks as the date nears, so this is the one to book when your dates are firm.
- Getting there
- The midnight tour meets at Sam Yan MRT, and the Yaowarat walk starts from Hua Lamphong MRT.
- When to go
- Every evening for the midnight tour, and on set days for the join-in walks.
3. Expique, Thonburi to Chinatown
Best evening tuk tuk tourExpique's Evening Food and Tuk Tuk Adventure meets at Krung Thonburi BTS at 18:00 and spends four hours crossing from the Thonburi side to Chinatown, two to a tuk tuk. You get four seated tastings, at least one snack on the move, pork satay to start, a noodle stop, a beer at one stop and dessert in Chinatown, plus a surprise or two. Join-in groups are capped at 8, and it's ฿2,650 a person, with a minimum age of 10.
The food tour isn't suitable for vegetarians or anyone with dietary limits, and Expique says so itself. Its Night Lights tuk tuk tour, ฿2,550, is the one it suggests instead, with market snacks, dinner at a local restaurant and dessert in Chinatown, and vegetarian, halal and gluten-free options. That one is more of a sightseeing tour with dinner than a food tour, and Expique describes it that way.
- Getting there
- Krung Thonburi BTS, on the Silom Line across the river. The tour ends in Chinatown, with a tuk tuk drop-off within a limited area.
- When to go
- Evenings, starting at 18:00. A date change within 24 hours costs ฿500.
Other Bangkok Food Tours Worth a Look
Several other operators show up on the booking sites and in Google's map results, and fewer of the reviews I read name them, which says more about how often they're written up than about the tours. Secret Food Tours runs a Chinatown and Hua Lamphong tour of about three to three and a half hours with six stops at US$44.99 and has more Google reviews than any of the three above. Must Try Bangkok Tours runs a hidden Bangkok bike and food tour with street snacks and a sit-down meal, Jamming Thailand an e-scooter night tour with street food from Thonburi, and Bigcountry a Michelin Guide street food tour by tuk tuk of about three hours. Bangkok Vanguards lists a full-day Ultimate Bangkok Food Tour, co-designed with the food writer Mark Wiens, with 25 or more tastings and a boat through the Thonburi canals, though its page shows no recent dates, so I'd confirm it's running before you plan around it.
How to Choose a Bangkok Food Tour
Start with the time of day. The evening tours are the classic choice, because the heat eases and Chinatown's stalls are open, and the morning tours suit you if you'd rather spend the evening elsewhere.
For a first night in Bangkok
A small Chinatown walk. A Chef's Tour keeps groups to 8, and Bangkok Food Tours' Yaowarat walk costs ฿1,800 if you'd rather spend less.
For night owls
A tuk tuk tour. Bangkok Food Tours' midnight tour ends at a rooftop bar and drops you at your hotel, and Expique's evening tour covers more of Thonburi and has smaller groups. You eat a few fewer dishes than on a walk, and you see far more of the city between them.
For vegetarians
Bangkok Food Tours is the easy answer, with a vegetarian tour by tuk tuk from ฿2,400 and a midnight tour it says suits vegetarians. Expique's Night Lights tour takes vegetarian, halal and gluten-free diets. Skip Expique's food tour and A Chef's Tour, which both say plainly that they can't cater for vegetarians.
For families
A Chef's Tour charges half for children 3 to 12, and Bangkok Food Tours charges ฿1,900 for children 6 to 12 on the midnight tour. Expique's food tour is for ages 10 and up.
Arriving in Bangkok
Top-Ranked Hotels in Bangkok
The top of my ranked list of the 10 best hotels in Bangkok. Each button opens the hotel on Booking.com with your dates filled in.
#2Shangri-La Bangkok4.6 (11,460 reviews)
Luxury riverside hotel in Bang Rak with Chao Phraya views, acclaimed service, and full resort facilities.
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#3Siam Kempinski Hotel Bangkok4.7 (6,977 reviews)
Siam Kempinski Hotel Bangkok solves the Siam district's biggest weakness — nowhere serene to sleep — by hiding a resort-style garden of saltwater pools directly
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#4Mandarin Oriental, Bangkok4.7 (6,702 reviews)
A legendary riverside hotel in Bangkok's Bang Rak district, offering elegant rooms, world-class dining, and a celebrated spa.
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Doing It Yourself in Yaowarat
You don't need a tour to eat well in Chinatown. Yaowarat Road fills with stalls from about 18:00, a few minutes from Wat Mangkon MRT exit 1, and a crawl of one dish per stall costs ฿200 to ฿400. Start with kuay jab, the peppery rolled noodle soup at Nai Ek, add grilled seafood at T&K on the corner of Phadung Dao, and finish with kanom buang, the crisp Thai crêpes. What a tour adds is the ordering, the history and a seat at the busy stalls, and what you give up doing it yourself is mostly the queue-skipping. It's thinner on Mondays, when many stalls take their weekly day off.
Booking Tips
Book a few days ahead from December to February, the busy cool-season months, since the small-group tours take only 8, and book direct if you want the operator's own refund rules. Those rules differ a lot. A Chef's Tour's evening page allows free cancellation up to 24 hours before. Bangkok Food Tours takes a 50% deposit, charges 10% if you cancel more than a week out and half from two to six days, and keeps the full price inside 48 hours or if you're more than 10 minutes late. Expique charges ฿500 to change your date within 24 hours. The tours run in the rain, so pack a light jacket or an umbrella in the wet months rather than counting on a refund.
Eat a light lunch, wear shoes you can walk in for four hours, and bring small notes for drinks or a tip. If you're doing a cooking class too, do the food tour first, since you'll know which dishes you want to learn.
Plan the rest of your eating in Bangkok.
Frequently Asked Questions
Common questions about The Best Bangkok Food Tours, and How to Pick One.
Yes on a first visit, especially on your first night, because the guide orders, explains and gets you a seat at stalls with queues. If you're comfortable pointing at dishes, a self-guided evening in Yaowarat costs ฿200 to ฿400 and gets you much of the same food.
A Chef's Tour's evening Chinatown walk is the one the most reviews recommend, followed by Bangkok Food Tours' midnight tuk tuk tour and Expique's evening food and tuk tuk tour.
Most group tours cost ฿1,700 to ฿2,900 a person with the food included. A Chef's Tour charges US$59 and Secret Food Tours US$44.99. Private tours cost more per person for one or two people.
Yaowarat, Bangkok's Chinatown, from about 18:00, is the easiest to eat your way through on foot. Bang Rak by the river and Thonburi across it are the other districts the food tours cover.
An evening tour that carries you between food stops in tuk tuks, usually two people to a vehicle, for about four hours. Bangkok Food Tours' midnight tour costs ฿2,500 and Expique's evening tour ฿2,650.
Most aren't, because the routes are built on pork and seafood. Bangkok Food Tours runs a vegetarian tour by tuk tuk from ฿2,400 and says its midnight tour suits vegetarians, and Expique's Night Lights tour takes vegetarian diets.
Three to four hours for the evening walks and tuk tuk tours, and about five hours for the canal and market mornings.
The evening tours start between late afternoon and about 19:30, and the daytime tours between 09:00 and 13:30.
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Written by
Mac Kiley
I lived in Bangkok for four years and traveled the country from there. The guides are my own opinions, written the way I'd explain them to a friend planning a trip.
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