12 Best Foods to Try at Yaowarat Night Market in Bangkok, Thailand

4/6/2024

The Yaowarat Night Market in Thailand is one of the most well known, and because it's located in Bangkok - it's also one of the most visited. After visiting this food market in Bangkok's Chinatown area, we put together a short list of best tips, what to expect on your first visit, and some of the best foods that you won't want to miss.

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While in Bangkok, we stayed at ASAI Bangkok Chinatown - which is just 1-2 blocks from the Yaowarat Night Market!

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Best Tips & What to Expect

The Yaowarat Night Market can be a bit overwhelming if you've never been or don't know what to expect. With small stalls, tons of people, and cars driving by - it goes without saying that there's quite a bit of stimulus (in addition to the good food)! If you're planning your first visit, then we've gone ahead and put together a short list of bests tips to help make your experience the best it can be :

When To Go : In our experience, most food vendors didn't open up until about 6 pm, and the street wasn't very busy until about 7 pm. If you want to visit when it's a little quieter, we recommend going from 5-7pm, and if you want the full night market experience we recommend going after 8 pm.

Where To Go : The Yaowarat Night Market is located in the Chinatown area of Bangkok, and there are 3 main areas you can go to try some of the local street foods - all located along Yaowarat Road. The first is at the intersection with Phadung Dao Road (the T & K Seafood restaurant, this is the busiest and most crowded area), the second is at the intersection with Plaeng Nam Road (the Weng restaurant, and the second busiest area), and the third is at the intersection of Itsaranuphap Alley (the Da's Crab restaurant, and the least busiest area).

Cars : The Yaowarat Night Market is not blocked off, meaning cars and motorcycles can come in all night. Although we felt safe, it's at least worth noting so you can keep your eyes out for them.

Guard Your Stomach : With any street food, you want to choose wisely. Our tip is to take two tums before hand which is said to prevent any stomach issues, otherwise you can take an Imodium if you do end up feeling under the weather afterwards. We always recommend visiting stands that look busy, this way they have fresh turn over and you know that many others are eating there.

12 Best Night Market Foods to Try

1. Pad Thai
Pad Thai can be found just about anywhere, but we went to a corner restaurant where we could sit down and enjoy our meal off the street. We paid 120 THB (about $3.27 USD) for the shrimp pad thai pictured above. It was delicious, and we got our Crab Fried Rice at the same spot!

2. Stir Fry Noodles
We saw a few stands serving stir fried noodles cooked in giant woks - to be honest we liked the pad thai more, but you can find lots of veggies in these noodles and they were pretty tasty too!

3. Crab Fried Rice
Like I mentioned above we got our pad thai and crab fried rice at the same place, and we would highly recommend! Located on the corner of Yaowarat Road and Itsaranuphap Alley we paid 160 TBH (about $4.36 USD) for this plate of fried rice with crab. Needless to say we went back a few times. :)

4. Milk Tea & Jellies
Hands down the best milk tea I've ever had, we got the sweet version and paid 30 TBH (about $0.82 USD) for this drink!

5. Friend Mantou with Chocolate Sauce
Basically fried dough with drizzled chocolate sauce, these donut like creations were Tyler's favorite. We paid 69 TBH (about $1.88 USD) for our plate of 8.

6. Coconut Ice Cream with Jellies
When you make your way down Yaowarat Night Market you'll notice many dishes, especially desserts, have jellies in them. We paid 50 TBH (about $1.36 USD) for this plate of 2 scoops of coconut ice cream (SO GOOD!) with jellies on the side!

7. Hotteok (Original)
Traditionally a Korean Street Food, Hotteok is basically a pancake with sweet sugar or syrup inside. We paid 39 TBH (about $1.06) for a cup of 2 Hotteoks! Honestly, they weren't as good or fresh as the Hotteok in Korea, but they were still pretty tasty for those with a sweet tooth! There are multiple versions that have different things in the middle, but we always recommend the original.

8. Thai Crispy Pancakes (Salty & Sweet)
To be honest we had no idea what we were ordering when we got these, to us they looked like miniature quesadillas with cheese, but trust us they aren't. We paid 40 TBH (about $1.09 USD) for this bag of 4, and each was a little bit different. They weren't our favorite, but it was something fun and unique to try!

9. Fresh Pomegranate Juice
Although a little watered down, this pomegranate juice was so refreshing and a great palate cleanser! We paid 50 TBH (about $1.36 USD) for this bottle.

10. Shrimp & Egg Fried Rice Dinner
One of the most popular restaurants in Yaowarat Night Market is the T & K Seafood restaurant. You'll see the line of people and the green signs marking the correct spot, and although it's a little chaotic to get a table, it's worth a spot! We spent 340 TBH (about $9.27 USD) for a plate of fried rice and shrimp!

11. Mochi Tangyuan
This unique dessert was more than we could eat, but the jellies were absolutely adorable and I couldn't pass it up. For the entire bowl we paid 69 TBH (about $1.88 USD) and it had so much jelly we couldn't even eat it all between the two of us.

12. Yuan Yuan Man Man Vegan Tofu Ice Cream
This little ice cream stand is absolutely adorable, and the ice cream was very tasty too! We loved sitting here having a sweet treat and cooling down while watching the people go by.

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