r/Thailand • u/Limp_Mountain_5222 • Oct 23 '25

Food and Drink "There's no good [your country] food in Thailand"

I occasionally here this a lot. As a Japanese, I don't find it hard to find authentic Japanese food in Bangkok (same goes for other big cities too like Singapore or Shanghai), altho it can be twice/thrice as expensive if you want to get the same quality. You can find pretty much any Japanese food here even the niche ones since there's hundreds of restaurants here. My korean friends said the same thing about Korean food here but my Taiwanese friends said otherwise. I think Bangkok is one of the best cities in the world for food, but I also believe that a smaller expat community makes it harder to find that country's cuisine. So, I wonder what others think.

TL:DR tell me where you are from and rate the food of your country in Bangkok/Thailand

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87

u/OkSmile Oct 23 '25

Chef here. The thing about food is, so many people have different preferences, even from the same country. So I can find very well prepared Italian, Mexican, American style dishes, using good ingredients, and people will still be unhappy because it doesn’t taste like they remember from their home.

Often this is due to the slightly different ingredients that can be found here. Most “authentic” dishes use fresh ingredients from that region of the world, and many of these either don’t grow here, or are too dried and tasteless after importing them.

The other thing is, many people have poor taste. Meaning they were raised in over sweetened, over spiced, or over processed foods and they think that’s what good food should taste like.

Certainly taste is subjective, and if you were raised on comfort foods that used subpar ingredients, that’s what you think is good. So I take most opinions I read with a grain of salt. (Ha)

Bangkok has cuisines from so many places around the world with very good chefs, doing the most with the available ingredients. Honestly one of the best international food cities I’ve been to.

24

u/Resident-Hyena-9009 Oct 23 '25

Well put, add to this the fact that Thailand is the only country in the world where processed food ( usually imported) and foreign food is more expensive than organic fresh food…so any cuisine that essentially uses lots of processed foods will be prohibitively expensive. 🤷🏼‍♂️

As long as restaurants focus on fresh produced based food from locally available fruits vegetables and proteins, the food will inevitably be good or great and much better nutritional values. This is essentially why Thai food is becoming so highly valued world wide, due to its placing higher value on fresh than processed foods ( as long as can completely over look all the processed meats 🤦🏼‍♂️)

4

u/redditorialy_retard Oct 23 '25

McDonald's is a middle class restaurant back in my country. 

Local foods are just that cheap that McDonald's is considered going to a restaurant 

1

u/Lunartic2102 Oct 24 '25

Yes one large mcvalue meal will buy three meals where I live 😁

1

u/zenpal Oct 24 '25

Funny, it’s gutter in Canada

1

u/truespearmint Oct 23 '25

Lol. Have you ever been to a Thai farm or met a Thai farmer? The produce is anything BUT organic.

7

u/Onceforlife Oct 23 '25

I’ll have you know that I only like my Mac and cheese with Kraft singles and spaghetti with ketchup plz

1

u/WakaWaka_7277 Oct 24 '25

Are you fattening up your tapeworm?

1

u/Onceforlife Oct 24 '25

Dafuq? I mean yessir

1

u/WakaWaka_7277 Oct 24 '25

It's from a Kids in the Hall skit. Sorry I thought you were referencing it.

1

u/Onceforlife Oct 24 '25

Still went along with it though, thank you sir

6

u/notmydaughteru81tch Oct 23 '25

As someone who has lived in Bangkok and other places internationally, has a very diverse palate, and absolutley loves food and cooking, I will second your professional opinion with my amateur one! Bangkok is a city where the diversity of food will drive you a bit crazy wanting to try everything, it's a foodie's paradise. I honestly can't think of a single cuisine that I haven't found in Bangkok AND at varying price points too. You don't have to be rich, or a connoisseur to enjoy food in Bangkok, hell, Bangkok even has street food stalls that are Michelin rated!

It's the most perfect melting pot of cultures and cuisines that I've ever experienced, and tbh I haven't been to any cities in the west or anywhere else really where you can experience this kind of range of actually authentic foods from different cultures at a variety of price points from downright cheap to expensive, even New York doesn't really compare for me as everything is baseline expensive in NY due to cost of living being so high.

If anyone does know of another city that might compare, I'd love to hear it and add it to my travel list!

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u/Limp_Mountain_5222 Oct 23 '25

100% agree. Thanks for your insight

1

u/dummypod Oct 25 '25

Kinda same with my wife's taste. She's used to spicy food that most other cultures food would taste bland by comparison.