Best tasting food I've eaten in Bangkok is at Oskars, Soi 11 Sukhumvit across from Levels nightclub. Great place to take a date.....600 baht for very good sirloin and wine bottles for 1200 baht.

Bottoms Up Soi 23 Thonglor also great but too expensive for what u get. In Pattaya, nothing beats the Hilton brunch on Sundays.

Have to agree with the OP, being something of a foodie. There are occasional gems especially for Italian, but generally foreign food is not impressive here.

An exception is Japanese food, which can often be very good if not even excellent, in particular in the purely Japanese areas But even some of the cheaper chains are pretty decent, albeit not completely original Japanese in taste.

Best tasting food I've eaten in Bangkok is at Oskars, Soi 11 Sukhumvit across from Levels nightclub. Great place to take a date.....600 baht for very good sirloin and wine bottles for 1200 baht.

Bottoms Up Soi 23 Thonglor also great but too expensive for what u get. In Pattaya, nothing beats the Hilton brunch on Sundays.

I agree. Oskars do some great food and a great atmosphere.

Nonsense, tons of great western places in town... Your just not going to get them for 60 baht, and you would notget them anywhere near that cheap at home,

Heres the short list

Opposite mess hall

Quince

Nahm

Bolan

La monita & el osito

Little beast

Oyster bar

Smith

Water library chamchuri sq

Water library tonglor

Gaggan

Appia

Soul food mahanakorn

Mugandai

Le du

Rocket

Eat me

The burger truck tonglor

Pala

May have left a few out, all these spots have pro chefs from the west or thai chefs trained in the west, yes they are expensive, no you cant wear flipflops.. But try the equivalents in any major city and the price will be double 100 percent sure

And to say the western food has gone down hill in the last 10 years is insane... The hotels, forget it havent done anything good for 20 years, malls forget it, independants avoid like the plauge generaly, the trend is independant restos now,

http://www.theworlds50best.com/asia/en/

6 restaurants in bangkok made it this year up from 5 last

Nonsense, tons of great western places in town... Your just not going to get them for 60 baht, and you would notget them anywhere near that cheap at home,

Heres the short list

Opposite mess hall

Quince

Nahm

Bolan

La monita & el osito

Little beast

Oyster bar

Smith

Water library chamchuri sq

Water library tonglor

Gaggan

Appia

Soul food mahanakorn

Mugandai

Le du

Rocket

Eat me

The burger truck tonglor

Pala

May have left a few out, all these spots have pro chefs from the west or thai chefs trained in the west, yes they are expensive, no you cant wear flipflops.. But try the equivalents in any major city and the price will be double 100 percent sure

The only one on that list that I have tried is "eat me". Great? You must be kidding. When it opened it was very good but now I would just rate it OK.

The one I tried recently was in Emporium. The best place on average for Western restaurants in Thailand is probably Chiang Mai.

The prices that many charge are largely due to import taxes and there are tons of reasonably cheap but great restaurants in the West.

Nonsense, tons of great western places in town... Your just not going to get them for 60 baht, and you would notget them anywhere near that cheap at home,

Heres the short list

Opposite mess hall

Quince

Nahm

Bolan

La monita & el osito

Little beast

Oyster bar

Smith

Water library chamchuri sq

Water library tonglor

Gaggan

Appia

Soul food mahanakorn

Mugandai

Le du

Rocket

Eat me

The burger truck tonglor

Pala

May have left a few out, all these spots have pro chefs from the west or thai chefs trained in the west, yes they are expensive, no you cant wear flipflops.. But try the equivalents in any major city and the price will be double 100 percent sure

Straight out of the BK Magazine top tables...

There's a couple of dubious entries on that list, IMHO, and it's interesting that you call Gaggan, Bo.Lan, Mugendai and Nahm 'western'? But, it's a solid list, nonetheless...

I also question your comment that no hotel restaurants make the grade, funny really, given that the Metropolitan's restaurant is the number 1 restaurant in Asia. You can argue the semantics of it, but nevertheless, it is still in a hotel, in the very same way the first one was.

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The only one on that list that I have tried is "eat me". Great? You must be kidding. When it opened it was very good but now I would just rate it OK.

The one I tried recently was in Emporium. The best place on average for Western restaurants in Thailand is probably Chiang Mai.

The prices that many charge are largely due to import taxes and there are tons of reasonably cheap but great restaurants in the West.

Credit where it's due BugJackBaron, Eat.Me's done quite well for itself, a wine list unlike any other. Snags a spot in the Top 50 restaurants in Asia. Plenty of others that missed out on that.

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The only one on that list that I have tried is "eat me". Great? You must be kidding. When it opened it was very good but now I would just rate it OK.

The one I tried recently was in Emporium. The best place on average for Western restaurants in Thailand is probably Chiang Mai.

The prices that many charge are largely due to import taxes and there are tons of reasonably cheap but great restaurants in the West.

Credit where it's due BugJackBaron, Eat.Me's done quite well for itself, a wine list unlike any other. Snags a spot in the Top 50 restaurants in Asia. Plenty of others that missed out on that.

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So has Mcdonald's. Doesn't make it good though. As for wine, well there were a few good French places a while back ....but none of them were in a department store.

I've had some tasty ramen at Sendai Kamajinya in Suk soi 23.

I also like the food at Bourbon St. Ekkamai

The Japanese place on 31 is awesome

I also like the food at Bourbon St. Ekkamai

I like the food at Bourbon Street too, but I have not gone home for more than 20 years, so am not as picky about Western food as I used to be. I think that the OP's point is that it would be very mediocre in America and he is correct.

There are a lot of bad, overcharging restaurants I'll agree with that to the point where I'm almost hesitant to try new places (I hate having to pay a hefty bill for a disappointing meal).

A few of my favourites:

- Beccofino's on Soi Thong Lor - best steaks I've tried in BKK - if you get the Kobe get a small cut, even 200g is incredible filling especially after an entree of pain fried foie gras
- Sunday Brunch at the Sukothai - my favourite Sunday brunch in BKK - American/Canadian lobsters (albeit frozen), a foie gras station and a huge cake room.
- Amici's in Siam Paragon - similar to Beccofino's but more casual and conveniently located if you're shopping in Paragon
- Four Seasons in Thong Lor/Siam Paragon - they make the best duck in BKK, surprisingly affordable too
- The German restaurant under Four Seasons in Thong Lor (can't remember the name), nice food but the serves are somewhat small. Most of their clientelle appear to be Thai so I suspect they are targetting the locals with the small serves.
- La Grande Pearle on the Chaopraya has excellent French food with friendly service
- Seafood market on the soi from Sukhumvit that corners Emporium on the east side and connects with Phra Ram 4. Poor atmosphere, lots of lights, crowded, tourist oriented and overpriced. Only place I know in BKK that regularly has fresh Maine lobster and their cooking is great, I recommend their Szechuan soup with Chinese mushrooms and sea cucumber and their mixed vegetables (phat phak) is surprisingly delicious.
- There's a nice German/Thai restaurant on Utthayan Rd in Phutthamonthon with a lovely European country style atmosphere - not expensive either
- On the northern end of Phutthamonthon Sai 3 there is a Chinese restaurant which makes a great roast duck soup and delicious soft shell crab, just next to it is a nice place that serves Isaan food - a great place for when you're stuck in BKK but have a sudden urge to snack on your Isaan favourites - both of these places are very cheap.

So many grumpy gits packed into one place

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you complain about farang food in Thailand, you wanna hear my wife complain about Thai food in Europe, nothing like the stuff back home is what she always says, tastes too European than Thai.

I agree, I really don't like eating Thai food back in UK either, very difficult to get Thai food that hasn't been altered for the western palate. If I ask Thais where they go, some back street type place they usually reply that they cook at home :/