Whetting your Appetite - Songkran Suppers

Unless you are planning to barricade yourself inside during the wet season that is Songkran, you might as well take the plunge and whet your appetite with some dining by the water.

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If you are going to have to swim like a fish every time you go out onto the streets then you might as well also set your fins in the direction of one of Bangkok’s many seafood restaurants. You don’t have to set your stool down near the river or the canal either, you can go to the seaside too.

Talay Bangkok allows you to eat some of the best seafood whilst sitting on a chair, under a palm tree on the sand, right in the heart of one of the busiest areas of the city, Rama 9.

It is often the case that just before dinner you want to have a quick dip in the water…isn’t it? Well, you can relax by the pool at Ekamai 72, a hip, retro boutique style hotel, bar and restaurant where diners are encouraged to have a quick swim before drying off with a dry martini.

Mention the words seafood and river in any conversation in Bangkok and it won’t be long before those magical three little words are uttered, Baan Klang Nam. Eat wooden terrace style on the Chao Phraya River in what many consider to be the best seafood shack in town.

Along the river are the classic wooden, Thai style, seafood restaurants such as Khinlom Chonsapha and some smaller more intimate decks with beautiful views of Wat Arun, such as the effortlessly hip Deck by the River or the lovely at home feeling of Supatra River House.

For a little luxury and to feed the forever hungry fish, you can throw a delectable bread roll or two into the river from the glamorous deck of the terrace at the Mandarin Oriental restaurant as hundreds of fish come floating up to take a bite of five star cuisine.

If seafood restaurants mean catering for the masses with plastic chairs and a slightly less polished dining experience, then Nathong with dining round a pond is a fun option for dining with friends, less so for a night of bobbing along as a twosome.

To really appreciate riverside dining though you could take one step along the gangplank and get aboard a river cruise to see fabulous views. You don’t have to be part of the tourist trekkers to appreciate floating on an antique barge on the river, Wan Fah and Loy Nava being just a couple of culinary choices.

If you have dined by the water and on the water then you may want to take a dive into the water too in what feels like an underwater chamber. The Banyan Tree’s award winning Pier 59 seafood restaurant might be fifty nine floors up, but with the dark setting, aquarium and bubbling columns of water you might feel you are in a submarine looking out at the skyline from under the sea!