Pinklao Restaurants: 15 Places from the Pin Klao Bridge to Borommaratchachonnani

Pinklao restaurants by zone: under the bridges, Borommaratchachonnani, Charan Sanitwong

Coming over Phra Pin Klao Bridge from the Old Town, Somdet Phra Pin Klao Road carries you to the big junction where Borommaratchachonnani Road starts. The first kilometre of Borommaratchachonnani is the zone most people mean when they say Pinklao: Central Pinklao at number 7/222, The Sense about 300 metres along, Soi Borommaratchachonnani 2 with Bar B Q Resort turning off the same road, and Hon Buffet another kilometre north-west. Everything here has a car park and stays open until at least 21:00.

The river zone runs upstream from Phra Pin Klao Bridge, past the Rama VIII Bridge, to Krung Thon Bridge, which everyone here still calls Sang Hi. It is old Bang Phlat and Bang Yi Khan, and the restaurants are local places, not the hotel terraces of Charoen Krung. Arun Amarin Road runs along behind them, and the Arun Amarin restaurants worth the trip are Yak Khu Mookata at the mouth of Soi 36 and, from LINE Today’s Pinklao list, Jade Garden, a dim sum restaurant near the Rama VIII Bridge that is not ranked here because its prices could not be confirmed.

The third zone belongs to residents. Charan Sanitwong Road, with the MRT viaduct overhead, and Sirindhorn Road are where the cheap buffets are: ShabuBomb inside a neighbourhood market off Soi 37, Tidmun on Sirindhorn. The shophouse noodle and made-to-order rice shops around Bang Khun Non market are not ranked, because their prices could not be checked one by one.

Pin Klao restaurants on the river

Expect the river view here to come with a modest bill, not fine dining. The best-known of the Pin Klao restaurants on the water is Rim Nam Barbeque, at the Thonburi foot of the bridge, and the honest summary from its reviewers is that the view is the point. Wongnai rates it 3.5 from 69 reviews, and the meat and seafood are ordinary buffet stock, but the tables run along the edge of the Chao Phraya and look straight at the lit bridge and the Phra Nakhon bank. It opens at 16:00, and a reviewer arriving at 17:30 on a February evening found the waterside tables already gone. Phone ahead or arrive by five.

Khanab Nam is the sit-down alternative, upriver under Krung Thon Bridge and just under 3 km north-east of Central Pinklao, where the tables stand on a pier over the water. It suits an evening with parents or older relatives: Thai-Chinese dishes they know, a car park on site, and a bill of 250 to 500 baht a head. It opens at 11:00; Wongnai lists closing at 23:00 and Google at midnight. Reviewers rate the breeze above the cooking, and the Wongnai reviews on show all predate 2020, so go for the setting. Ask for a pier table after 18:00 when the bridge lights come on. Neither restaurant is a special-occasion room; for that, the hotel terraces downriver are collected in Chao Phraya river restaurants, and the restaurants across the bridge are in Old Town Bangkok restaurants.

Seafood and mookata buffets in Pinklao, by price

Buffets are what Pinklao does most, so pick by budget and by what you want on the grill. Under 300 baht: Rim Nam’s mookata at 299, Tidmun’s grill-or-hot-pot buffet at about 276 net with drinks and no time limit, and ShabuBomb’s shabu at 276 net for two hours. Tidmun is the pick for beef on the grill: shoulder, blade and tongue on the hot plate, plus Isan sausage and battered squid roe that a 2023 reviewer kept going back for. Hon Buffet’s individual suki pots start at around 234 baht plus tax before drinks, and its Isan line of duck larb and corn som tam is what makes it different.

For a proper seafood buffet, Bar B Q Resort is the one to choose. At 320 baht net the iced counter carries river prawns, oysters, scallops, crab and squid, children under 100 cm eat free, and doors open at 16:00. Reviewers warn that freshness varies across the counter, the crab especially, and one found the soft drinks gone by 22:00. For a small table, Yak Khu skips the buffet entirely: the 359-baht set comes with the meat grilled for you, a September 2022 reviewer found a 300-baht set plus a few extras left two people very full, and reviewers from 2021 and 2025 both credit the marinated meat for staying tender. For the full city picture, see mookata in Bangkok and buffets in Bangkok.

At the top end, Copper Beyond at The Sense is the buffet you have to plan for. From 999 baht for two hours you order from the kitchen, not a counter, so the sushi and steaks arrive cooked to order. Mark the 10th and 25th: that is when the LINE booking rounds open, and you pay in full when you book.

Cheap eats and late nights in Pinklao

Pinklao food runs later than its suburban look suggests. Haidilao on Central Pinklao’s 5th floor is open until 03:00 every day per Wongnai and Grab, so a group can still sit down to a full meal after midnight; its rivals across the city are in hot pot in Bangkok. Budget 500 to 1,000 baht a head, and check whether a set includes the sauce bar before you order it. At the other end of the scale, LINE Today lists a fish-head hot pot shop at the foot of Phra Pin Klao Bridge open from 15:00 to 01:30 at under 200 baht a head.

For a cheap daytime meal, the mall beats the street on certainty. Wongnai puts a single rice bowl at Onkijung at 101 to 250 baht, and there is a lunch set at midday. Jones’ Salad’s 89-baht truffle mushroom soup is a snack between shops, and Wongnai puts spend at Nong Geng Ji at 251 to 500 baht a head. ShabuBomb’s 276 baht with drinks ties with Tidmun as the cheapest all-in buffet price on this list, and it has barely moved since 2023.

Central Pinklao and The Sense in short

Central Pinklao has enough restaurants to need a page of their own: the full floor-by-floor list is in Central Pinklao restaurants. In short, the G floor holds Nong Geng Ji, Onkijung in unit G10 and, at the front next to Bar B Q Plaza, Canton Paradise, a Hong Kong noodle and dim sum room. The 5th floor is the main dining floor: Haidilao through Food Park at the far end, Krua Mueang Wae opposite Food Patio, Myeongryun Jinsa Galbi beside Major Cineplex, then Hwaro and Jones’ Salad in rooms 510 and 512. For Japanese, The Stone and KOFUKU are covered on the mall page.

Korean BBQ in Bangkok usually means choosing between a buffet and ordering by the plate, and Central Pinklao has both on one floor: a pork buffet at Myeongryun, with a 1 hour 40 minute limit at weekends, or meat by the plate at Hwaro, which suits two people who would rather not race a timer. For a family that cannot agree on a cuisine, Krua Mueang Wae covers Vietnamese and Isan at one table: nem nuong wrapped in rice paper with herbs, and tam thad, the som tam platter with sides. The Sense is a smaller mall up the road, and for most people it means one thing, Copper Beyond on the 2nd floor.

Getting there: MRT, boat and parking

Most people come to Pinklao by car. Mall restaurants use the Central Pinklao car park; Copper Beyond uses The Sense’s. Khanab Nam, Rim Nam, Bar B Q Resort, Tidmun, ShabuBomb and Hon Buffet have their own lots, and Hon has lots at both the front and the back. Yak Khu has street parking on Arun Amarin Road.

Without a car, the MRT Blue Line is the backbone. Bang Yi Khan is about a kilometre from Central Pinklao and The Sense and just under a kilometre from Yak Khu, a walk or a short motorbike taxi. Bang Khun Non serves ShabuBomb. Rim Nam is about 1.7 km from Bang Yi Khan, and Tidmun more than 2 km from any station, so take a taxi to both. From the Old Town, cross Phra Pin Klao Bridge, or take the Chao Phraya Express Boat to Phra Pin Klao Bridge pier (N12). Further out along Borommaratchachonnani, the garden restaurants are in restaurants on Ratchaphruek Road, and down Phetkasem, the Bang Khae restaurants guide picks up the mall and market dining.