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Gaggan Anand

Bangkok

• The Best Restaurant in Thailand 2024

On the Pass

Gaggan Anand

Don’t I know him? Bombastic chef Gaggan Anand (and much of his current team) held the title of Asia’s Best Restaurant for four years at his previous restaurant, Gaggan. A fall-out with his former business partners led him to move across town to a much smaller, far more rock-n-roll space in 2020.

Lick it up: Gaggan long-ago dubbed his cuisine “progressive Indian,” and while there remain on the 20+-course menu many nods to his home culture – like the use of Indian spices and herbs, and reinterpretations of traditional dishes, street food in particular – the food also carries signals and influences from Japan, France, Thailand and beyond. The plating is a riot of colours and a jumble of textures. Be prepared to experience explosions in your mouth, to eat with your hands, and to attack one dish with only your tongue.

Theatre in the round (sort of): Fourteen seats at a right-angle counter face in towards an open show kitchen in which each of the chefs storytell, while the sommeliers pour a steady stream of predominantly natural wines. Thumping music roars, fostering a party mood and lots of audience interaction. On any given night there might be pyrotechnics, a cilantro-juice chugging challenge, or even someone taking off their shirt (yes, really).

Factor in the traffic: It can be terrible in Bangkok, and you don’t want to be late, because everyone eats together. In fact, if you get there early you’ll be rewarded with pre-dinner cocktails, gratis. 

Mash-up incoming: The ultimate luxury-brand Frankenstein’s monster is the brand-new Gaggan at Louis Vuitton, which has a Gaggan-created Thai x French menu, and just tossed its monogrammed doors open in central Bangkok

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