Le Du Tops Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants 2023, a First for Thai Cuisine

Le Du, in Bangkok, was named The Best Restaurant in Asia at the Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants 2023 awards, held on 28 March 2023 at Resorts World Sentosa in Singapore. It was the first time a restaurant serving Thai food had led the ranking, and the first in-person ceremony with guests from across the region since 2019.

Le Du was opened in 2013 by Thitid Tassanakajohn, known as Chef Ton, who had trained in New York, including at the Culinary Institute of America, and worked in several of that city’s best-known kitchens. He returned to Bangkok to cook Thai food with the techniques he had learned abroad. The name comes from the Thai word for season, and the tasting menu is built on what small farmers and fishermen supply at a given time of year. Its signature dish, river prawn with rice and a sauce of the prawn’s own head fat and shrimp paste, has been on the menu since the beginning.

The result was a strong one for Bangkok. Nusara, the more traditional Thai restaurant that Chef Ton runs with his family beside Wat Pho, was No.3, so that the same chef had two restaurants in the first three. Sézanne in Tokyo was No.2. Three of the seven new entries were also in Bangkok: Ms. Maria & Mr. Singh, Potong and Baan Tepa. The others were Avartana in Chennai, Born in Singapore, Metiz in Manila and Refer in Beijing. The list covered 19 cities.

Labyrinth in Singapore was the highest climber, rising 29 places to No.11. Hiroyasu Kawate of Florilège in Tokyo received the Chefs’ Choice Award. Louisa Lim of Odette in Singapore was named best pastry chef and Della Tang of Ensue in Shenzhen best sommelier.

For Thai cooking, the award marked a change that had been under way for a decade: a generation of chefs treating the country’s own cuisine, rather than French or Japanese food, as the proper subject of fine dining. The same movement later made Sorn Thailand’s first three-star restaurant. Our Bangkok guide has more on where to eat.