Dining · Thai · Bangkok
Le Du
Chef Ton's seasonal modern Thai tasting menus in Silom. No. 1 in Asia's 50 Best Restaurants 2023.
Le Du is the restaurant that showed how far modern Thai cooking could travel. Its founder, chef Thitid Tassanakajohn, known simply as Ton, is a graduate of the Culinary Institute of America who cooked in New York at Eleven Madison Park and Jean-Georges before returning home to Bangkok. The name comes from the Thai word for season, and that idea runs through everything: Thai produce, picked at its moment, interpreted with a contemporary hand.
In 2023 Le Du became the first Thai kitchen to top Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants, with Ton’s second restaurant, Nusara, at No. 3 on the same list. Le Du went on to rank No. 30 in The World’s 50 Best Restaurants 2025, and it placed No. 36 in Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants 2026, where Nusara stood at No. 5.
The food
Dinner is built as a tasting menu, offered in a four-course or a six-course version, a shorter format than many of Bangkok’s marathon menus. The cooking takes familiar Thai flavours and dishes as its starting point and refines them with techniques learned in Western fine dining, but the seasoning remains recognisably Thai.
The restaurant’s treatment of khao chae is a good example. The chilled rice dish, traditionally eaten in the hottest months, appears here with shrimp and pork pâté, pickled radish and a jasmine ice cream, keeping the cooling, fragrant spirit of the original while turning it into something new. Drinks pairings reach beyond wine, including a kombucha pairing.
The chef
Beyond his own kitchens, Ton is one of the most visible faces of Thai gastronomy, known to a wide audience as a judge on Top Chef Thailand. With Le Du and Nusara both ranked among Asia’s best, he has become a reference point for a generation of Thai chefs who cook their own cuisine with fine dining ambitions.
Why OKYTO recommends it
Le Du is the clearest introduction to where contemporary Thai fine dining stands today, and its shorter menus make it more approachable than many of its peers. Set on a side street in Silom, it pairs well with a wider exploration of Bangkok’s dining scene.
Nearby
More tables in Bangkok
Bangkok · ThaiSornSouthern Thai cooking sourced from the peninsula, in a restored house off Sukhumvit.Bangkok · GermanSühringModern German tasting menus by the Sühring twins in a restored 1970s garden villa.Hotels
Hotels in Bangkok
Bangkok · AmanAman Nai Lert BangkokA 52-suite Aman in a private garden of old trees in Lumpini, built around a century-old sompong tree.
Bangkok · CapellaCapella BangkokAn intimate riverside hotel on Charoen Krung, where every room faces the Chao Phraya River.
BangkokDusit Thani BangkokThe rebuilt flagship of Thailand's best-known hotel group: 257 large rooms by André Fu.
Bangkok · Four SeasonsFour Seasons Hotel Bangkok at Chao Phraya RiverLow-rise riverside resort in the city: 299 rooms, Gathy interiors, Cantonese.