What should I order at a Thai restaurant?

A Thai menu is easy to order well from and easy to tip. Here is what usually carries a Thai plate, what usually tips it, and the one move that keeps the meal yours.

Lead with a grilled or steamed protein — chicken, prawns, or fish — and a vegetable dish, then treat rice or noodles as one deliberate portion rather than the base of the meal. Curries and fried dishes are worth having; they just work better shared than as your own main plate.

Best choices

1Grilled or steamed protein — chicken, prawns, whole fish — with a vegetable side
2Larb or a fresh salad, ordered as a main rather than a starter
3Stir-fried greens with garlic, sharing the table with one richer dish
4Tom yum with prawns or chicken, which carries flavour without carrying the plate
5One curry or one noodle dish, shared, rather than one each

Watch out for

Ordering a curry, a noodle dish and rice together — three bases, one meal
Deep-fried starters arriving first, when nobody has decided what the main plate is
Sweet iced drinks alongside an already sweet sauce
Family-style ordering that quietly doubles everyone's portion

Depending on the day

If you are training today

Put the protein dish in front of you rather than in the middle of the table, and let the rice be the deliberate portion. The grilled and steamed dishes are the ones worth owning.

If it is a late dinner

Lean toward the soups and grilled dishes over the fried ones. The meal still works; it just sits lighter than a shared fried spread does.

The dishes behind this

Decide before you order

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