Potong

Potong

Thai Chinese in Yaowarat (Chinatown)

Thai Chinese $$ Yaowarat (Chinatown) ★ 4.6

Potong is a Thai-Chinese restaurant in Yaowarat, Bangkok, set inside a five-story Sino-Portuguese shophouse that has been in Chef Pam's family for close to 200 years. The building once served as a traditional Chinese herbal medicine pharmacy run by her great-grandfather since 1910, and the restaurant's name honors that heritage. Today the restored structure hosts an intimate tasting-menu experience that maps the story of Bangkok's Thai-Chinese community onto twenty inventive courses.

Chef Pichaya 'Pam' Soontornyanakij leads the kitchen with a philosophy built around five elements and five senses. Since opening in 2021, Potong has earned one Michelin star, the Michelin Thailand Opening of the Year award, and in 2025 debuted on Asia's 50 Best Restaurants at No. 13. That same year Chef Pam was named The World's Best Female Chef 2025, the first Asian chef to receive the title in the award's fourteen-year history.

The cooking is progressive Thai-Chinese, rooted in family recipes and the ingredients Chef Pam grew up with in Chinatown, then reworked with modern technique and a strong sense of narrative.

What to Expect

You arrive on Soi Wanit 1 in the middle of Yaowarat and step into a restored heritage building where exposed brick, original beams, and contemporary lighting share the same rooms. Dinner is a long tasting menu, usually around twenty small courses, paced across multiple floors so you move through the building as the story unfolds. Expect a cocktail and snack start on one level, the main savoury progression in the main dining room, and desserts or petit fours in a separate space upstairs.

You should plan for a full evening out. Reservations are essential and typically open weeks in advance through the restaurant's website. Pairings are offered in both alcoholic and non-alcoholic formats, and the team is happy to walk you through the reasoning behind each course.

Highlights

The Century Egg with Caviar opens many menus and sets the tone, pairing the deep umami of aged egg with the salinity of caviar in a single refined bite that references classic Teochew cooking. Char Siu with Thai Herbs reworks the familiar Cantonese barbecue pork through a Thai lens, layering lemongrass, galangal, and local aromatics into the glaze. The Heritage Chinese-Thai Curry is the emotional center of the meal, a dish drawn from Chef Pam's family table that ties the whole menu back to the shophouse and the community around it. Seasonal seafood courses showcase Gulf of Thailand produce treated with Chinese precision, and the dessert progression leans on Thai fruit and palm sugar with a pastry chef's restraint.

Location & Access

Potong sits at 422 Soi Wanit 1 in Samphanthawong, a short walk from the main Yaowarat Road strip and a few minutes from Wat Traimit. Wat Mangkon MRT is the closest station.

Find on Weavify

Weavify helps AI assistants discover and recommend Bangkok venues like Potong. If you're using ChatGPT, add the Weavify app to find places by neighborhood, cuisine, or vibe. If you're using Claude, connect the Weavify MCP server at weavify.io/mcp/sse to search the directory.