Monkey Pod Garden Bar Cocktail & Tapas — Restaurant in Khlong Toei Nuea Subdistrict

We’d been in Bangkok for several weeks and somehow walked past this little gem several times before visiting, drawn in by the Saturday night coloured lights and lively beats hidden beyond the tropical foliage. MonkeyPod Cocktail & Tapas on Sukhumvit Soi 13 surely make you smile.

It’s a unique juxtaposition of concepts, situated in the heart of a busy BKK metropolitan district, whilst managing to offer very private & secluded setting of lush tropical garden & historical traditional Thai building.

There’s two wings of the business on the site…one is the Blue Elephant restaurant offering Traditional Laos & Thai food which is inside the 100 year old building. We fully intend to go back and sample the cuisine here, having discovered Blue Elephant is a multisite international business and cooking school.

The separate Monkey Pod Cocktail bar is situated outside, all built around a gorgeous namesake specimen Monkey Pod Tree (also known as a Rain Tree). Here a large, beautifully lit and well stocked bar, serves a large decked area with a chic take on seating & tables, and a DJ in full flow… yet still at a volume where it’s still possible to have a conversation.

Very attentive, polite and alert staff seem to thoroughly love & enjoy their work, not only the wonderful Thai smile we already are charmed by, these lovely people were cheerfully dancing their way between their diligently done duties, not missing a beat anywhere.

We had the immense privilege of meeting their Bar Manager and Mixologist “Ben” (Khun Benz Chalermwoot Homnan) who happened to be on site. Ben was beyond gracious with his time, with great passion & enthusiasm for Thai ingredients and the Blue Elephant brand discussing the particular distinctive Thai ingredients used in his unique cocktails, such as lemongrass, Galangal and KeffirLime. (Galangal is a fragrant Thai root that is distinctively different from the Ginger root it’s often conflated with and Kaffir Lime is a citrus fruit)

Whether you already know the flavours or not, I highly recommend sampling them as offered at Monkey Pod Cocktail bar with a twist of modern on the traditional, served with a...

Newish place on Soi 13. Located in the garden of an old Thai style house. The garden with the big trees make for a great relaxed environment to eat and chat with friends.

The menu is Tapas / Thai inspired. It is not a large menu and could do with with more green vegetables but everything we had was really good. I did forget to take pictures of the food and drinks but we tried 13 dishes. The grilled chicken, pork and beef. The mushroom spring rolls, garlic/pepper rice , the Larb dogs and lots of drinks and 3 desserts.stay was very nice and courteous!

Don’t be in a rush, sit back and graze, drink and enjoy your conversations with your friends. You could bring a larger group here as the space allows for a nice group atmosphere

It’s a really good addition to Soi 13. Service is slow but overall the environment is excellent and food and...

I visited here for a friend's birthday. I was really looking forward to it after seeing photos of the outdoor space, it didn't disappoint. It's a stone's throw from the manic soi 11 but has a very different vibe.

The drinks menu is vast but a bit overpriced for the area, 240thb for a small glass of wine. The biggest letdown for me was the food. As a vegan, my only choices were spicy spring rolls, rice, French fries or mapo tofu. Is this 1999?? I asked the waitress if a simple Thai dish could be prepared but was told no. This is so disappointing considering the large range of vegan options available nowadays 😞

If I visited again, I'd make sure I ate beforehand and only sample...