Wana Yook — Restaurant in Thanon Phaya Thai Subdistrict

Getting there is easy. Alight at Victory Monument BTS, Turn Right to ground floor and see 7-11. On the right of 7-11, there is a drive way heading inwards. Follow the road and the nice White House on the left is your destination.

This is a 100+ years restored building, previously housing Suzuki car dealer. Restaurant opened during COVID time and was shut for 4 months during that period.

Upon entering, the staff will bring you to the table. If you are early, they will be very accommodative to help you take lots of photos. The ambiance and renovation perfect for photos.

Food starts off quickly, literally dishing out. The portion is bite size and you may think this is an hour dinner and will be just nice.

Food is modern Thai. Strong and bold flavours. I love the Garlic & Pepper Squid, it’s like the Shin Ika (baby squid) from japan. Soft and dissolves with the powerful curry with pineapple. Next favourites are: Kanom Jeen Sao Naam, Tiger Prawn with Lemongrass.

Can be a bit spicy for some dishes.

The staff is joking how the Chef intends everything to be bite size before the main. And true enough, the main course is huge, not by quantity but by variety.

Their signature duck and chicken egg with Maggi with fried egg white with condiments, it’s a beautiful sight and taste. Unfortunately I can’t finish this as there are another 3 more small dishes to go along.

The beef salad using waygu is refreshing, meat is tender and a tangy, sour, spicy sauce. The prawn is excellent. There is a Center dish is a meat dish and a veg.

You are served with 3 types of rice which can be refilled.

There are 2 kinds of dessert and a very nice tea. However, by now, it’s food coma for me.

In my view, this restaurant will be featured in Michelin soon. I will say this is liken to 80/20, Sawaan.

Only improvement: the menu can be better designed to match...

I’m between 2 and 3 stars because of the price point. At 4,000b, I expected much more.

I have had wanted to visit for a long time and managed to get a seat yesterday evening. I did not see my items in recent reviews and probably had the neitems.

In general, I felt that the “modern” expect was trying too hard just to have multiple techniques and dish inspiration in each dish.

Squid with gaeng som. I was told the gaeng som sauce was dehydrated and mixed into the rice which was stuffed into the squid. There wasn’t any I tasted in the rice. The gaeng som sauce seems to just clash with the squid. There flavours don’t complement but cancel out, not in a good way.

The seared fish dish with pon pla tu and gaeng om. Yes the sticky rice with pon pla tu is something we eat together. With a serving of gaeng om. But what’s the seared fish there for? And the tempura spring onions. Each component works on its own and doesn’t complement.

Poached prawn gaeng tai pla. Something so strongly flavored served with a poached prawn? The prawn sweetness, or lack of because it’s a big prawn, gets drowned. Lemongrass salad is there to cut through the pungeant tai pla which was very reduced.

These are 3 examples. But perhaps the idea is like khao gaeng. Where everything is just mixed and eaten together? I’m quite disappointed because I expected a lot from the khao gaeng inspiration.

Best parts are the individual components. The rich yellow sauce in poached prawn, gaeng bai cha pu was straightforward and nice. The main course was excellent with each dish like gaeng kilek beef, yum Kai dao all shining.

My personal opinion is that maybe because it’s priced at 4000b, the chef tries very hard to push up the value. But it seems trying too hard. I hope the next menu will be much...

Visited in Jun 2025

Wana Yook has made a name for itself recently by getting a Michelin star and gaining an entry into the Asia Top 100 restaurants list. I think it’s fully deserved. The meal here was an explosion of unapologetic Thai flavors in every bite of every course.

The menu comprised 9 courses including the amuse bouche and petit fours. The amuse bouche bites were absolutely brilliant. It was amazing how such tiny bites packed so much flavor. After the starting bites, there were 5 more courses before the main course. Each of those 5 courses were so well thought out in terms of flavor profile, ingredient mix and spice levels. The meal upto this point was a 10/10 experience for me.

Now coming to the main course. The main course comprised of multiple dishes served with rice. It was wayyyy too heavy for what is already a carb heavy meal (as there are multiple previous courses which had rice). I don’t think I saw a single person in our room finish the main course. I did not like this food wastage. While the main course was quite good in terms of taste and variety, I really think the restaurant needs to rethink the portion size. So the main course diminished my overall experience a bit.

Following the main course there was 1 dessert and 1 petit fours course, both of which were fantastic.

Service is beyond brilliant here. Everyone is so polite and helpful. The restaurant staff explain all the courses so patiently and diligently.

Overall, a really fantastic meal and I’d recommend one and all to visit Wana Yook for one of the best Michelin Star meals in BKK. I can fully understand why Wana Yook made it to the Asia Top 100...