An Ode to the Atlanta Hotel Restaurant

The Atlanta Hotel is a special case. So, after writing my ode about that one, I felt serving up a huge extra portion about the equally special  restaurant in the same post would be a bit too much. Especially since I appear to have eaten there quite a lot (and have taken enough photos to fill an extra post), so here is a taste of things to come.

But first, let me take you for breakfast at the AH! Atlanta Hotel Restaurant.

What is the Atlanta Hotel Restaurant? 

I really wish you will go and visit. The Atlanta Hotel is an old-fashioned hotel tucked down an unpopular lane of Sukhumvit Road near the rather unsophisticated Nana intersection. The attached restaurant is somewhat known for its fierce manageress and the largest vegetarian menu of Bangkok.

I believe you have to be a guest of the hotel in order to eat there. We managed to bend that rule once when my boyfriends mother and her friend were in town.  We prepared this by asking the manageress at lunchtime, and permission was granted for dinner on the same day. I had stayed there a few times before, and I think some of the staff have photographic memory.  I have turned up there a couple of times on the off chance,  and I am what you consider an ideal guest there: quiet, loves to read, loves animals . So perhaps I had good karma points with them.

Time for Breakfast! 

It looks form the photos like you can only get two dishes there. In fact… for me, there are. I always order the same! The picture below shows the Thai breakfast. Scrambled egg, a spicy salad and something tasty with dried shrimps, served with Jasmine or Brown Rice. There is a choice of various items, but as a vegetarian with occasional lapses into fish and sea food,  I tend to stick to these.

Or try the fat pancake. Literally, just look a the size of it. The whole jug of syrup is yours, too.

Or, have all of it. It makes sense to travel with a companion just that you can share as many of these dishes as possible. This is  the best start into the day I can imagine.

No wonder I manage to get fat even in Thailand.

The restaurant has a certain Station Buffet/Diner Layout, but the nice welcome and the food more than  make up for the somewhat spartan interior.

Except for these romantic banquettes.

To the back of the restaurant is a shelf with books and a table with newspapers and magazines. I think once I sat there all morning reading  – nobody rushed me out. I know-  I have no life. Or I may have just come off a night train.

I don’t think I ever had lunch there, because I am usually pretty stuffed from breakfast, and come noon, I would have finally risen from the breakfast table and gone out into town.

Dinner at the Atlanta Hotel Restaurant

Time for dinner. This looks quite romantic, but actually is just my friend and I having a teetotal holiday – mine lasted about seven days, hers the entire holiday. You can order wine there, and they have quite a good wine list of Thai wines (!) and international wines, too.

The menu is really huge! Its a very large bound file, with about fifty pages. If your dining companion proves to be a bore, you will enjoy a great read about the hotel’s history, traditional Thai dishes and how they’re cooked, and study the extensive wine list.

Noodles feature heavily. Or could it be my penchant for Pad Thai?

More noodles. They have one of the largest menu of vegetarian foods in Bangkok, but are not exclusively vegetarian.

Three dishes are almost too much for two people. That tofu dish on the right is just too much –  a whole dish of  tofu.  I am pretty certain I ordered that and ate most of it.

It would be a little unfair to go on about this without offering an alternative if you decide not to stay there or bend the manageresses arm.

Other Restaurants with a Vegetarian Emphasis in Bangkok

There are tons of great restaurants in central parts of Bangkok and you will find one easily. May Kaidee is a pretty solid vegetarian restaurant near Khao San Road. Any restaurant further out than than Asoke on the Sukhumvit Skytrain in a side street should be good, as well as anywhere outside a tourist centre.  If you’re sightseeing and near the Royal Palace, try the Royal Thai Navy Club.

It is another time warp, a canteen-like dining room in the corner of a grand building, but the dishes seemed very authentic, and when we went for lunch, the tourist/local ratio was low.

I can’t get enough of tofu.

The sticky rice and mango was only surpassed by “that famous place outside the Hilton” in Hua Hin.

Bon Appetit!

Addresses

Atlanta Hotel Restaurant and Coffeshop,  Soi Sukhumvit 2 (Pha Suk), Bangkok

Royal Thai Navy Club, 77 Phra Borom Maha Ratchawang, Bangkok

Mai Kaidee has two locations:  one in Tanao Road (just off the Eastern End of Khao San Road) and the other one close by a bit further south off Tanao Road by Wat Mahan

Further Reading

I almost always travel with a Rough Guide, and Thailand is no exception. This is the latest 2018 incarnation, so hopefully there will be a new one soon. It’s not to say I never use other book as one of the pictures shows, but in general, I prefer Rough Guides.

“A Nail through the Heart” by Timothy Hallinan: When looking for novels set in Bangkok a few years ago, I came across this fairly light but not light-hearted crime novel with a fair bit of “white man in Asia” flavour. As far as readability goes, it is very good!

“Bangkok Days”  by Lawrence Osbourne is part memoir, part accidental guide where to go to get away from mainstream tourism. An account on expat living in Bangkok, not especially profound but beautifully written.

Vatcharin Bhumichitr allegedly writes the best cook books of Thai Food. Personally, I agree! I have “Thai Vegetarian Cooking”. It’s from 1991 so its is not as pretty as newer cook books. He has a plenty more newer general but meat-laden Thai Cookbooks out too.

Last not least, if you are seriously interested in authentic in-depth Thai Cooking and have a Thai Supermarket nearby, “Thai Food” by David Thompson is another solid classic. It’s not simple but a comprehensive book on Thai Cooking, ingredients and techniques.

Disclosure:  I visited the Atlanta Hotel Restaurant in 2008, 2011 and 2013 and wrote this post in winter 2017. When I moved the blog to a self-hosted website, not all the formatting went across, plus in 2017 I had very little idea about SEO and structuring blog posts! So I am slowly updating these old posts. Sadly, no further visit to the Atlanta Hotel in the meantime, but given the overall very positive reviews online, I doubt much has changed there. I paid for all services myself. I receive no monetary or non-monetary rewards for linking to any of the places and services mentioned.You can trust me for the whole, unbiased truth.  More details on my affiliate link policy are here.