Eating at a Thai Food Court

If you come to Thailand on a holiday, one of the places that you might find yourself eating at are the food courts. These can be found at shopping malls and in hypermarkets like Big C and Tesco Lotus. Most of the food courts are similar in design. In the central area there are rows of tables and around the outside are various food stalls that are working independent of each other.

The first thing you need to find out is if you have to pay with coupons or if its cash only. Thais use the English word for “coupon” so that is easy for you. Cash is “ngern sod”. If you have to buy coupons then there should be a counter for this. Some places give you paper coupons while others have a smart card. If you have any money left over you can change the coupons back to cash.

Food courts have many of my favorite Thai dishes. It’s like eating street food without the heat or pollution. The cooking environment is usually more hygienic too. Many of the stalls have picture menus though the names are often only in Thai. However it is easy enough for you to point. The curry section is my favorite. I usually choose two dishes on rice.

Once you have bought your food you need to get your utensils and some condiments and dips. Sometimes these are near each stall but often there is a table just for them.

Near the utensils there should be a pot of hot water. Just dip your spoon and fork into this to make sure that they are clean. Thais do it, so you should too.