Ari Bangkok: a guide to the city’s cafe neighbourhood
Ari Bangkok is a residential neighbourhood on Phahon Yothin Road, two BTS stops north of Victory Monument and two south of Chatuchak. For most of its life it was a quiet district of civil servants' houses and shaded lanes. Over the last fifteen years those houses have been turning into cafes, restaurants and small bars, and Ari has become the place Bangkok goes for a slow Saturday. It is spelt Aree on some signs.
The sois
Ari is really Phahon Yothin Soi 7, called Soi Ari, and the lanes off it: Ari Soi 1 to Soi 5, and the parallel Ari Samphan on the other side. Soi Ari itself runs west from the BTS station towards Rama VI Road and is the main drag, with the food stalls at its mouth and the cafes and restaurants strung along it. The numbered side sois are where the converted houses are, low-rise and leafy with cars parked under trees. Phahon Yothin Soi 5 on the station side has a similar mix. None of it is far from the station; the whole district is a fifteen-minute walk across.
Cafes
Cafes are the reason most people come. Ari has dozens, from serious roasters with single-origin menus to garden cafes in old houses and bakeries with queues at weekends. The style changes every year, but the density does not. The coffee districts post sets Ari against Thonglor and Charoen Krung. Weekend afternoons are the busy time; weekday mornings are calm.
Eating in Ari
The evening food stalls at the mouth of Soi Ari, by the BTS, are the neighbourhood's constant: grilled chicken, som tam, noodles and sweets sold from carts to people on their way home. Along the soi and in the side lanes are Isan restaurants known for seafood som tam, a northern Thai khao soi shop, Japanese places and a few burger joints.
[La Villa Ari](/?q=La Villa), the small mall beside the station, has a supermarket, chain restaurants and a cinema, and is useful as a fallback. Further along Phahon Yothin, Saphan Khwai, one stop north, has cheaper and older street food and the Pradipat Road markets.
Bars and evenings
Ari's bars are small and mostly in the same converted houses: craft beer taps, cocktail bars with gardens, and a few live music rooms. Gump's Ari Community Space on Ari Soi 4 collects cafes, bars and shops around a courtyard and is lively in the evening. It is not a late-night district, and for a big night Thonglor is a long way east. The craft beer post lists the taps.
Around Ari
Chatuchak Weekend Market is two stops north at Mo Chit and the parks beside it are good for a morning before Ari's cafes open; see the Chatuchak guide. Victory Monument, two stops south, has the city's best boat noodle alley and a cluster of minibus stops; see the Victory Monument guide. The government complex at Chaeng Watthana and the Rama VI side of Ari are of no interest to visitors, which keeps the area local.
Getting there
BTS Ari on the Sukhumvit line is the stop, with exits on both sides of Phahon Yothin. From Siam it is six stops north; from Mo Chit, two south. Exit on the west side for Soi Ari and the food stalls, the east side for La Villa and Phahon Yothin Soi 5. There is no MRT station in Ari; Saphan Khwai BTS and the MRT at Chatuchak Park are the nearest links to the Blue Line. Motorbike taxis wait at the soi mouth for the far ends of the lanes. The area is flat, shaded and one of the easier parts of Bangkok to walk.