Thonglor Bangkok: a guide to Sukhumvit Soi 55
Thonglor Bangkok is Sukhumvit Soi 55, a single long street running north from the BTS station to Phetchaburi Road. The name is spelt Thong Lo on the station signs and Thonglor almost everywhere else. Either way, this is the street that Bangkok's well-off residents, Japanese expats and cocktail bartenders have claimed as their own, and it has more restaurants and bars per metre than anywhere else in the city.
The shape of Thonglor
The soi is about two kilometres long and the side streets are numbered off it: Thonglor Soi 10, Soi 13 and so on. The lower end by the BTS is hotels and malls. The middle, roughly Soi 9 to Soi 17, is where most of the eating and drinking happens. The upper end towards Phetchaburi is quieter and more residential. Walking the whole thing in the heat is a slog; most people take a motorbike taxi or the red mini-buses that shuttle up and down the soi.
Eating in Thonglor
[The Commons](/?q=The Commons) on Thonglor Soi 17 is the easiest starting point: an open-air, multi-level building with a market-hall ground floor, a terrace, and small restaurants and bars on the upper levels. It is good for a slow weekend lunch or an early drink.
Thonglor's Japanese side is real, not a theme. The area has a large Japanese resident population and the restaurants follow: ramen shops, yakitori counters, sushi bars and izakaya cluster around Soi 13 and in the small arcades such as Nihonmachi. Donki Mall Thonglor at the Soi 10 end is a Japanese discount store with a food hall upstairs, and useful for late-night snacks.
Thai food is here too, mostly at the smarter end. Several of the city's best-known modern Thai restaurants are on or just off the soi. For simpler meals, the shophouse restaurants and khao gaeng (rice and curry) counters in the side sois are cheap and good; look for them at lunchtime.
Drinking in Thonglor
Thonglor made its name on cocktails. The bars between Soi 10 and Soi 13 include some of the most awarded in Asia, with a few hidden behind unmarked doors or up stairs beside restaurants. Dress a little; most places are relaxed but this is not a flip-flops street. Wine bars and sake bars sit alongside, and the hotel rooftops at the BTS end give the view.
The crowd is mixed Thai and international and the night runs late. Weekends are busy; weeknights are easier for walk-ins. If a bar is full, there is always another thirty metres on.
Shopping and daytime
Thonglor has small malls rather than big ones. J Avenue on Soi 15 has cafes and a supermarket; Marketplace and Eight Thonglor are more of the same. The street is better known for independent shops: design, homeware, a few fashion boutiques and a lot of cafes with serious coffee. The coffee districts post goes into the cafe side.
In the daytime the soi is a decent walk if you stay to the shaded side and stop often. The side streets around Soi 9 to Soi 13 have the most to look at.
Thonglor compared with Ekkamai
The two streets run parallel and are joined by cross streets, so a night can start in one and end in the other. Ekkamai is cheaper, looser and better for beer; Thonglor is smarter and better for cocktails. The Ekkamai guide covers the other side. Both sit on the long Sukhumvit strip described in the Sukhumvit guide.
Getting there
[BTS Thong Lo](/?q=Thong Lo) on the Sukhumvit line is at the bottom of the soi. From the station it is a long walk to the main restaurant stretch, so use a motorbike taxi from the rank at the soi mouth or the red bus that runs the length of the street. From the Phetchaburi end, the Khlong Saen Saep canal boat stops at Thong Lo pier, a short walk from the top of the soi, which is a handy route from Pratunam. Taxis into the soi are slow in the evening; it is often quicker to get out at the BTS end and ride in.