Tonsei: The Tonkatsu Shop Where You Order the Tempura

Tonsei is a tonkatsu shop where the teishoku sets outshine the tonkatsu. The tempura teishoku runs around 200 baht, arrives as a proper spread, and the portions are bigger than the price suggests. For that money you’re eating better than places charging twice as much manage. It’s the closest thing on this list to eating in Japan.

The room is a narrow unit over 2 floors at the mouth of Soi 26, beside the UOB building. It’s been there more than 40 years with the same Japanese chef. There’s an English menu too, which makes it the easiest place here to walk into without a plan.

Weekends are quiet enough that you’ll get a seat without waiting. Weekday lunch reportedly fills with the Sukhumvit office crowd, though that one is second-hand.

If it’s specifically tonkatsu you’re after, Katsushin further down does it better. Come here for the sets.

The Japan: The Members’ Canteen That Does Not Check

Timing is everything here. This is the ground floor of an office building on Sathorn, the surrounding towers empty out at lunch, and at noon on a weekday you’ll queue longer than you’ll eat. 11 in the morning gives you a chance at a seat, 1:30 is the better bet, and evenings are easier than either. That queue is the only reason this sits at 8 rather than 9. The food would carry a 9 on its own.

The restaurant sits inside the Japanese Association, first floor, straight ahead through the entrance. If there’s a queue you sign in at reception. If there isn’t, walk straight through. Nobody checks whether you’re a member, and by one count around 8 in 10 people eating there are Thai.

The chirashi special is what to order: assorted fresh seafood over Japanese rice, roughly 200 to 230 baht depending on the day and the cut. Everything else on the menu is good enough that choosing takes a minute, which is rare for a canteen. The green tea is free, it’s better than it needs to be, and it keeps coming.

Katsushin, below, is the meal you plan a day around. This is the one you slot into a working week.

Kikyo: Yakitori Up a Car Park Ramp

Getting in is half the pleasure. You walk through the Foodland car park off Patpong, past the barrier and up the ramp, through a stretch of Bangkok that’s more red-light than restaurant. Then a red lantern appears above a set of blue steel stairs, with old Japanese film posters lining the way up. It’s been a yakitori house since 1983, and the approach gives away none of that.

Inside there are 3 tables and about 10 counter seats, so the room fills fast. Booking on the day can work, but with a group you’ll want to reserve a table ahead. On your own, take the counter.

Skewers come as 3-piece plates at 90 baht a cut, and the yakitori is the reason to come. Cash only, and shoes off at the door.

It’s level with The Japan on score, and sits below it here only because The Japan is a meal you can have every week where this is one you plan. The 8 is for the room and the counter as much as the grill.

The owner has died since my last visit, and a 2025 review says standards slipped afterwards, pork especially. I haven’t been back to check, so treat this as a recommendation as of that visit rather than today.

Katsushin: If You Only Eat Tonkatsu Once in Bangkok

The Surawong shophouse is the original, and it serves the best tonkatsu in the city. Branches have opened since, including one in Central Chidlom late in 2025, but they’re a different experience. A mall food floor can’t do what 3 floors of an old Bang Rak shophouse does, and the gap is obvious the moment you sit down.

The ground floor gets crowded, so ask for one of the 2 floors above if you want a quieter meal.

The menu runs long: loin, fillet, miso katsu, and mixed plates that bring prawn and salmon alongside the pork. Cabbage comes shredded and unlimited, and so does the rice, which is how this should be done and increasingly isn’t. The interior is properly traditional rather than styled to look that way, and the staff are trained to a standard that’s quietly disappeared elsewhere in the city.

Cards are accepted above 500 baht, and it’s worth a phone booking if you’re coming at lunch. It’s the most expensive meal on this list, and that, not the cooking, is what holds the score at 7.5.

Ramen Shintaro: The 2am Bowl

Every other place here has shut by 10:30. This one opens at 4 in the afternoon and runs until 6 in the morning.

It comes into its own somewhere between 1 and 3 in the morning, when the room fills with people who’ve been drinking on Sukhumvit and want something hot before bed. Shintaro-san is usually on the floor greeting people himself, which sets the tone. The other diners are in much the same state you’re in, so expect a conversation you didn’t plan on having.

The menu is short and focused. Tonkotsu is the default, the spicy miso is what everyone else at the table seems to order, and both come in mid and large. It isn’t cheap for what the room looks like, and the reviews knock it for exactly that. At 2 in the morning that stops mattering.

It ties with Katsushin on score and sits below it for one reason: Katsushin is good on any day of the week, where this is only right after midnight. It pairs with a night out rather than replacing one. Start on a Bangkok rooftop bar and end here.