Potong

Review Highlights

Alexander visits Potong, hidden inside a 120-year-old former Chinese medicine shop in Bangkok's Chinatown — the family heritage building of Chef Pam, recently named The World's Best Female Chef 2025. The experience is structured as a journey through the building: drinks and opening bites on the rooftop, then down to the third-floor main dining room for a progressive Thai-Chinese tasting menu built around family history, memory, and storytelling.

• ·Fried dough with Yunnan ham and cheese, plus a chili tart with Chinese fermented sauce — rooftop opening bites; "nice crunch and gorgeous spiciness inside... mild, easily enjoyable heat"
• ·Black chicken pastry roll and black chicken broth — made with more than 20 ingredients, elevated by black pepper jam and winter truffle; "started off slowly, but then the spiciness came through beautifully"
• ·Kway Chap interpretation — pork tongue, abalone and caviar served with a peppery pork bone broth; "like a refined surf and turf... characteristic flavors"
• ·Blue crab stir-fried with pepper corn oil, topped with silky mousse and burnt leek powder — "lively, interesting, intense, and feels so fresh"
• ·Pad Thai deconstructed — Carabineros prawns with butterfly-pea-colored fried noodles, carabineros head essence, and HOI TOD (deep fried oyster with chili); "the essence with the hoi tod was… mindblowing. Salty, acidic, with just a touch of heat"
• ·Atlantic seabass — dried for a day, koji-aged, with burnt chili and cilantro oil and burnt fish bone broth; "minimal and elegant... rich in flavors, smokey"
• ·14-day dry-aged duck — local breed served family-style with gai lan, duck sausage with sweet chili, Chinese pickles, two types of rice, and a special wagyu char siu made in place of the traditional pork; "nice pink color, lovely texture, beautiful mature flavor"
• ·Coconut dessert — an edible homage to the historic building: coconut mousse, cake, cream and sorbet with vanilla white chocolate and salted coconut sauce; "the plating is just gorgeous"

Alexander finds the food delicious, with many authentic Chinese-Thai notes and fresh, exciting twists. The staff is warm and welcoming, though he found the constant presence of staff watching from across the room uncomfortable. He notes the building's imperfections — tight corridors, steep stairs — are part of its charm but come with compromises, and advises against dressing too formally. This isn't classical fine dining with complex dishes in a luxurious environment; rather, it's a unique experience where Chef Pam welcomes guests into her family home for an emotional journey through food, drinks, and story. For those seeking that kind of personal, narrative-driven evening, "this place is just right for you." Tasting menu: 5,500 THB (~$170). His meal was comped.

About

Potong is a one-Michelin-starred progressive Thai-Chinese restaurant hidden inside a 120-year-old former herbal medicine shop in Bangkok's Chinatown — the same building that housed Chef Pichaya "Pam" Soontornyanakij's family pharmacy business for four generations. Named The World's Best Female Chef in 2025 (the first Thai and first Asian to receive the honor), Chef Pam returned to Thailand after training at the Culinary Institute of America and cooking at three-Michelin-star Jean-Georges in New York. Her 20-course tasting menu tells the story of her Thai-Chinese heritage through a "5 Elements & 5 Senses" philosophy, taking guests across multiple floors of the historic building from rooftop to dining room.