Nusara

Asia's 50 Best ranks Nusara No.5 on the continent in 2026, and the menu is a grandmother's: Thitid "Ton" Tassanakajohn and his brother Tam opened it in 2020 to honor the woman who raised them, named it after her, and serve her recipes in a shophouse looking straight at Wat Pho.

Why go

Ton cooks; Tam, a sommelier, runs the room and the cellar. The 12-course menu crosses family recipes with cookbooks from the royal kitchens of King Rama V (Asia's 50 Best), and the climb was steep: No.3 in Asia in 2023, No.6 in 2024 and 2025, No.5 in 2026, plus the Gin Mare Art of Hospitality Award 2024. Michelin ran years behind the lists and only promoted Nusara from Selected to its first star in the Thailand 2026 guide (Time Out). Jeff's geography holds: the restaurant sits above Mayrai, the brothers' pad thai and wine bar, where guests start with a drink before heading upstairs.

Order this / avoid

• Order: the tasting is fixed; the plates that define it are the blue swimming crab curry, which the 50 Best editorial calls "one of the restaurant's most recognisable plates, served with crispy rice noodles," and the Thai wagyu pad kaprao, "lingeringly spicy" in BK Magazine's opening review and "stellar" in Michelin's 2026 inspector text.
• Avoid: treating the booking as flexible; TableCheck charges 100% up front and refunds 80% at best inside seven business days.

What locals & experts say

• World's 50 Best editorial (2023): "The younger sibling of the high-flying Le Du, Nusara has taken on a stellar reputation of its own since it opened in 2020." ref
• Michelin Guide Thailand 2026: first One Star, promoted from Michelin Selected; "Nusara pairs refined cooking with a mesmerising view of Wat Pho." ref
• Asia's 50 Best Restaurants (2026): No.5 in Asia; Art of Hospitality Award winner 2024. ref
• BK Magazine (2020): "Small, creative Thai bites fill the 12-course tasting menu." ref

Good to know

• Booking: essential via TableCheck, full deposit at booking; last order 20:30, about 2.5 hours.
• Format: about 40 seats including a 10-seat central table; ask for the terrace for the Wat Pho view.
• Budget: roughly $185 for 12 courses per 50 Best Discovery; the venue does not publish a baht price, so check TableCheck.
• Getting there: Maha Rat Road in Tha Tien, by the Wat Pho compound; pair the trip with the Old Town sights, it is a ride from the Surawong base.

Jeff's take (his words)

• Note: "Above wine bar, chef ton"

Verdict (Chef Jeff ladder)

must-visit — No.5 in Asia 2026, three straight years in the continent's top six, the 2024 Art of Hospitality award, and a first Michelin star that arrived years after the critics had already ranked it above most starred rooms. The format is unduplicable: grandmother's recipes crossed with Rama V royal cookbooks, eaten over Wat Pho with the chef's brother running the cellar downstairs at Mayrai. This is the strongest craft-per-formality play in Bangkok fine dining and the night builds itself around the temple view.