Potong
Pichaya "Pam" Soontornyanakij cooks a 20-course Thai-Chinese tasting menu inside the five-storey Yaowarat building where her family ran a Chinese herbal medicine business from 1910, and in 2025 it entered The World's 50 Best Restaurants at No.13, the year's Highest New Entry.
Why go
Pam trained at the Culinary Institute of America and cooked at Jean-Georges in New York before coming home to spend two and a half years restoring the family building (Asia's 50 Best). The Michelin Guide Thailand 2023 gave the restaurant a star and the country's first-ever Opening of the Year award in the same ceremony, and the star has held through the 2026 guide. The titles kept coming: Asia's Best Female Chef 2024, The World's Best Female Chef 2025. Every course runs through her five elements, salt, acid, spice, texture and Maillard reaction,
and the flagship technique is a 14-day dry-aged duck: blanched, hung, blanched again in vinegar, glucose, soy and five spice, aged two weeks, then finished in about ten minutes at very high heat (World's 50 Best).
Order this / avoid
- Order: the tasting menu is the only format, B6,300++ on the venue's booking page. Jeff's picks from his own meals: the beef char siu, the Cantonese barbecue roast done in the original style but with beef, and the mapo tofu. Published coverage anchors on the 14-day-aged duck.
- Avoid: Wednesdays, when the house is closed, and loose headcounts; the B1,000-per-guest Chope deposit is deducted from the bill but committed at booking.
What locals & experts say
- Time Out Bangkok (5/5, 2025, Tita Honghirunkham):
Potong serves up experiences, one floor at a time.
6 - The World's 50 Best Restaurants (2025): No.13 in the world, Highest New Entry Award 2025.1
- Michelin Guide Thailand 2023: one star plus Thailand's first Opening of the Year award, both announced November 2022; the star holds in the 2026 guide.4
- Asia's 50 Best Restaurants: No.35 debut in 2023, No.17 in 2024, No.13 in 2025, No.25 in 2026.3
- Jeff (first-hand): a favorite when chefs visit.
Good to know
- Timing: open daily except Wednesday, seatings from 3:30pm to 8:30pm; budget 2.5 to 3 hours.
- Booking: essential, via Chope with a B1,000-per-guest deposit; lead time is unpublished, so book as soon as dates are set.
- Getting there: 422 Vanich Rd in Yaowarat, a short walk from MRT Wat Mangkon.
Jeff's take (his words)
- Note: "Michelin 1 star. Famous new chef. Insta rec; top asia 17 in top 50; must visit. Unique thai-chinese. barbecue roasted pork (typically found in China or Hong Kong), she makes it in the original style, but with beef instead of pork, which is very unusual. Another one of my favorite dishes is the mapo tofu (tofu with spicy sauce). A favorite when chefs visit"
Verdict
must-visit — A chef holding Asia's Best Female Chef 2024 and The World's Best Female Chef 2025, a Michelin star with Thailand's first Opening of the Year award, and a No.13 world debut, cooking Thai-Chinese food nobody else attempts at this level, inside her own family's 1910 medicine-shop building. It is also Jeff's table: he has eaten the beef char siu and mapo tofu and calls it a favorite when chefs visit. Craft, uniqueness, and first-hand evidence all point at the top rung.