Prachak Pet Yang

This Charoen Krung shophouse has roasted duck since 1909, and it wears a Thai name on a Cantonese recipe because a man called Prachak married into the founding family in the 1920s and put his own name over the door.

Why go

Founder Choy Kaung worked his way up from hawking noodles to a duck stall on Bangkok's first paved road, and per Coconuts the recipe and method have not changed since; the fourth generation runs the room today. The judgments converge across writers and years. Coconuts's Prae Sakaowan: "The duck is very soft and not chewy at all... Is it one of the best roasted ducks I've ever had? Yes." Mark Wiens: "The sauce was on the sweeter side, but it really went well with the salty duck and that slightly crispy melt-in-your-mouth duck skin." A duck plate over rice ran B40 at Sakaowan's visit, which for a 117-year institution is close to a rounding error.

Order this / avoid

• Order: pet yang over rice, or the che po rice, which Time Out itemizes as "roasted duck, barbecued pork, Chinese sausages, crispy pork belly, and stewed pig's trotter"; add ba mee boo, the crab egg noodles Wiens praises for their un-clumped toss.
• Avoid: the pork-and-shrimp dumplings, which Sakaowan found forgettable, and late arrivals, since the duck can run out by early evening.

What locals & experts say

• Coconuts Bangkok (Prae Sakaowan, 2018): "Is it one of the best roasted ducks I've ever had? Yes." ref
• Time Out Bangkok (Sep 2022, Arpiwach Supateerawanitt): "The unpretentious eatery" has served its Chinese-influenced fare "for over a century." ref
• Matylda Grzelak, World of Mouth: "Consistently delivering good food since 1909. Be early! Duck may disappear after 5:30!" ref

Good to know

• Timing: daytime is safe; sources disagree on closing (6:30pm per Time Out 2022, later in older accounts), and the duck itself is the real clock. Closed around Chinese New Year and Songkran.
• Booking: walk-in, with a takeaway counter doing brisk trade.
• Getting there: 1415 Charoen Krung opposite the old Robinson corner, near BTS Saphan Taksin; ten minutes from the Mandarin Oriental, so it pairs with the Authors' Lounge for the best high-low afternoon in Bang Rak.

Jeff's take (his words)

• The note: none on the row; this save was added from the trip research rather than his own list. Ask him if he has been.

Verdict (Chef Jeff ladder)

should-visit — A Cantonese roast-duck recipe run by one family on the same road since 1909, four generations deep, with the method reportedly unchanged and the duck still selling out by early evening at B40 a plate over rice. Coconuts's reviewer called it one of the best roast ducks she'd ever had, and Wiens's skin-and-sauce read agrees. It is a fluorescent-lit shophouse ten minutes from the river hotels; go at lunch, order the che po plate, and eat a century.