Pad Thai is the canonical Bangkok stir-fried rice-noodle dish: tamarind-sweetened, fish-sauce-savoury, tossed with shrimp, egg, beansprouts and crushed peanuts in a smoking-hot wok, garnished with lime and chilli.

Pad Thai was rebranded as Thailand's national dish in 1939 by Prime Minister Plaek Phibunsongkhram, partly to reduce rice consumption during shortage and to differentiate Thai food from Chinese-Thai noodles. State-distributed recipes pushed pad Thai stalls across Bangkok by the 1940s. Thipsamai opened in 1966 as the canonical wrapped-in-egg version, earning a Bib Gourmand listing when Michelin arrived in Thailand in 2018, and remains the queue-out-the-door reference on Maha Chai Road.

2 editor picks for Pad Thai in Bangkok, ranked by editorial score. All Bangkok signature dishes · Pad Thai across every city.