Thailand is famous for its vibrant street food—colorful, full of flavor, and often less than THB 100 (about €2.75) per serving. But during our stay in Bangkok, we decided to explore the other end of the culinary spectrum. Together with our neighbors, who happened to be in town at the same time, we tried Michelin-starred fine dining at R-Haan.

R-Haan holds two Michelin stars and offers a tasting menu that reinterprets classic Thai dishes in a refined, contemporary style. The menu includes four amuse-bouches, four starters, a main course composed of three dishes, dessert, and petit fours. The price is THB 5,512 (around €175, including service and tax). A wine pairing of six wines adds THB 3,812 (about €125). While these prices are astronomical by Thai standards, they are quite reasonable compared to two-star Michelin restaurants elsewhere in the world.

The amuse-bouches were presented in a gold-lacquered box, arranged on a map of Thailand to indicate their regional origins. From the north came a deep-fried noodle roll filled with minced pork and yellow curry spices. Central Thailand was represented by blue fish satay. From the northeast, an exquisite grilled Surin Wagyu beef with sour and spicy sauce. The east contributed a delicate lobster dumpling, and from the south, a Phuket crab curry croquette.

The first wine in the pairing was a very dry Riesling from Germany’s Rheingau region, with vibrant acidity and aromas of green apple.

It paired well with the first starter: a sustainably cultivated Andaman prawn served with avocado and nam pla sauce (galangal, lemongrass, bird’s eye chili, and lime).

We continued with a medium-dry Gewürztraminer from Alsace, offering aromas of rose and lychee.

This was an excellent pairing for the Gaeng Som, a sour fish soup served with cauliflower purée, mashed jackfruit seeds, crunchy water chestnuts, and caviar. The soup had a beautifully balanced flavor, which is the essence of Thai cuisine and particularly challenging to achieve in this water-based curry rather than the more common coconut milk-based curries.

The wine for the third starter was also from Alsace, a Riesling with a nice creamy texture and aromas of petrol and green apple.

This was a very good pairing for the grilled frog leg served with wild betel leaf, fern salad, thinly sliced banana blossom, and a Thai dressing. The wine complemented the spiciness of the dish beautifully.

The next wine was a surprising choice: a red Bordeaux, a Cabernet Franc produced by the same family behind Château Lafleur as a distinct cru, using cuttings from Lafleur’s unique Bouchet (Cabernet Franc) vines grown on limestone terroir in Fronsac. The wine featured velvety tannins and aromas of red fruit and vanilla.

It was not a very good pairing for the sous-vide duck egg yolk with sweet brown sauce, pumpkin, and rice berry sponge cake. This was a modern interpretation of Khai Phalo, a classic dish of eggs simmered in a soy sauce and five-spice broth with palm sugar. The sweetness of the sauce accentuated the bitter notes in the wine. For Thai diners this dish may have nostalgic value—it was listed on the menu as “egg of memory”—but it was our least favorite dish.

A Khao Mak sorbet was served to cleanse our palate before the main course. This sorbet is a modern, creative twist on the traditional Thai fermented sticky rice dessert.

The wine for the main course was a 2020 Aloxe-Corton Premier Cru La Toppe au Vert by Thibault Liger-Belair. Although I had never considered pairing Thai food with red Burgundy, this elegant wine worked surprisingly well with two of the three main course dishes.

One of the dishes was a Tom Yum soup, with the broth infused at the table using fresh Thai herbs in a clear glass percolator, allowing guests to watch the process as it happened.

The main course was served in traditional Thai fashion: plain rice to be combined spoonful by spoonful with an array of dishes. These included King River prawns accompanied by Tom Yum soup, chicken in a sweet bamboo shoot curry, and a spicy Rayong crab dip with fermented freshwater fish and Thai herbs. The chicken was very dry, but the prawns had phenomenal texture and the flavor balance of the soup was once again impeccable. The “plain” rice was actually Ubon Ratchathani Hommali rice, a high-quality, region-specific premium jasmine rice from northeastern Thailand with GI certification. The wine paired best with the chicken and crab, but was also acceptable with the prawn.

Wine is very expensive in Thailand because of the taxes, and up to this point the sommelier had been serving small pours. With the main course, however, he generously kept topping up our glasses with the excellent Aloxe-Corton.

The dessert wine was a 2021 Carmes de Rieussec, the second wine of Château Rieussec in Sauternes, with its sweetness nicely balanced by acidity and aromas of ripe mango.

This was an excellent pairing for the modern interpretation of mango with sticky rice, which featured mango ice cream and sticky rice ice cream. The pastry chef personally presented the dessert at our table, and we complimented her highly on this lovely creation. There was also an alternative option: a black coconut sweet pudding with Thai tea ice cream, which was equally excellent according to Kees and Thomas, who chose that.

The petit fours were served alongside the dessert: young rice milk canelé, flower rice cake, Thai fruit chocolate bonbon, and pink guava with salted plum candy.

This was an excellent meal and a wonderful evening. The enormous price difference compared to a regular meal in Thailand makes fine dining a harder sell than in other countries, even compared to Italy where the quality of everyday meals can also be very high. In Italy, the price gap is nowhere near as large as it is here. If, like me, you care mostly about flavor and less about presentation and service, it becomes an even tougher choice. So we’ll probably limit fine dining in Thailand to at most one dinner per trip and stick to the fantastic, inexpensive street food otherwise. R-Haan was a great choice, and I’m looking forward to trying another Michelin-starred restaurant on our next visit to Thailand.