13 Popular Thai Dishes: The Best Foods of Thailand

Thai cuisine is widely enjoyed in many parts of the world. Sure, traditional Thai food is highly popular in the United States, but the famous food of Thailand is served in big cities all over the globe.

Popular Thai dishes not only offer rich, diverse flavors loved by many, but they are typically packed with nutritious ingredients, resulting in a cuisine that is both remarkably delicious and relatively healthy.

It’s no wonder that Thailand shows up on the bucket lists of many foodies who are looking to travel to this pearl of Southeast Asia solely for its amazing cuisine. After all, what could be better than experiencing authentic Thai food in the country that invented it?

But whether you are a foodie or not, no trip to Thailand is complete without trying some of the country’s most outstanding traditional foods.

So, here’s a list of the most popular Thai dishes you can expect to find when exploring Thailand and some key information about what makes each of these so delicious.

The Most Popular Thai Dishes

1. Pad Thai

The most popular Thai dish, Pad Thai — Pad Thai is the most popular food in Thailand.

Undisputedly the most popular dish in Thai cuisine, Pad Thai is one food that you cannot miss out on in Thailand. It consists of stir-fried noodles and proteins like eggs, tofu, bean sprouts, shrimp, or almost any meat of your choice.

One unique aspect of this iconic dish is its combination of various ingredients that can be adjusted according to your personal preferences. These typically include fish sauce, peanut sauce, tamarind paste, lime juice, herbs, onions, chili flakes, and sugar.

All these combine to give Pad Thai its unique flavor by achieving a balanced mix of sweet, savory, sour, and spicy elements without any one of them being overpowering.

The dish is almost always topped with crushed roasted peanuts and lime wedges, so that you can add a squeeze of lime or more at your own discretion.

While Pad Thai is available at almost all Thai restaurants, you can also do as many locals do and get this iconic dish from one of the many street vendors offering this local favorite.

Even if you order a vegetarian version, you’ll find that this famous Thai food still makes a mouth-watering meal with its mélange of distinct flavors.

2. Gaeng Keow Wan Gai

One of the most popular Thai dishes, Thai Green Curry — Gaeng Keow Wan Gai is deeply flavorful and quite spicy.

If you’re fond of spicy flavors, Gaeng Keow Wan Gai green curry is sure to dazzle your taste buds. Green chili peppers are responsible for both this curry’s signature green color and its fiery kick. Coconut milk is the ingredient that creates a thick and creamy texture and brings a touch of sweetness.

One of the most delicious of all Thai curries, Gaeng Keow Wan Gai usually features several vegetables, such as potatoes, eggplant, and bell peppers.

Fresh ingredients like basil, coriander, garlic, ginger, and kaffir lime leaves provide this curry with its unique aroma, and a tablespoon or two of fish sauce or soy sauce imparts a pleasing umami taste.

Once again, you can choose your favorite protein for this popular Thai food, including chicken, beef, or seafood. Although mostly eaten as a stand-alone, you can order it with rice or noodles if you’re looking to tone down the spiciness quotient.

This is one of the many dishes that exhibit regional variations within Thailand. While the core ingredients are the same throughout the country, the water your version is made with and the soil in which its veggies are grown can lend a particular taste.

For instance, the Gaeng Keow Wan Gai you find on the coast can taste quite different from what you’ll find in the mountains.

3. Tom Yum Goong

Tom Yum Goong, one of the best foods of Thailand — Tom Yum Goong is a beloved and spicy Thai shrimp soup.

Tom Yum Goong is Thailand's most beloved soup. The delicious hot and sour shrimp soup is famous around the world for its combination of spices and aromatic herbs—particularly lemongrass and kaffir lime leaves—that provide this spicy wonder with its distinctive, appealing fragrance.

The broth is prepared using such additional ingredients as galangal chili peppers, shallots, lime juice, sugar, and fish sauce or soy sauce.

Goong is Thai for shrimp, and these crustaceans are incorporated into the boiling broth before the soup is served, along with mushrooms and tomatoes. As a result, it’s not always possible to substitute for this main ingredient.

However, in the more-touristed areas of Thailand, many establishments will be able to switch out the shrimp for chicken if that’s something you inquire about before ordering.

While the soup is mainly famous for its intense and rich flavor, you can also have its milder and creamier form made using coconut milk.

Although the best Tom Yum Goong you’ll ever have will of course be in Thailand, the Chun Choon Cafe in Kuching in Malaysian Borneo serves a very close second.

4. Khao Pad

Khao Pad, or Thai Fried Rice, is a simple, flavor-packed dish that makes for a light yet satisfying meal. It is made with stir-fried jasmine rice, eggs, garlic, and onions. Typically, you can choose your protein, but chicken or prawns are the most common options.

Fish sauce is the ingredient that brings a little sweet, umami flavor to this stir-fry, and it typically comes with sliced cucumbers and lime wedges as sides.

Khao Pad can be cooked according to slightly different recipes. Besides variations in the chief protein component, the dish can include any combination of vegetables, like carrots, corn, bell peppers, and broccoli.

The sauce can also differ, with barbecue and oyster sauces being possible, but less common, alternatives.

This is another traditional food in Thailand that makes a super tasty and filling dish even if you opt for a vegetarian version.

5. Khao Soi

Khao Soi, a famous soup from Chang Mai — Khao Soi is the most famous food of Chiang Mai in northern Thailand.

Khao Soi is a delicacy in northern Thailand, particularly in the city of Chiang Mai, where it most likely evolved from a recipe introduced to the area long ago by Chinese traders. It is one of the must-try street foods in Chiang Mai, but you’ll also find great versions in many of Chiang Mai’s best restaurants.

Unlike many traditional Thai dishes that feature rice noodles, Khao Soi is a soup that features wheat-based egg noodles. This unique noodle soup is not loaded with many ingredients, and it is comparatively less spicy than some other Thai favorites. However, it is certainly not lacking in flavor!

Khao Soi includes chunks of chicken and strikes the perfect balance between sweet and spicy. It features a creamy texture that derives from the coconut milk that is one of its main ingredients. The red curry paste at its base is prepared using ginger, cilantro, dried chilis, cardamom, turmeric, and shallots.

Khao Soi is usually served as a main dish. It is most often accompanied by specific condiments, including lemons to add a bit of tanginess, pickled veggies, and chili flakes.

Traditionally, the soup is also topped with deep-fried crispy egg noodles to add some crunch. In some regions, an additional twist is thrown in: banana. This wildcard is used as a counterbalance to the soup’s spice quotient.

6. Som Tam

Som Tam, Spicy Green Papaya Salad — Som Tam is a Thai green papaya salad with a fiery kick.

Som Tam is a spicy green papaya salad featuring shredded papaya as its main ingredient. It is without a doubt Thailand’s go-to salad dish.

Originally introduced in Isaan, in northeast Thailand, the salad offers a brilliant combination of four types of flavors: sweet, spicy, tangy, and savory.

That being said, those who love sharp flavors will particularly appreciate the slightly intense sour and spicy component of this dish. However, if you’re not a big fan of the invigorating kick of a spicy salad, you can always request it to be served without the chili peppers.

Always refreshing, Kom Sam contains plenty of simple ingredients that combine to form a delectable blend.

Key particulars include garlic, cherry tomatoes, roasted peanuts, dried shrimp, fish sauce, sugar, lime juice, and vegetables such as carrots and green beans. Finally, a red chili dressing gives the salad its spiciness.

Kom Sam is popular throughout Thailand, and you’ll definitely find excellent versions among the amazing foods in Bangkok.

Whether you have this traditional food of Thailand on its own, alongside a meal, or as an appetizer, the irresistible flavors of this highly popular salad will leave you wanting more.

7. Poh Pia Tod

Poh Pia Tod is a popular street food throughout Thailand.

Poh Pia Tod, otherwise known as Thai spring rolls, are a delicious, deep-fried, crispy treat. Popularly eaten as a snack while on the go or as an appetizer, these delicious rolls are made using Poh Pia, a thin wrapper, filled with glass noodles and an assortment of shredded vegetables such as carrots, cabbage, and onions, along with mushrooms.

Cilantro and garlic add a powerful punch of flavor to the rolls. While the most common type of protein used in these rolls is prawns, some eateries use chicken or ground pork. Others offer a vegetarian option.

These rolls are best eaten when sizzling hot and crispy. Enjoy them to the full by dipping them in some chili sauce for maximum flavor.

While these are incredibly tasty, they are also quite rich due to their being deep fried. Nonetheless, you have got to try some during your stay. They are an incredibly popular street food of Bangkok, so if you visit Thailand’s capital, you’ll easily find them there.

However, these are one of the most famous Thai foods, so you’ll have no problem finding them almost anywhere in the country.

Although these might sound similar to the rice paper rolls you can get in Hoi Ann or elsewhere in Vietnam, they have at least one key difference: The flavors of these Thai rolls are more vibrant than what you’ll find in their Vietnamese counterparts.

8. Khao Neow Mamuang

Mango Sticky Rice, popular dessert in Thailand — Mango Sticky Rice is a popular Thai dessert with a surprising mix of ingredients.

Of all the best Thai food desserts that could have made it onto our list of top foods in Thailand, Khao Neow Mamuang (Mango Sticky Rice) is our hands-down choice.

A signature dessert in Thailand, it is cooked by mixing palm sugar and coconut milk in glutinous rice that sticks together upon steaming, resulting in a sweet, soft, creamy texture.

The warm and juicy rice is served alongside fresh, cold mango slices. Savory coconut cream is typically poured on top of the rice, but it can also be served on the side.

Whether you have a sweet tooth or not, mango sticky rice in Thailand is a must-try dessert. The traditional sweet Thai recipe offers up what may first seem a rather odd combination of highly contrasting ingredients, but the result is richly flavorsome and uniquely satisfying.

9. Masaman Curry

Masaman Curry, a famous Thai food similar to Indian curry — Massaman Curry is a traditional Thai food that blends tasty Thai and Indian ingredients.

Although Massaman Curry most probably originated in Thailand, it has a striking resemblance to Indian curry at first glance—and for good reason. A blend of Thai and Indian ingredients, this Thai creation shares a few similarities with Indian curries, yet it differs as well.

Unlike Indian curry, which is entirely savory, Massaman has a slightly sweet flavor and creamy texture due to the inclusion of coconut milk in its recipe. The yellow curry paste combines ingredients commonly found in Thai dishes with elements that often appear in Indian foods.

This intriguing blend includes cloves, cardamom, nutmeg, garlic, ginger, onions, shallots, dry chili peppers, lemongrass, coriander, and tamarind sauce, among other possibilities. Potatoes are also part of the mix, and the most popular meats used are chicken or beef.

Massaman curry is at once mildly spicy, sweet, and savory. It is best paired with plain rice.

10. Pad Kra Pao

Pad Kra Pao, a popular lunch dish in Thailand — Pad Kra Pao is a delicious Thai stir fry.

Pad Kra Pao is a classic local recipe and one of the most common Thai dishes enjoyed by Thai people for lunch or dinner.

Featuring a savory flavor with plenty of spice and a touch of sweetness, this local staple is made by stir-frying minced chicken or pork in a wok with the aromatic leaves of a strain of local basil known as holy basil.

The addition of garlic, shallots, fish sauce, oyster sauce, and chili peppers synthesizes Pad Kra Pao’s appealing taste. Steamed white rice complements the dish. Adding a fried egg is also an option.

11. Khao Man Gai

Khao Man Gai, a simple Thai dish — Khao Man Gai is a simply delicious famous food in Thailand and Portland, Oregon.

If you’re in the mood for a simple dish that makes a comforting meal for lunch or dinner, Khao Man Gai is an excellent choice! It’s a traditional chicken and rice dish that traces its history to the Hainan Province of China.

In its current preparation, this famous food in Thailand begins with chicken boiling in water flavored with salt, pepper, garlic, and onions, creating a fragrant broth.

Next, rice is cooked in a mixture of chicken fat and broth obtained from the boiled chicken, providing an essential part of this recipe’s delightful favor profile. The rice is then topped with juicy, tender chicken strips.

However, the recipe is incomplete without its sauce, which is its pièce de résistance in the opinion of most people familiar with this dish.

The sauce is made of red chilis, fermented soybeans, ginger, garlic, cilantro, vinegar, and soy sauce. The Khao Man Gai is typically garnished with sliced cucumbers and cilantro and served with some of its retained broth.

Not only one of the most famous foods in Thailand, Khao Man Gai has also become one of the most famous foods of Portland, Oregon. That’s the happy result of Thai native Nong Poonsukwattana opening her revered Nong’s Khao Man Gai restaurant in the Pacific Northwest’s foodie capital and shining a bright spotlight on her homeland’s traditional chicken and rice dish.

12. Kai Med Mamuang

Kai Med Mamuang, Thai Cashew Chicken — Kai Med Mamuang is a cashew chicken dish popular throughout Thailand.

Kai Med Mamuang, also called Gai Pad Med Mamuang, is the Thai version of cashew chicken, and it is one of the most popular foods in Thailand.

It consists of chicken chunks that have been fried in oyster and soy sauce, along with fresh vegetables, garlic, and mushrooms. The chicken gets crispy on the outside yet remains tender on the inside. The combination of rich flavors and textures at play makes this one of my favorite Thai dishes.

The selection of vegetables can vary from place to place, but stir-fried bell peppers, onions, and carrots are mainstays.

At the end of the cooking process, cashew nuts are tossed in with the chicken, and the combination once again is stir-fried with oyster sauce, soy sauce, and chili peppers.

The finished entrée comes garnished with green onions and fried dried chilis and is typically served with steamed rice.

13. Tom Kha Gai

Tom Kha Gai, a famous Thai soup — Tom Kha Gai is one of my favorite soups in the world!

If spicy soups like Tom Yum Goong are not your thing, and you prefer a delicate and mild taste, then there is nothing better than Tom Kha Gai, or coconut chicken soup.

In this Thai classic, tender chicken cubes or strips and mushrooms are cooked in a coconut milk broth, creating a creamy texture that counterbalances the sharpness of the chilis used in the recipe.

Aromatic ingredients like kaffir lime leaves, lemongrass, ginger, galangal, and cilantro are also a part of the mix and impart a fresh and distinct taste to the soup.

The addition of fish sauce and lime juice adds a hint of saltiness and tanginess and rounds out this heavenly soup which is often paired with jasmine rice.

Of all the famous foods of Thailand, Tom Kha Gai is the one we order every single time we go out to any of the amazing Thai restaurants in our hometown. I love it!

Final Words on the Best Foods in Thailand

From its pristine beaches to its rich history and unique culture, Thailand has lots to offer, making it one of the top travel destinations in the world. Add incredibly flavorsome cuisine, and you have yet another compelling reason to visit this vibrant country.

And with this list of the most popular Thai dishes to try during your visit, you’re now set to elevate your Thai experience by treating your taste buds to some of the finest foods in the world.

With its diversity of ingredients, spice levels, and complexity, the cuisine of Thailand provides a wonderful variety of super satisfying meals that offer something to suit everyone's palate.

Your ability to tailor so many aspects of your order is an added bonus. As is the fact that such a wide array of fresh vegetables are used in so many of the famous foods of Thailand that your incredibly tasty meals can be healthy as well. The prevalence of vegetables also means that accommodating a vegetarian diet is not a big challenge.

Try as many of these popular Thai foods as possible during your stay, and no matter what else you do during your visit to this stunning country, you’ll be sure to enjoy a rewarding exploration of one of the world’s most satisfying cuisines.