Potong

The story

Crafted with passion, served with love

A building that chose its chef

On Vanich Road in the heart of Bangkok's Chinatown, a five-storey shophouse has stood since 1910, originally home to a Chinese herbal medicine business. Chef Pichaya "Pam" Soontornyanakij is its fourth-generation descendant, and when she returned to Bangkok after training in the United States — including time at the legendary Jean-Georges — the building was waiting. Restored over two and a half years in a major architectural project, it became Restaurant Potong in 2021, and the city's fine-dining landscape has not been the same since.

The philosophy behind the plate

Potong's tasting menu is built around five elements — salt, acid, spice, texture, and the Maillard reaction — and five senses, producing around twenty courses that Chef Pam describes as her journal memories. The progression moves through chapters she calls Historical, Spiritual, and Emotional, each dish a precise articulation of progressive Thai-Chinese cuisine rooted in personal recollection. Standout courses include Historical Stories — crab roe, blue crab and brioche — Bold, featuring 14-day aged duck sourced directly from dedicated farmers, and Heritage, a study in pandan, peanut bon bon and tamarind. The menu shifts with the seasons, shaped by close relationships with local purveyors and a willingness to seek exceptional ingredients wherever they are found.

The meal opens with house-made charcuterie and a collaboration wine, setting the tone for an experience Chef Pam describes as dining on a spiritual level: "when the cuisine, the wine, the service, and the overall ambiance transpire in equal measure — at that moment, like a brisk snapshot, it captures your memory."

Recognition that speaks for itself

Since opening, Potong has accumulated recognition at a pace that is difficult to ignore. Chef Pam became the youngest female chef to receive both a Michelin Star and the Michelin Thailand Opening of the Year Award. In 2024 she was named Asia's Best Female Chef; in 2025, she became the first Asian chef ever to receive The World's Best Female Chef Award from the World's 50 Best Restaurants organisation. That same year, Potong entered The World's 50 Best Restaurants list at No. 13 — the Highest New Entry of 2025 — a debut that reflects years of consistent, award-winning work rather than any overnight arrival.

The space itself

The restored building layers history with intention. The main dining room occupies the second floor; the third floor preserves an original room lined with hand-painted tiger drawings. Above that, the fourth and fifth floors house Opium Bar, a late-night cocktail space that carries the building's spirit into the small hours. A former first-floor apothecary is set to become Sino House, described as a "funky Thai-Chinese" restaurant with live music — another chapter in a building that keeps writing its own story.

Chef Pam and co-founder Tor Boonpiti operate Potong under their Bangkok-based hospitality group, THE X PROJECT, whose portfolio also includes the Texas barbecue-inspired Smoked and the beef omakase restaurant The Table by Chef Pam.