Midnight Tuk Tuk Food Tour

I’m always down for a food tour when visiting a new city. It’s a great way to experience some of the most popular eateries and learn more about the local cuisine and signature dishes. I heard about Bangkok Food Tours and decided to book a tour with them for our second night in Bangkok.

They offer a few different tours and the Midnight Tuk Tuk Tour sounded like fun. What better way to explore the city’s eateries via the iconic 3-wheel tuk tuk? The tuk tuks were all lined up and ready to go. Our driver was very nice and it was so much fun exploring the city this way.

After we all gathered at the meeting point to meet one another and our guide, we headed to our first stop. A small restaurant serving up popular Thai dishes.

We sat at a long table outside and everybody couldn’t wait to eat. Bring your appetite because it is a good amount of food. A few of us ordered beer while we waited for the food to come out. The beer is not included, but prices were very reasonable.

The guide was made aware of some of our food preferences. Besides my sister begin vegan, there was a vegetarian in the group and I advised him that I could not eat shrimp. He had some trouble remembering these preferences and could not grasp it up until our last stop.

The food started coming out and they were full servings. We had corn, tom yum soup, papaya salad, sticky rice, pork, and a couple other dishes.

We enjoyed the sticky rice served in little bamboo containers.

The pork was excellent. The boneless pork loin was sliced into strips. It was very tender with a slightly sweet sauce coating it.

Our next stop was a tiny restaurant that specializes in a noodle dish called Kuay Teow Kua Gai. We waited for a few tables to clear and took our seats. We ordered more beer of course and the noodles started coming out.

The dish is made with wide rice noodles that are stir-fried with chicken and a special sauce. We were given the option of having it topped with an egg or without. I opted to have it with the egg which was very soft.

Break the yolk and mix it all up. It was delicious. The egg was super fresh.

After finishing our food, we took our beers and headed to the back of the restaurant where the food is made is a small alley kitchen. Even though there’s a restaurant with seating, this was true street food.

We watched how the kuay teow kua gai was made. Each dish is made one-by-one in a very hot pan. Stand back!

We made our way to the big flower market for a bit. You have the opportunity to wander as you please and purchase whatever you would like.

There were lots of lovely flowers and beautiful arrangements to choose from.

The flowers didn’t exactly catch my attention, but something else sure did. There was a small cart outside the market selling bugs – stir-fried crickets, grasshoppers, and silk worms. I was curious to try something new and unique and this was perfect!

I ordered a bag of grasshoppers and she even threw in a few silk worms as well. How nice!

If you can get pass the fact that it’s a big bug, it actually wasn’t so bad. It’s more of a texture thing than taste. The grasshopper was very crunchy with a very mild taste. A couple other people tried them as well. Cheers! I also tried the silk worms which were much tougher to eat. They were plump and soft. Bleh.

After the flower market and snacks, we hopped into our tuk tuks and made our way to Wat Pho. The actual temple is closed after a certain hour, but the temple grounds are still open in the evening. Most of us already saw the temple during the day, but it was cool to see it at night and take a couple photos.

After the temple it was time to have a drink at the “secret bar”. It was almost midnight at this point and we still had one more stop to go, so the schedule was a bit off and ran later than expected.

We walked up a few flights of stairs towards the rooftop bar. We were given a menu with a few cocktails that you can choose from that are included in the tour.  The view was great and you can see a few of the temples glowing in the night around the bar.

After finishing our drinks, the group was more than ready for the last stop.

The very famous Thip Samai was the last stop on our tour. The restaurant is world famous and considered to have the best pad thai around. I was really excited to try it since I’ve seen it on television a few times. The place was packed and we waited for them to clear a table for us.

All the action is happening in the front near the entrance. Plates and plates of their signature pad thai are made and brought to customers right away.

We sat down and waited for our final plates of food to arrive. A plate of bean sprouts, scallions, and limes were given to garnish the pad thai.

We were given the option of the traditional version or the modern version. My sister had a vegan version with no meat and no egg. It was delicious and she was a big fan of it.

The modern version is wrapped in a thin egg omelette. The guide got confused with my shrimp allergy again. Their most popular version is made in shrimp oil and served with a couple big prawns. I asked for no shrimp and I was still given one with shrimp. I actually tried it and it was really good, but did not finish it as a precaution. When the guide realized he ordered it with shrimp, he apologized profusely and offered to have another one made, but at this point it was getting late and I was pretty full. We would return another time anyway.

Afterwards we all met up outside the restaurant to enjoy one last snack, khanom buang. They’re small Thai crepes filled with savory or sweet toppings. The ones we tried were filled with nuts and a slightly sweet filling. It made for a nice little dessert to conclude our food tour.We all went back to our tuk tuks and the driver dropped us off at our hotel.

The midnight food tour was a lot of fun and it was a blast riding the tuk tuks. Besides the guide having difficulty remembering our food preferences and the tour running later than scheduled, it was still a good time and provided a great opportunity to make a couple new friends.

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