Ordering Food in Thai: Phrases for Restaurants and Street Food

To order food in Thai, catch the staff’s attention with น้องครับ nɔ́ɔng kráp (or น้องค่ะ nɔ́ɔng kâ if you are a woman), then say ขอ kɔ̌ɔ + the dish: ขอผัดไทยหนึ่งจานครับ kɔ̌ɔ pàt-tai nʉ̀ng jaan kráp, “one pad thai, please”. Add ไม่เผ็ด mâi pèt for “not spicy” or ไม่ใส่ผักชี mâi sài pàk-chii for “no coriander”, and when you have finished, ask for the bill with เช็คบิลด้วย chék-bin dûai.

That is the whole skeleton. The rest of this article fills it in: what the staff will ask you back, how to explain a diet or an allergy, how to take food away, and the Thai names of the dishes you will actually see on menus and street carts.

How to call the waiter: พี่ or น้อง

Thais rarely say “excuse me” to call a waiter. They use a kinship word, the same ones used in the family:

น้อง nɔ́ɔng means “younger sibling” and พี่ pîi “older sibling”. Using them with strangers is not overfamiliar: it is how Thai builds a warm, polite relationship. Most waiters are young, so น้อง is the default; if in doubt about someone’s age, พี่ is the flattering choice. Raise a hand slightly and say it in a normal voice, without snapping your fingers or waving.

The particle at the end is what makes it polite: ครับ kráp for male speakers, ค่ะ kâ for female speakers (คะ ká when it is a question or a call). The full story is in our article on Thai polite particles.

How to order: ขอ and เอา

Two verbs do almost all the work:

• ขอ kɔ̌ɔ, “may I have”: polite, works everywhere.
• เอา ao, “I’ll take”: more casual, normal at street stalls and when you answer a question.

When you give a quantity, the order is dish + number + classifier: จาน jaan (plate) for dishes, ชาม chaam (bowl) for soups and noodle soups, แก้ว gɛ̂ɛo (glass) for drinks, ขวด kùat (bottle). The logic is explained in our guide to Thai classifiers. If you forget the classifier, pointing and saying ขออันนี้ kɔ̌ɔ an-níi will still get you fed.

Ordering a meat with a dish follows the same pattern: dish + meat. ข้าวผัด kâao-pàt is fried rice, ข้าวผัดหมู kâao-pàt mǔu pork fried rice, ข้าวผัดไก่ kâao-pàt gài chicken fried rice. The main options are หมู mǔu (pork), ไก่ gài (chicken), เนื้อ nʉ́a (beef), กุ้ง gûng (shrimp), ปลาหมึก bplaa-mʉ̀k (squid) and ทะเล tá-lee (seafood).

What the staff will ask you

Ordering is a conversation, and the questions come back fast. These are the ones to recognize:

The answer is often just the key word: เผ็ดได้ pèt dâai (“spicy is fine”), เอา ao (“yes, I’ll take it”), ไม่เอา mâi ao (“no thanks”), กินที่นี่ gin tîi-nîi (“here”).

How spicy? เผ็ด and its degrees

เผ็ด pèt (low tone) means spicy. Be careful not to confuse it with เป็ด bpèt, “duck”: same tone, but the first consonant is aspirated in “spicy” and unaspirated in “duck”.

“Not spicy” is relative. Chili is in the curry paste, the dressing and the dipping sauce, so ไม่เผ็ด usually means “no extra chili”, not “zero heat”. Hugo learns this the hard way with his first pad thai in the story At the restaurant, and asks for “a little spicy” in Som tam, with mixed results.

In noodle shops the heat is often added by you. Every table has a set of condiments, เครื่องปรุง krʉ̂ang-bprung: chili flakes (พริกป่น prík-bpòn), sugar (น้ำตาล náam-dtaan), fish sauce (น้ำปลา náam-bplaa) and sliced chilies in vinegar (พริกน้ำส้ม prík-náam-sôm). Taste first, then season: that is how Thais eat noodles.

No coriander, vegetarian, allergies

The key pattern is ไม่ใส่… mâi sài…, “don’t put…”. It works for any ingredient:

Hugo’s very polite request for no coriander is the whole plot of the story No coriander. Add ครับ or ค่ะ and a smile, and the cook will usually be happy to oblige.

Vegetarian and vegan food in Thai

Thai has two words for meat-free food, and they are not the same:

• มังสวิรัติ mang-sà-wí-rát: vegetarian, no meat or fish. Say ผมกินมังสวิรัติ pǒm gin mang-sà-wí-rát (“I eat vegetarian”).
• เจ jee: the Chinese-Thai Buddhist diet, กินเจ gin jee. No meat, no animal products and no strong-smelling vegetables like garlic and onion. Stalls serving it hang yellow flags with the character เจ in red, especially during the Vegetarian Festival in the autumn.

The trap for vegetarians is the sauces: fish sauce น้ำปลา náam-bplaa and oyster sauce น้ำมันหอย náam-man-hɔ̌i are in many dishes. Ask explicitly: ไม่ใส่น้ำปลา mâi sài náam-bplaa. At a เจ stall, everything is already plant-based.

Allergies: แพ้

แพ้ pɛ́ɛ means “to be allergic to” (it also means “to lose” a game). The structure is subject + แพ้ + food:

ผมแพ้ถั่วลิสง pǒm pɛ́ɛ tùa-lí-sǒng: I am allergic to peanuts.

ฉันแพ้กุ้ง chǎn pɛ́ɛ gûng: I am allergic to shrimp (female speaker).

แพ้อาหารทะเล pɛ́ɛ aa-hǎan-tá-lee: allergic to seafood.

For a serious allergy, carry the sentence written in Thai as well: noise, accents and busy kitchens make a spoken request easy to miss.

Take away: ใส่ถุง and กลับบ้าน

Thais take food home constantly, in small plastic bags tied with a rubber band. To ask for it:

• ใส่ถุง sài tǔng: “put it in a bag”, the street-food phrase.
• กลับบ้าน glàp bâan: “to go home”, the usual answer to กินที่นี่หรือกลับบ้าน.
• ห่อกลับบ้าน hɔ̀ɔ glàp bâan: “wrap it to take home”, also for leftovers in a restaurant.

So a full order at a stall can be: ขอผัดกะเพราหมูสับไข่ดาว กลับบ้านครับ kɔ̌ɔ pàt-gà-prao mǔu-sàp kài-daao, glàp bâan kráp, “basil pork with a fried egg, to take away”.

Asking for the bill

ด้วย dûai at the end turns the request into a polite “please”. In restaurants you can also catch the waiter’s eye and draw a little scribble in the air: everyone understands. Prices will come in baht, so it helps to know your Thai numbers before the bill arrives.

Tipping is not expected at street stalls. In sit-down restaurants, leaving the small change is common and appreciated, and some places already add a service charge.

Saying it was delicious

อร่อยมาก is the one sentence every cook in Thailand loves to hear from a foreigner. Say it with a smile on your way out.

15 famous Thai dishes and how to say them

Rice and noodles

Soups and curries

Salads and grills

Dessert

Two spelling notes for the curious. กะเพรา (holy basil) is often misspelled กระเพรา on menus, which is close to กระเพาะ grà-pɔ́, “stomach”. And names describe the dish literally: แกงเขียวหวาน is “curry-green-sweet”, ข้าวเหนียวมะม่วง “rice-sticky-mango”. Once you know a few dozen words, menus start to read themselves.

One more habit to know: Thais eat with a spoon and a fork, ช้อน chɔ́ɔn and ส้อม sɔ̂ɔm. The fork pushes food onto the spoon, and the spoon goes to the mouth. Chopsticks, ตะเกียบ dtà-gìap, are for noodle soups.

How to practise

• Order in Thai every time, even badly. Start with ขอ + dish + ครับ/ค่ะ, then add one new element per meal: the spice level, then “take away”, then the bill.
• Read menus aloud. Most Thai menus have pictures and the Thai name. Matching them is free reading practice.
• Rehearse the scenes before you live them. Three Kru May stories, At the restaurant, No coriander and Som tam, cover ordering, spice and special requests, with every sentence recorded at natural and slow speed. Next step: the phrases for shopping at a Thai market.