When Siaw earned a place on the MICHELIN Guide Hong Kong five months after opening, chef Art Sinlaparkorn and general manager Pae Promkerdkid were delighted.
“My dream has always been to run the restaurant that builds friendships,” Pae shares, “and the mention from MICHELIN really helped boost our profile in the market.”
Opening in June 2025, Siaw came to Tsim Sha Tsui alongside more than two dozen new Thai restaurants operating in Hong Kong since 2023.
Modern interpretations of Thai food have become commonplace in recent years. Only a few years ago you would be hard pressed to find a menu that had other dishes beyond the tried-and-tested pad thai, green curry, and papaya salad.
For diners seeking out Thai food, Kowloon City, Hong Kong’s Little Kowloon populated by dozens of mom-and-pop Thai eateries, used to be one of the only choices to pick from.
Now, as Thailand, more specifically Bangkok, has returned as a fan favourite destination for Hong Kong travellers, demand has grown for the spicy flavours to be made locally accessible.
Art and Pae recognised this trend and jumped at it. “We wanted to share our home flavours from Thailand, but didn’t want to be another copy and paste Thai restaurant,” the general manager continues. “With opening Siaw, we wanted to go outside of the box.”
Going outside of the box meant a menu comprising ingredients sourced from farms across Thailand and dishes made completely from scratch. No corners are to be cut here. “We want to present the real ingredients from Thailand and help customers in Hong Kong understand the flavours,” Art says.
Their handmade deep fried crab meat rolls, similar in style to the integral recipe of famed one Michelin-starred Jay Fai in Bangkok, is served at Siaw with crab sourced from the country and presentation amped up for a modern touch.
Other menu items like the crispy catfish with mango salad, soft-shell crab yellow curry, and squid & tiger prawns with salted egg show what real Thai gourmands are eating, not just a repeat of what is expected as an easy win in Hong Kong.
How can modern Thai restaurants like Siaw win over customers in 2026? Upping the standards. “We realise that high food and service standards are not enough to bring customers in,” Art says.
“At Siaw, we focus on Thai hospitality and treat every customer as our friend. The human touch is important,” Pae adds.
Another hit for the MICHELIN Guide in 2025 has been Thai Pai Dong, the Jordan and SoHo-based Thai street food restaurant serving hearty and well-seasoned dishes. The Guide commented “its Thai street food is enough to make food lovers return again and again […].” It earned itself a Bib Gourmand award.
Alan Tan, Thai Pai Dong’s co-founder, alongside Pae as fellow co-founder, made a career switch to open his restaurant after the pandemic halted operations in his former role within the security business.
“My clients from the mainland could not come to Hong Kong to work, so I ended up leaving my job and going into restaurants, like many of my friends had done at the time,” Alan remembers.
He worked in a kitchen for a year at a Chinese restaurant before opening an all-you-can-eat hotpot restaurant in Mong Kok. After business suffered, affected by constant lockdowns, he ideated a plan to open up a Thai street food eatery with his partner, a former chef at Samsen.
“I always love travelling in Thailand and the culture. I wanted to bring Thai street food to Hong Kong. There are so many flavours you can have in one dish, and I think this fits the palate of Hong Kongers.”
In the Jordan restaurant, opened in October 2024, the interior design is kept to a minimum with few motifs celebrating Thai culture. Metal plates, cutlery, and seating keep things simple and ensure all eyes are placed on the colourful plates instead.
A year later, his SoHo restaurant opened with a similar menu, but harnessing a Bangkok party vibe to embrace the neighbourhood’s cocktail culture.
As a modern Thai restaurant, the service is polite and friendly, but the menu is strictly authentic, with some caveats. “I only chose dishes that Hong Kongers could actually like, such as Wagyu boat noodles, pad kee mao, pad see ew, oyster omelete, and crab meat omelete.”
“We changed some of the ingredients to make it more refined, such as using Australian Wagyu beef dishes and importing crab meat from Thailand.”
Thai Pai Dong earned its love from the local foodie community for its affordability and quality flavour profiles. It picked up the Best Thai Restaurant award at the Foodie Forks 2026 too.
In addition to Thai Pai Dong, Alan opened Hong Kong’s first location of Phuket’s famed Ning Kee pork knuckle rice restaurant in March 2026. In his eyes, the future of modern Thai food is a bright one.
The Thai food trend is not limited to just restaurateurs with previous Thai cooking experience. Marcello Scognamiglio and Felix De Arriaga of Trattoria Felino fame in Wan Chai broke into the scene with their interpretation of Thailand in a bowl in May 2025: Mama Tiger Noodles.
The Italian-Spaniard pair launched the Sheung Wan-based noodle restaurant when a few stars aligned. Their head chef, Thanit Changchai, was finalising his role at a Thai restaurant in a private members club where both Felix and Marcello worked at, and was looking for a change of place.
The former head of culinary for Bangkok’s famous boat noodle chain ThongSmith was intrigued with the idea of opening a restaurant zeroing in on a collection of fan-favourite and rare Thai noodle dishes to Hong Kong. Mama Tiger Noodles opened as the local Thai food craze was reaching fever pitch.
“We knew that if we wanted to do something, we wanted to differentiate ourselves from the competition,” Felix shares. “The main idea [for Mama Tiger Noodles] was to focus on noodle soups, but bring very traditional recipes from Thailand that are not so well known in Hong Kong.”
Bowls of Wagyu boat noodles and khao soi sit on the menu next to other soupy recipes unfamiliar to the Hong Kong palate like the porky egg noodles-base tom yum moo and tiger prawn, squid, and glass noodles-mixed Thai suki.
Three dry noodle dishes also feature on the menu – a beef, chicken, and vegetarian option – diversifying what noodle creations can now be savoured here. “With the starters, we sell tom yum and seafood wontons, which have been our best sellers since opening.”
Pad thai, pad see ew, nor mango sticky rice is required to generate success with a Thai restaurant; noodles can help attract customers. Yet, Felix recognises that food alone cannot sell customers an experience that is uniquely Thai in Hong Kong, and compete with other restaurants seeking to capitalize on the trend.
“We believe that differentiating our food menu is not enough. Guests are looking for value for money in experience, with not only food, but service and the vibe. With our design of Mama Tiger Noodles, we have focussed on elements of Thai food culture and muay thai to relate to customers.”
The Spaniard believes the Thai food trend, whilst currently flush with exceeding supply, is here to stay in Hong Kong: “I still think Thai food is a main game player in the Hong Kong scene. I think the slight overcrowding in the market mirrors what’s happening with Korean food. At some point, we will have a stabilising in the market.”
“Thailand is one of the countries in Asia that is the most proud about its gastronomy. Next to Korea, Japan, and China, I think it is one of the four main players within Asia and one of the most recognised [cuisines] globally.”
Right across town in Kowloon City, Thonglor opened a month prior to Mama Tiger Noodles’ touchdown with a modern flash to the dishes enjoyed by Hong Kongers for years.
In December 2025, the restaurant expanded their footprint next door to open their 2.0 version, a larger space accommodating the same menu but refreshing its drink offerings to pair up with their salty, spicy dishes.
Arguably the area’s first modern Thai restaurant, Thonglor shows that this trend is not just affecting Hong Kong’s trendy dining hotspots – Wan Chai, Tsim Sha Tsui, SoHo, Causeway Bay – but where the cuisine has its true roots in the city.
As Felix finds, the market may correct itself with low-performing Thai restaurants shuttering, but with Hong Kong operators sensing a real appetite for a new Thai food style, and the opening of Thongsmith’s first Hong Kong location in Wan Chai this year, Thai food is having a real moment locally.
