How to Order Food in Thai like a Native Speaker!

Learning to order food in Thai is fun. The Thai language is certainly a love of mine. Living in Thailand as I do I speak Thai nearly exclusively with my family and when shopping.

Learning how to order food in Thai is a real advantage living in Thailand and a fun skill visiting your local Thai restaurants. People don’t expect foreigners (Falung) to speak Thai, so they are very appreciative when you can do it proficiently.

Let me guide you through the basics foods, styles of dishes and how to order the most popular dishes on the menu.

Styles of Food.

In Thailand there are a few basic styles of cooking from stir fried (Phaat), stew (Keng) with noodle dishes from fried noodles ( Paat Mee) and more. If your looking for BBQ then it’s called (Pow), what about fried? Well fried is called Paat in Thai.

There is also a number of dishes that are seemed like Pork Buns called Selapow moor. They are steamed which is referred to as Nung. It’s not that that often food is baked but Thai has a word for baked food and its called Op.

So we have a lot of different ways to cook food. I’ll compile a list of the ways food is cooked below for a reference.

• Fried – Paat
• Baked – Op
• Steamed – Nung
• BBQ – Pow
• Stew / Curried – Geng

How to orfer food in Thai – Basic Foods.

The basic foods center around meat and vegetables. Let’s look at a list of basic food items before joining them with the cooking styles above.

It’s important to know that things like Chicken is referred to as village Chicken which is a little tougher but Thais say has better flavor or western Chicken known as Gai meeung or Farmed Chicken called Gai Fun.

Beef also is divided between buffalo (Kwai) and beef called Neua fun or Neua Newa.

• Beef – Neea
• Chicken – Gai
• Duck – Bet
• Fish – Plaa
• Pork – Moo
• Prawns – Goong
• Crab – Booh
• Snake – Ngoo
• Village Chicken – Gai Meeung
• Farmed Chicken – Gai Fun
• Buffalo – Qwai
• Beef – Neea Fun
• Noodles – Sen Noi (small noodle) Sen Yai (big noodle)
• Minced Fresh meat – Larp
• Sea food – Aharn talay
• Blood – Leeat
• Offal- Keeang Nai
• Heart – Hua Jai
• Liver – Darp
• Kidney – Dai
• Boiled Rice – Cow Bou

These words at least allow you to ask the origin of Chicken or beef. You can ask its origin and better understand the expected quality. I have always found beef in Thailand to be stringy and not very good. Butchers here don’t understand how to cut meat to make it tender. They simply cut chunks off and place it on the tray.

Thai’s love offal, so I have included many items you would not use in a modern restaurant but may use in a Thai market. You may if you find yourself shopping with Thai family, you will know what the I are purchasing.

Important Items.

There are some general items you need to get started. These are in the short conversations below so please take time to note what they are. The Thai words and then you will understand the sentence format better. Learning how to order food in Thai just needs these basic words. You can use this guide to mix and match to order even more items.

• One – Nung
• Two – Song
• Three – Sarm
• Four – See
• Five – haa
• Glass – Gow
• Bottle – Quaat
• Plate – Jaan
• I want – Ow
• I don’t want it – Mai Ow
• Ice – Narm Keng
• Water- Narm
• Knife – Meed
• Fork – Chorn Sarm
• Spoon – Chorn
• Tissue – Gadart

When and How to Say Thankyou!

Thai people generally don’t use thankyou when being courteous such as ordering or speaking normally. They end the sentence with Krup for males & Kar for females.

If you have food or drinks delivered.to your table you can use thankyou then. It is the correct time to say Thankyou – Kup koon Krup/Kar.

Fruits Juices & Drinks.

Fruit juices are popular drinks on a hot day so let’s look at a few basic varieties.

• Orange Juice – Narm Som
• Apple Juice – Narm Appn
• Water – Narm Bow!
• Fruit Juice – Narm Polamai!
• Coffee (Hot) – kofair (Lawn)
• Coffee (Cold) – Kofair (Yen)
• Tea (Hot) – Char Lawn –
• (Ice) Tea – Char (Yen) (Cold tea in Thai)
• Ice – Narm Keng.

Restaurant Dishes.

There are a range of regular dishes you would encounter in the market or in a Thai restaurant.

Numbers & Items.

It’s important to know numbers and a few other words in the Thai language so you know how to order food in Thai. We need to know plates or serves as well as numbers so we can get what we want without confusion.

• Can I have ONE glass of water. (Please)
• Kor narm yen nung gow (kup/kar)

• Can I have TWO plates of PORK fried Rice. (please)
• Kor kow paat MOOR, SONG Jan (Krup/Kar)

• Can we have two bottles of beer please?
• Kor BEER SONG quaat (Krup/Kar)

Thai Food Dishes.

Let’s look at some very common dishes and please note you can change between pork, chicken and beef as well as fish or seafood by simply substituting one word.

Note the breakdown of the sentences is basically: –

• Cooking style – Food type – Number – Plate/Glass – Krup/Kar.
• Paat – Gai – Song Jan Krup/Kar.
• Fried – Chicken – two – Plates Thanks.

‐——————————————————————–

• Fried rice (pork, chicken, seafood) (number of plates)
• Kow paat (moor, Gai, Talay)
• ‐——————————————–
• 1 plate , 2 plates, three plates
• (Nung Jan, Song Jan, Sarm Jan)

• Two plates of Sea food fried rice please.
• Kow paat – talay – song – Jan (Krup/Kar)

• One ( plate) Musumun curry please.
• Keng Mussamun Nung Jan (Krup/Kar)

• Steamed Crab and Vegetables.
• Nung Boo – kup – Paak (Krup/Kar)

• Five chicken skewers please.
• Gai seeup – Har an – (Krup/Kar)

• Two plates of Stir Fried Vegetables please. (please).
• Paat Puk – Song Jan – (Krup/Kar)

• Keng Musamun – Moo – Nung – Jan (Krup/Kar)

How to Order Food in Thai – Drinks.

When your learning how to order food in Thai you may need some drinks so let’s tackle this important question.

The language format remains consistent as you may expect. Item, number, bottle/Glass.

• What you want, How Many, Glass or Bottle.
• Beer – Song (2) Gow (krup/Kar).

• 1 Whisky, 2 bottles of beer and three red wines (please.)
• Whiskey nung (1), gow – kup (and) – beer , Song (2) Quat, wai Daang, sarm (3) glasses, (Krup/kar).

• Narms Som, Song (2), Gow, Narm yen, sarm (3) quat. (Krup/Kar)
• 2 glasses of Orange juice, 3 bottles of cold water please.

How to Order Food in Thai Menu.

Thai restaurant menus are generally pretty consistent in their format. Foods are divided into cooking styles with sub menu items being the type of meat or not you wish to choose.

Menus are normally :

Stir fried beef /chicken /fish/ vegetables with Rice.

Curried beef /chicken /fish/ vegetables with Rice.

Boiled beef /chicken /fish/ vegetables with Rice.

BBQ beef /chicken /fish/ vegetables with Rice.

Conclusion.

I hope this has been a practical guide to getting your.meal ordered either at a Thai Restaurant or even in the local market.

Author.

Brendon McAliece is an Expatriate Australian living in Thailand. He speaks fluent Thai in his day to day life. He has traveled extensivly working on military aircraft in Australia, Malaysia as well as Saudi Arabia iver 20 years.

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