How to Read a Thai Menu: Key Words, Dishes & Spice Levels

Thai menus have a secret that makes them far easier to read than they look: most dish names are a recipe. Put the cooking method first, add the main ingredient, sometimes add the flavour, and you have the name. Phat kaphrao kai is "stir-fried holy basil chicken". Tom yam kung is "boiled hot-and-sour prawn". Learn a dozen of these building blocks and you can decode most of what is on the board, whether it is a laminated menu in Bangkok or a hand-painted sign at a night market.

Thai script and spelling

Thai has its own alphabet, written left to right without spaces between words, so a line like ผัดกะเพราไก่ runs together into one block. Tourist menus usually add a romanised version, but there is no single spelling system, so the same dish appears in many forms: phat, pad and phad are all ผัด; kaphrao, krapow and gaprao are all กะเพรา. The "ph" is pronounced as a plain "p", not an "f", and "th" is a plain "t". If two spellings look similar, they are probably the same dish.

The cooking method comes first

Then the main ingredient

Putting it together

With those two tables you can read most of a menu by sticking the pieces together:

• ผัดกะเพราหมูสับ (phat kaphrao mu sap): stir-fried holy basil with minced pork, one of the most-ordered dishes in the country. Add ไข่ดาว (khai dao) for a crispy fried egg on top.
• แกงเขียวหวานไก่ (kaeng khiao wan kai): green curry with chicken. Khiao is green and wan is sweet.
• แกงเผ็ด (kaeng phet): red curry, literally "spicy curry". แกงมัสมั่น (kaeng matsaman) is the mild, rich massaman, and พะแนง (phanaeng) is a thick, nutty red curry.
• ต้มยำกุ้ง (tom yam kung): hot and sour prawn soup. Nam khon (น้ำข้น) is the creamy version; nam sai (น้ำใส) is the clear one.
• ข้าวผัดปู (khao phat pu): crab fried rice.
• ข้าวมันไก่ (khao man kai): poached chicken on rice cooked in chicken stock, with a ginger and soybean sauce.

At a made-to-order stall, อาหารตามสั่ง (ahan tam sang), the menu is a starting point rather than a limit. If the stall has the ingredients, you can combine any method with any meat, and "on rice" is ราดข้าว (rat khao).

Rice and noodles

ข้าว (khao) is rice, and in Thai it is so central that "to eat" is literally "eat rice". ข้าวสวย (khao suai) is plain steamed rice, and ข้าวเหนียว (khao niao) is sticky rice, the norm in the north and northeast and the right partner for som tam, larb and grilled chicken.

At a noodle shop, ก๋วยเตี๋ยว (kuai tiao), you usually choose your noodle, then whether you want it in soup or dry:

Many stalls also offer พิเศษ (phiset), "special", a bigger bowl with more meat for a little more money, against ธรรมดา (thammada), regular. On the table you will usually find the condiment set, เครื่องปรุง (khrueang prung): sugar, fish sauce with chilli, vinegar with chilli and dried chilli flakes. Thais season their own bowl, so taste first and adjust.

Spice and sweetness

The most useful word on any Thai menu is เผ็ด (phet), spicy. Menus often mark spicy dishes with chilli icons, but a dish without an icon can still be hot by most visitors' standards, and a dish with three icons usually means it.

ไม่เผ็ด Mai phet: "Not spicy"

เผ็ดน้อย Phet noi: "A little spicy"

ไม่ใส่พริก Mai sai phrik: "No chilli" (ไม่ใส่, mai sai, means "don't put in", and works with any ingredient)

หวานน้อย Wan noi: "Less sweet" (useful for Thai iced tea, coffee and fruit shakes, which come very sweet)

Som tam and larb get their heat from fresh chillies pounded in as they are made, so "a little spicy" is easy to arrange there. A curry paste was made hours earlier, and the heat is already in it.

Vegetarian and allergy reading

Look for เจ (jay), a Chinese-Thai style of plant-based cooking with no meat, fish, dairy or eggs, usually signposted with a yellow flag and red lettering. มังสวิรัติ (mangsawirat) is the general word for vegetarian. Peanuts, ถั่วลิสง (thua lisong), appear in phat thai, som tam, satay sauce and massaman curry. To say you are allergic, use แพ้ (phae): ผมแพ้ถั่วลิสง (phom phae thua lisong) if you are a man, ฉันแพ้ถั่วลิสง (chan phae thua lisong) if you are a woman. Our guide to eating abroad with food allergies covers allergy cards and cross-contamination.

Reading the prices

Thai prices are in baht, written as บาท, ฿ or "THB", and usually as whole numbers: "60" next to a noodle dish means 60 baht. At street stalls and local restaurants the price on the menu is generally the price you pay. Hotels, malls and upmarket restaurants often print "++", meaning a 10% service charge and 7% VAT are added at the end, which comes to about 17.7% because the VAT is charged on the service as well. Our guide to tax and service charges on menus has the maths.

At the time of writing, the baht has been trading at roughly 23 to the Australian dollar, so dividing a menu price by 20 and taking a little off gets you close: 100 baht is a bit over A$4. Check a live rate, and see our guide to paying in local currency for the card-fee traps to avoid.

Phrases for the table

Thai adds a polite particle to the end of most sentences: ครับ (khrap) if you are a man and ค่ะ (kha) if you are a woman. Adding it to any of these makes them friendlier.

สวัสดีครับ / ค่ะ Sawatdi khrap / kha: "Hello"

อันนี้อะไร An ni arai?: "What is this?" (pointing)

เอาอันนี้ Ao an ni: "I'll have this one"

ขอน้ำเปล่า Kho nam plao: "Some water, please"

อร่อยมาก Aroi mak: "Very delicious"

เช็คบิล Chek bin: "The bill, please" (เก็บเงินด้วย, kep ngoen duai, also works)

ขอบคุณครับ / ค่ะ Khop khun khrap / kha: "Thank you"

How swap.menu reads a Thai menu for you

Plenty of places in Thailand have no English menu at all, and those are often the ones locals queue for. Photograph the menu, or the sign above the stall, with swap.menu and every dish comes back in your language with the Thai name beside it and a short explanation, so you know whether ต้มข่าไก่ is a coconut soup or a curry before it arrives. Prices are converted to your home currency, and if a menu prints "++" we tell you and add it to your total.

Tap what you want, add a note like "not spicy, no peanuts", typed or spoken, and it is translated into Thai. Show your order to the cook in Thai, or let them scan its QR code.

And when the cook asks "phet mai?" (spicy?), you will know exactly what to say.