Tuesday
15May2007
PyongYangGwan, A North Korean Restaurant in Bangkok
Tuesday, May 15, 2007 at 1:48AM
UPDATE: March 2009, I go some reports that this restaurant is closed. I will verify this the next time I am there in Bangkok and update this page.
I had heard about this restaurant in Bangkok. It is in a not so central area of Bangkok called Pattanakarn. I was wondering why anyone would open a restaurant in such an area, then I found that the North Korean Embassy is also around this area. North Koreans have been opening these type of restaurants for a while now. They have a couple of them in China and Cambodia. The one in Bangkok seems to be a joint venture between North Koreans and local Thai businessmen. Thailand is one of the bigger trading partners of North Korea and for a while Koryo, the North Korean airlines, used to fly to Bangkok's Don Muang Airport.
If you want to go to this restaurant, just take a print of this photo and show it to the taxi driver. The address is Pattanakarn Soi 20. I took a taxi to this place from Asok BTS on Sukhumvit and it cost me about 100 Baht and the drive was about 45 mins. Seems there is not easy way to reach this place via the public transport.
Update: See the comment below, Andrew mentions that it is a bit closer from Phra Khanong Sky Train Station. Looks like the same distance from On Nut Sky Train station too.
The staff are local Thais and North Koreans. Not too hard to spot the Koreans, They are all wearing lovely hanboks.
The name of the restaurant is PyongYangGwan (PyongYang restaurant in English). Most customers here are the South Korean tour groups visiting Thailand and South Korean & Japanese business people.
I found the prices almost the same or slightly lower than the South Korean enclave on Sukhumvit. The bibim naengmyon (spicy cold noodles) I ordered here was better tasting than the one I have had at the Korean restaurants at Sukhumvit.
The girls sing North Korean songs too. There is more singing and dancing at night. The girls are very attractive. I guess a few of them can speak a bit of Thai. I was talking to one girl using a mix of Thai and Korean. She was a bit surprised to see me here as not many foreigners (other than Koreans, Japanese or Thais) visit or know about this place.
Korean Songs. Play this video to listen to the songs.
Thanks to Mousan for helping to locate a Japanese blog with the address of the North Korean restaurant. The English web talks about the restaurant but there is no address. This blog has pictures of the dinner events at PyongYangGwan.
Jaopanese seem to be pretty fascinated by these North Korean restaurants. There is an entire site(in Japanese) dedicated to documenting North Korean restaurants around the world.
Also check out this mention of another North Korean restaurant in Phnom Penh, Cambodia from the Katong Couple blog.
I had heard about this restaurant in Bangkok. It is in a not so central area of Bangkok called Pattanakarn. I was wondering why anyone would open a restaurant in such an area, then I found that the North Korean Embassy is also around this area. North Koreans have been opening these type of restaurants for a while now. They have a couple of them in China and Cambodia. The one in Bangkok seems to be a joint venture between North Koreans and local Thai businessmen. Thailand is one of the bigger trading partners of North Korea and for a while Koryo, the North Korean airlines, used to fly to Bangkok's Don Muang Airport.
If you want to go to this restaurant, just take a print of this photo and show it to the taxi driver. The address is Pattanakarn Soi 20. I took a taxi to this place from Asok BTS on Sukhumvit and it cost me about 100 Baht and the drive was about 45 mins. Seems there is not easy way to reach this place via the public transport.
Update: See the comment below, Andrew mentions that it is a bit closer from Phra Khanong Sky Train Station. Looks like the same distance from On Nut Sky Train station too.
The staff are local Thais and North Koreans. Not too hard to spot the Koreans, They are all wearing lovely hanboks.
The name of the restaurant is PyongYangGwan (PyongYang restaurant in English). Most customers here are the South Korean tour groups visiting Thailand and South Korean & Japanese business people.
I found the prices almost the same or slightly lower than the South Korean enclave on Sukhumvit. The bibim naengmyon (spicy cold noodles) I ordered here was better tasting than the one I have had at the Korean restaurants at Sukhumvit.
The girls sing North Korean songs too. There is more singing and dancing at night. The girls are very attractive. I guess a few of them can speak a bit of Thai. I was talking to one girl using a mix of Thai and Korean. She was a bit surprised to see me here as not many foreigners (other than Koreans, Japanese or Thais) visit or know about this place.
Korean Songs. Play this video to listen to the songs.
Thanks to Mousan for helping to locate a Japanese blog with the address of the North Korean restaurant. The English web talks about the restaurant but there is no address. This blog has pictures of the dinner events at PyongYangGwan.
Jaopanese seem to be pretty fascinated by these North Korean restaurants. There is an entire site(in Japanese) dedicated to documenting North Korean restaurants around the world.
Also check out this mention of another North Korean restaurant in Phnom Penh, Cambodia from the Katong Couple blog.
in Photos
Photos 
Reader Comments (8)
we look for wards from you
actually getting off Asok BTS station was a huge mistake. There is one station that is closer and its the Phra Kanong station. It's about 4 stations away from Asok station and it costs only 70 baht to get to the restaurant and a little less than 30 minutes.
i have been to the north korea restaurant twice, once in Dec 2007, once in Dec 2008.
I tried both routes introduced on this page, my conclusion is , go to Phra Kanong station then a taxi.
I went on a tuesday at 7.30PM . the traffic was busy and i had a few long waaits in the taxi. overall it took 45 mins and B100.
The telephone number is 0-2717-5700-1
Open hour 11AM-2PM , 5PM-10PM.
The performance starts from about 7.45PM.
You should really try this place, uniquely good service and uniquely impressive performance.
where is pra kanong bts station>>>>>do u mean phrom phang???
knn....when i went there....the place was no longer there...cb!
To writer of the blog. When I went there, the restaurant was indeed gone. I went opposite to the Chinese restaurant to enquire about it and they told me the owner closed the place down.
[...] wurde sind: Vietnam, Laos (Vientianne) und Kambodscha (Phnom Penh, Siem Reap und Sihanoukville), Thailand (Bangkok), Bangladesch (Dhaka), Nepal (Kathmandu), Malaysia (Kuala Lumpur), Russland (Moskau), der [...]
I went there in August 2009, sadly this place is gone.
In december 2008, i went to the restaurant at a quiet hour and when i requested to take photo with the korean girls, all of them joined us. Later they told us that they had never taken a group photo with the entire team of themselves so they asked if i could develop and give them a copy.
I went back again in August 2009 with the photos and they were gone , no way to find them again.