A. Mallika is one of our favorite Bangkok restaurants. The food in Thailand is, of course, one of the main attractions of the country. For many years we visited often with Kasma’s small-group trips, taking them there for their first in-country meal. We visited on our own this past February (2020) and, al always, the food was spectacularly good.

(Click images to see larger version.)

There are two options for seating at A. Mallika. There’s an outdoor seating area with a pond under a large tree with potted plants decorating the area. Although it’s an attractive area we usually opt to sit inside because we typically are at A. Mallika for lunch and in the middle of the day it can be quite warm outside. There are a number of different rooms indoors, including the room above right, which has many tables, as well as private (air-conditioned) rooms, which is where we used to eat with Kasma’s tour groups. The restaurant can get very crowded, particularly on weekend nights, so reservations are a good idea.

The Food

The food at A. Mallika is really quite good, both in presentation and in taste. Here are some of the different dishes frequently ordered by Kasma.

One of the dishes Kasma always started a group with is เมี่ยงปลาทู (Miang Pla Too): Tasty tidbits and a hot-and-sour mackerel salad are wrapped with lettuce leaves and eaten like เมี่ยงคำ (Miang Kum). It’s a fun appetizier, one that you assemble yourself by placing each of the individual ingredients into a leaf, wrapping them all up into a ball and then popping the whole thing into your mouth; the pleasure comes from the delightful explosion of flavors from all the various ingredients.

The second appetizer that Kasma orders is ขนมครก (Kanom Krok) – Grilled Coconut-Rice Hot Cakes. Although these are usually made as a street food, many restaurants also have them on the menu. When we travel in Thailand, we seldom miss an opportunity to sample some of these delightfully delicious snacks. Here they are made with green onions (scallions) giving a savory edge to the snack. Kanom Krok are typically made with two batters: the lower batter is mostly sweet and the top batter, less of which is added, is salty giving two contrasting flavors to tickle the palate.

Kasma always orders the dish in the above left-hand picture – it’s Ostrich Stir-Fried with Holy Basil. Although it looks like beef, and tastes a bit like beef, it is definitely ostrich prepared ผัดกะเพรา (pad kaprao) – stir-fried with holy basil. It’s a spicy, flavorful dish. Wonderful.

It’s very hard to pass up ordering the dish on the right – Crispy-Fried Stewed Pork Leg. First a pork-leg, complete with skin on, is stewed to tenderness. It’s then deep-fried so that the outside is crispy and the fat just next to the skin is somewhat caramelized. It is very delicious.

Above we see a delicious a ต้มยำ (Tom Yum) – Hot-and-Sour Soup. Very spicy and full of delicious Thai herbs.

To the left above we see A delicious salad of deep-fried cha-om (a kind of edible tropical acacia), topped with a seafood and chopped pork sauce. It’s spicy, sour and somewhat sweet with the deep-fried green providing an interesting texture. Very delicious.

To the right we see one of our favorite vegetable dishes Stir-fried Vegetables with Oyster Sauce – ผักผัดน้ำมันหอย (Pad Pak Nam Mon Hoi), what I think of as The Universal Vegetable Recipe.

We definitely recommend that you leave space for the Coconut Ice Cream – ไอศครีมมะพร้าว (Ai Kreme Maprao) at the end of the meal. It’s more like a sorbet and is tasty and refreshing, a great way to end a meal. If you’re particularly hungry (hard to imagine after all that delicious food!), you can get a larger portion that comes served in a young coconut shell.

Getting to A. Mallika

It’s not the easiest restaurant to get to. It’s a bit on the outskirts of town and it is easiest to get to if you are able to drive or be driven. You may want to check out the Google Map for A. Mallika (offsite, opens in new window).

ร้าน อ.มัลลิการ์
13/10 หมู่ 9 ถ.เกษตร-นวมินทร์
แขวงคลองกุ่ม เขตบึงกุ่ม กทม. 10230

A. Mallika
13/10 Moo 9, KasetNawamin Road,
Bueng Khlong Kum, Ked Beung Kum Bangkok, 10230

Ruen Mallika Royal Thai Cuisine

There is a sister restaurant run by the same people: Ruen Mallika Royal Thai Cuisine (offsite, opens in new window) at 189 Soi Sukhumvit 20, Sukhumvit Road, Klongtoey, Klongtoey, Bangkok 10110. It’s a fancier place with excellent food and is a bit more accessible to central Bangkok. If you go there, we recommend you print out the map from their website – it can be a bit hard to find.

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You may also enjoy:

• We previously talked about A. Mallika in our post Favorite Bangkok Restaurants.
• Food Photos of A. Mallika by a member of Kasma’s trip to southern Thailand. (offsite, opens in new window)
• Website for Ruen Mallika (offsite, opens in new window), the elegant sister restaurant on Sukhumvit Soi 22.

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Written by Michael Babcock, December 2012 & May 2020

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