Shabu-shabu in Banthat Thong Road

For today’s plan, we want to explore the area over by the National Stadium. There is a road called Banthat Thong Road, which we’ve seen in several videos, featuring some cool places to eat.

From WIKI: “Banthat Thong Road is a famous, lively Bangkok street near Chulalongkorn University, renowned as a vibrant hub for affordable and diverse Thai street food, trendy desserts, and local eateries, attracting both students and tourists for its delicious eats and energetic nighttime atmosphere. Known for its classic dishes, unique sweets like thick toast, and bustling crowds, it's a must-visit for food lovers, easily accessible via BTS (National Stadium) or MRT (Sam Yan).”

Ok, so alluding to our previous blog post of ‘being out of the apartment as much as possible', we of course went out to explore this area in the morning. That was a mistake! The place was very quiet, although we could see that there were areas that looked like they must open later. We later discovered that the best time to visit here is in the evening, when the area comes alive, and all the places are open. Regardless, we did our usual walking around and then around lunchtime, we decided to try out a shabu place that we saw, which appeared to be quite popular.

If you are not familiar with shabu (or more appropriately known as shabu-shabu), this is a Japanese hotpot dish of thinly sliced meat and vegetables boiled in water and served with dipping sauces. The term is onomatopoeic, derived from the sound – "swish swish" – emitted when the ingredients are stirred in the cooking pot.

We have only tried shabu-shabu once before, when we were introduced to it by our lovely Thai friends (Drs K & P) last year. They took us to an MK restaurant and ordered everything, so we didn’t need to worry about anything. This time around, we were being adventurous and going it alone….

Well, it was fantastic, and we really enjoyed it! We went to Namba Shabu (the one in Banthat Thong Rd as there are a number of these in Bangkok). When we went in, we were asked by the waitress which buffet we wanted. We went for the Gold Buffet option (299 baht each, £7.05) with an extra 50 baht (£1.18) on top to include ice-cream. We then needed to pick two stocks from a choice of about five. I’m not quite sure which ones we went for as they were all in Japanese (or Thai), but we didn’t think it would be an issue, so we just went for the ones we thought we’d like. Then we were given our table number. You get about an hour and a half to order and eat as much as you like. You do need to have an internet connection as you order your individual items through your phone by QR code. The menu options are all in Thai, but you know from the buffet option that you have gone with, roughly what you can order, and you can also use Google Translate, too. There is a self-service section where you just pick your drinks, sauces, salad, vegetables and other bits and pieces that you will add to your stock pots. The stock pot with our chosen stocks and the QR-ordered items came out very quickly, and we just started to add these to the stocks, along with various vegetables, etc.

It was a great experience, and we would definitely recommend you give shabu-shabu a try. Some restaurants can be a little more expensive than others, but in general, it’s fantastic value, and we really enjoyed it. R couldn’t manage any ice-cream, as he’d ordered and ate more meat items than me, but I tried several of the different flavour ice-creams, which were so good and easy to eat after the main course.

You can get an idea of what the actual area is like in the evening (the best time to visit) from this video.

Today's route:

After this, we were ready for a wee nap (due to the food coma!), but we couldn’t / chose not to go back to the apartment, so we decided to go to the cinema in Central World for a little rest and some time to digest. We opted for The Housemaid, which, although it is not really R’s normal cup of tea, was a film that I fancied seeing. It was actually very good, so thankfully, there were no complaints from R!

Then it was back to the apartment. For all the complaints I have about the current apartment, the bed is very comfortable, and we cannot complain about getting a very good sleep in it.

Day 45: 6 January 2026

Bangkok, Thailand