Bangkok has great food, but there is arguably a dearth of vegetarian restaurants here. The Atlanta Hotel's coffee shop is one of very few places for the meatless eater. There are specially made vegetarian dishes on the menu, not just Thai dishes without the meat. The Thai food is also recommended, however, so if you're in a party of mixed meat and non-meat eaters it works. The setting is pleasant, in a 1950s-style café, and it's connected to the lobby, which opened in 1952 and is Bangkok's oldest original hotel lobby.

The setting, in the basement of a shopping complex, does not do this restaurant justice. The Thai food and especially the vegetarian dishes are a real bargain for this central part of town. There's a large menu with lots of seafood and a basic but comfortable dining room, with seating on long benches extending from the wall.

You can eat good food for a good cause here. The restaurant raises funds for the family planning program with the Population & Community Development Association. It offers well-prepared standard Thai dishes such as sour and spicy shrimp soup, fried fish with chili, and chicken with cashew nuts, in a pleasant, covered but open-air dining area. If you want it really spicy, tell them: the heat is generally toned down for foreigners.

This place fills with office workers from the nearby Silom for lunch and even more so with dinner crowds after work. The roast chicken, spicy papaya salad som tam and other traditional Isan dishes are ever popular and come at bargain prices. Open to the street, the dining area is simple but has a lively atmosphere. With no air conditioning, though, it can get hot.

The century-old house this restaurant occupies is worth a visit just to see the antiques and artifacts for sale here. There is seating on a terrace or in the house itself and the place can get packed at night ­ it can also be a tad hot for some, with no air-conditioning. The menu is limited, but everything is well prepared. As with other restaurants, the spice is toned down for the numerous foreigners who frequent the place. If you want it Thai spicy, tell them.