Two long parallel sois running north off Sukhumvit — Thonglor is Sukhumvit 55, Ekkamai is Sukhumvit 63 — holding the highest concentration of serious cooking and serious cocktails anywhere in Bangkok, and almost nothing else a traveller would recognise as sightseeing. This is where affluent Bangkok Thais and long-term expats actually eat and drink: three-Michelin-star southern Thai, an eight-seat ramen counter serving 35 bowls a day, and two of the top ten bars in Asia, all within a few kilometres. It is also the least Bangkok-feeling part of Bangkok — condo towers, valet parking, car-scale streets and no street-food culture to speak of, because the stalls along Soi 55 were cleared years ago.
Who it's for: Anyone whose trip is organised around eating and drinking. This is the district for the tasting menu you booked a month out, for the bar you cannot find from the street, and for specialty coffee roasted in-house. Repeat visitors who have already done the temples and want the city locals live in. People happy to book ahead — almost everything worth going to here requires it.