Rahul's Post

Banng Gets It Right: How a Local Restaurant Finally Understands What Thai Food Is Really About I have eaten Thai food in Bangkok more times than I care to count. I have sat at roadside stalls in Chinatown slurping boat noodles at midnight. I have had massaman curry at some of the city's grand old establishments and pad krapow at neighbourhood shophouses where the wok smoke alone is enough to make you hungry. And I have returned, each time, to India frustrated by what passes for Thai food in our restaurants — the same tired green curry, the same pad thai made with whatever vaguely noodle-shaped pasta was available, the same coconut milk poured over everything in the hope that it would all somehow taste Southeast Asian. So it was with a degree of scepticism that I made my way to Banng. I should not have worried. Banng, for those who haven't been paying attention, is the restaurant that Head Chef Manav Khanna has built around a refreshed menu shaped in no small part by Chef Garima Arora — someone who has spent the better part of a decade living and cooking in Bangkok. That detail matters. It is the difference between a chef who has eaten Thai food and a chef who understands it. Garima doesn't just know what a good curry paste should taste like; she knows how to make one by hand, and why that distinction is everything. The philosophy here is captured in a greeting the restaurant prints on its menu: Kin khao reu yang? — Have you eaten yet? That, as any Bangkok regular will tell you, is how Thais actually greet each other. Not hello, not how are you, but have you eaten. Food is not just sustenance in Thailand; it is the primary language of affection, community, and daily life. Banng seems to genuinely understand this, which is rarer than it should be. Let me tell you what I ate. The salads arrive with a confidence that immediately signals this kitchen is not playing it safe. These are bold, herb-forward, almost aggressive in their freshness — the kind of combinations that make you sit up and pay attention, then immediately reach for more. This is how Thai food is supposed to begin. Not with something rich or heavy, but with something that wakes the palate up.

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This post was published on 20th February, 2026 by Rahul on his Instagram handle "@rahulprabhakar (Rahul Prabhakar)". Rahul has total 69.6K followers on Instagram and has a total of 2.4K post.This post has received 91 Likes which are lower than the average likes that Rahul gets. Rahul receives an average engagement rate of 0.3% per post on Instagram. This post has received 127 comments which are greater than the average comments that Rahul gets. Overall the engagement rate for this post was lower than the average for the profile.