Food courts are a great cheap option for food around Thailand. They are especially amazing if you have picky children and need a variety of foods to choose from. If you can find one thing your kids will eat in a food court, you will probably be able to find it in other food courts across the country.
Food courts can be found in shopping complexes from the ritziest malls in Bangkok down to a Lotus’s in a small town in the middle of the Thai countryside. And the price of the food stays reasonable in whichever location you find yourself in.
So, let’s get started:
1. Find the food court.
In the malls, it will usually be on a lower floor, often found in the basement and near the grocery store. That being said, some malls do choose to put them on the top. In Lotus’s or Big C’s across the nation, they are found in a separate section of outside of the main grocery store. Usually, you will find several restaurants next to the food court like Swensen’s and Pizza Company. These restaurants are not part of the food court, so you have to pay at them separately.
2. Put money on a card.
Before you can order, you must get a card to pay for your food. You can choose how much money you put on the card, and usually there is a ten-baht deposit for the card that you get back after you finish, so if you add 100 baht to a card you will have 90 baht of spending value. You must get a card. Cash is not accepted in most food courts.
3. Go to the stall
Go to the stall that you want to buy food from, order, and give your card. They will subtract the amount of your meal from your card and hand your card back.
*Family tip – Get a card for both mom and dad so it takes half the time for the family to order meals and more food will be done about the same time.
4. Drinks and dessert are usually ordered from a separate counter.
It is usually not advertised at most food courts, but you can often find free drinking water. This will consist of a tray of drinking cups and a water dispenser. Overturned cups are clean, right-side up cups are dirty.
5. Pick up silverware from a station or next to where you ordered food.
Silverware will either be next to each stall or at a central location somewhere around the tables. It is common for there to be a receptacle of boiling water for sanitizing your silverware. Go ahead and dunk your silverware to keep the germs away!
In this picture, you can see the boiling water for sanitizing in the top left corner.
6. Receiving your food.
In some malls, you will have to go up to the stall you ordered at to get your food. Other malls, however, will give you a number and bring your food to you when it is done.
7. Cleaning up.
Almost all food courts do not make you put your trays and dishes away. Pay attention to those around you to see if they are putting their food away, but there is nearly always an employee whose job is to clean up after you.
8. Returning your card. Return to the line at the Card Counter to trade your card back in for your remaining amount. Remember, even if you used all your money up, you can get your deposit back!
After you finish eating, go back to the line at the Card Counter to trade your card for the remaining value on it. Even if you used all of your spending money on the card, there is still the 10-baht deposit you can get back.
