Mahasan
2016/46-47 ตรงข้ามไปรษณีย์ยานนาวา, Chan Rd, Chong Nonsi, Yan Nawa, Bangkok 10120
Bank and Bo are not trained chefs. They are a meat lover and an art lover who taught themselves everything at Mahasan, building a restaurant around domestically raised beef that is difficult to find elsewhere in Bangkok. Lead with the picanha, the beef fat rice, or the grilled beef tongue. Reservations fill quickly and the restaurant is worth planning around.
You are on Chan Road in Chong Nonsi, at address 2016/46-47, in a space that Mahasan moved into in 2019 to accommodate the demand that had outgrown the original location. The restaurant sits opposite the Yan Nawa post office and now includes its own parking.
Mahasan is the project of two friends: Bank, whose full name is Natthaphong Ratchalek and who drives the meat programme, and Bo, whose background is in art and who shaped the aesthetic. Neither came from a formal culinary background. They built the restaurant by practising and learning the craft of beef cookery from the beginning, sourcing cattle from three distinct Thai breeding programmes: Thai-Wagyu raised in Mukdahan, Thai-Angus from Buriram, and Thai-French crossbreeds.
The menu is anchored in grilled beef across 12 different cuts. The picanha, a rump cap cut, arrives grilled and can also be ordered as a rice bowl with fragrant jasmine rice, raw egg yolk, and three dipping sauces on the side. The beef tongue is another order to lead with, grilled and tender. Beef fat rice, served alongside pickled eggs in fish sauce, is a supporting dish that has become a signature. Hash brown and mashed potato beef stew fill out the sides.
Reservations are strongly advisable and frequently sell out quickly after opening. The move to the Chan Road address gave the restaurant room to seat more guests while keeping the direct, unfussy character that drew Bangkok's food community to it in the first place.