The Sukhothai Bangkok Hotel
13/3 S Sathon Rd, Khwaeng Thung Maha Mek, Sathon, Bangkok 10120
Lead with afternoon tea at the Colonnade or a long lunch at Celadon, then walk the gardens. The architecture is the reason to come, not just the menus. If you have one quiet Bangkok lunch in you, make it here, on the terrace overlooking the lotus pond, not a tower restaurant somewhere else in the city.
You arrive off South Sathorn and the city volume drops within twenty steps. The driveway opens onto low pavilions, brick stupas modelled on the ancient Sukhothai Kingdom, and reflecting ponds threaded between the buildings. Kerry Hill was the lead architect on the project, his first major commission, working with American architect Ed Tuttle. The hotel opened in 1991 and the proportions have aged better than almost anything else built in central Bangkok that decade.
The property runs across six acres with 210 rooms, low enough that no part of it competes with the surrounding skyline. The 25-metre infinity-edged pool sits along one side of the gardens. The spa, fitness studio and seven restaurants and bars are spread across the grounds rather than stacked into a tower.
Celadon is the Thai restaurant, set in a pavilion over a lotus pond, plating refined Thai dishes that lean classical rather than fusion. La Scala does Italian in a more contemporary lounge-y room. Colonnade handles all-day dining and afternoon tea. The ZUK Bar, Thimian, Pool Terrace Café and the lobby Salons round out the food and beverage map.
The hotel joined Small Luxury Hotels of the World in 2020 and is now managed by Sukhothai Hotels and Resorts. South Sathorn frontage means a 6-7 minute walk to Lumpini MRT for the price-aware; the doorman handles taxis for everyone else.
Come for a long lunch on a Sunday, walk the gardens with a coffee from the Pool Terrace, and you will understand why people who live in Bangkok keep coming back to a hotel they do not stay in.