City Taste of

One week, 29 events and countless stories told through food and drink: the Tatler Best Takeovers returned to Bangkok to prove that collaboration is the region's truest luxury

- By Fontaine Cheng

It began, as good things often do in Bangkok, with the smell of smoke and the sound of knives hitting boards. At Maa-Lai Library, a dining room tucked high up in the Kimpton Maa-Lai Bangkok, Chumpol Jangprai of Thailand's R-Haan stood shoulder to shoulder with Andy Huynh of Oku from Regent Phu Quoc in Vietnam. One worked with the measured precision of the royal Thai kitchen; the other with the light, calibrated lines of Japanese-French minimalism. Together they set the tone for the week ahead, the start of Tatler Best Takeovers 2025: seven days that would turn the Thai capital into a citywide conversation about craft and community.

From October 17 to 25, the Tatler Best Takeovers, presented in partnership with Mastercard and Priceless.com, unfolded like a map of possibility. There were 29 culinary and mixology events, in venues from elegant tea lounges to cocktail bars and private clubs with live music, drawing in chefs and bartenders from across the region, including Singapore, Seoul, Kuala Lumpur, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Manila, Macau, Bali and Beijing. From there, the momentum built across the city. On October 23, Siam Kempinski Hotel Bangkok hosted two ambitious collaborations.