A note on the words: som tam is Thai green papaya salad, pounded with lime, fish sauce and chili; nam pla is that fish sauce. Pad thai is stir-fried flat rice noodles. Gai yang is Thai grilled chicken. Chang is a Thai beer. Otoshi is the small dish a Japanese izakaya brings with your first drink whether you ordered it or not. Kabukicho is Shinjuku’s nightlife district. Prices are as of this writing (August 2026).
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Bangkok 77 on Tabelog (English) — opening hours, payment details and the Japanese address are kept up to date there, not here.
I want to eat something good today too. This is Hangover Meshi.
Now then — a happy new year for 2026. I shall be eating hard again this year, so please keep cheering me on.
First of the new year, and here I am again: Bangkok 77, the Thai place in Kabukicho I recommend so highly. It was deep into the night with the last train approaching, and I could not decide where to go. I wandered about looking at various shops, and they were all full, or else closed at that hour, reasonably enough. Then I remembered this place and charged in. Inside there was maybe one other party. Lucky. So in I went.
What the shop is known for is proper Thai food, and the fellow who sings on the stage.
Except the singing seemed to be over, and he was packing up to leave. I had rather been looking forward to it, so that was a shame.
As usual, I decided to order whatever I felt like eating.
Right, a Chang beer first, and then whatever catches my eye.
A great favorite: som tam Thai. Green papaya salad.
Cabbage on the side, and on top a bird carved out of carrot. Extraordinary work. What is the fried thing, I wonder? Was it an otoshi? Or did I add it by mistake when ordering the som tam? In the end I stopped worrying about it, but it remains a mystery. The dressing is as good as ever. Lime, perhaps, with nam pla and tamarind. Put that sourness and sweetness together with the aroma of nam pla and you get something exquisite. And green papaya with real chew to it is wonderful, is it not.
Then the pad thai. The scent of nam pla, and the fragrance and shrimp character of the small dried shrimp — irresistible. Very good.
The distinctive flat but chewy noodles are good too, but I feel this is the dish in which raw bean sprouts taste best. This time there were raw bean sprouts and raw garlic chives in it, so the aroma was more than enough, and one quick squeeze of lemon at the end adds the sourness and completes it.
So this is the house specialty. A dish I had not noticed last time I came.
A Thai-style omelet. Eating it, it is fluffy, and full of ingredients. And somehow juicy.
A new sort of omelet to me. Perhaps the juiciness comes from the fillings and from all the oil? A well-stuffed omelet, and because there are so many things in it the smell is good too. Rather nice, this.
And to finish, gai yang.
A whole roast bird, served as half. The sweetish chili sauce goes with it very well.
Roasted until floury and juicy and tender, and delicious.
Even half is a good amount, and I was gradually getting full.
About time to stop, I think.
So there we are, plenty eaten and plenty drunk. The Thai food here is the real thing and it is good, so I always end up ordering all sorts, and whatever I eat is good. That they do this in the middle of the night is remarkable. Once again I thought: if you are stuck in Shinjuku late at night, this is the place. Next time I look like being stranded I shall take refuge here.
Bangkok 77 (Thai / Seibu Shinjuku Station, Shinjuku Nishiguchi Station, Shinjuku Station)
Tabelog dinner rating ★★★☆☆ 3.7
I ate here and paid for it myself. Nothing on this site is a comped meal.
