Haawm: A Table to Find (A Hidden Dinner Club in Bangkok)

I love anything that feels like a secret.

Haawm's logo is a finger pressed to the lips in a quiet shhh, which tells you something about the place before you even arrive. This is not a restaurant you stumble across. It is a private supper club tucked into a residential soi in On Nut, and part of the pleasure is figuring out where you are going.

On my first night out in Bangkok, my friend Chawadee Nualkhair, better known as Chow of Bangkok Glutton, delivered our table.

Chow is a Bangkok-based food writer and the person who taught me how to navigate Thai food properly. We have worked together for years, including on Real Thai Cooking, and were beginning the research for our next book, Thai Food Stories. She has written extensively about Bangkok's food scene and knows where to look for the interesting stuff. So when Chow says, "Come with me," I go.

Haawm is one of her favorite places.

Getting there was something else. Bangkok traffic can be unbearable, so we took motorbike taxis, weaving in and out of cars, buses, and everything else on the road. At one point, we were lost, then doing a couple of very sharp 180-degree turns in search of Haawm. It was chaotic, slightly terrifying, and completely Bangkok.

Eventually, our drivers found it.

From the moment you walk in, you know you are somewhere cool and interesting. Haawm is in a townhouse, down a residential street in On Nut, with no grand entrance announcing that you've arrived at one of Bangkok's most talked-about supper clubs.

And then there is Dylan.

Dylan Eitharong is charming, very good looking and effortlessly cool. Tattoos, a good sense of humor, and the kind of deep curiosity about food that makes for a very good conversation.

Dylan is Thai-American, grew up in Florida and came to Thai food through curiosity about his Thai heritage. He wanted to understand the food his father had grown up with, beyond the Americanized versions he knew as a child. Eventually, that curiosity brought him to Thailand, where he immersed himself in cooking and researching old Thai recipes.

He has done a deep dive into traditional Thai cooking and techniques, and you can feel that knowledge behind the food.

He had planned an incredible meal for us, and one of the nicest things about Haawm is that there is no decision-making involved.

You don't order.

The food just appears, which is wonderful.

Dylan, Chow, and I quickly found ourselves talking about curry.

He is particularly interested in the way Thai curries are actually made and understood, rather than the simplified versions that have traveled around the world. We talked about that beautiful layer of oil that rises to the top of a properly made curry.

It is a detail that says a lot.

When coconut milk and curry paste are cooked down properly, the fat separates and rises to the surface, carrying the aromas and concentrated flavors with it. That glossy layer is not something to skim away. It is part of the cooking and part of what gives Thai curry its depth and character.

It is so much fun talking to cooks who notice things like that.

Dylan notices everything.

He is also a serious collector of cookbooks, which made our conversation particularly interesting. He happily brought out several of his devoured and marked-up books to show us. His collection includes older Thai books, including some of the fascinating death and funeral cookbooks that are such an important, if little-known, part of Thailand's culinary history.

These books were often produced to commemorate someone's death and distributed to family and guests at the funeral. Alongside the biographical material, they can contain recipes, household knowledge and regional dishes. They are remarkable records of how food, family and memory travel together through generations.

Dylan had several in his collection.

We talked about them, and I found myself mentally making notes for Thai Food Stories.

This is one of the things I love about food research. You start with dinner and end up somewhere completely unexpected: old cookbooks, funeral traditions, forgotten recipes, the history of a dish, or why a curry should have that little glistening layer of oil on top.

And then, of course, we ate.

One dish appeared, then another. Everything came to the table to be shared.

Our Menu

To Start

Sour Mango / Sweet Fish Sauce

Snacks

Lanna Duck Laab / Kratom Leaf

King Mackerel Sashimi / Young Ginger / Citrus

Pork Belly Satay / Pineapple Ajad / Roti

With Rice

Khua Kling / Relish of Prawns / Chilled Vegetables

Burnt Lychee & Chili Jam / Pla Foo / Grilled Pork Jowl

Jee Juan Curry / Braised Wagyu Beef / Banana

Smoky Cabbage / Dried Chili / Sichuan Pepper

Galangal / Coconut Cream / Chicken Thigh

Softshell Crab / Garlic & Turmeric / Curry

Sweets

Shan's Coffee Jelly / Sweet Milk

Yellow Bean Custard / Fried Shallots

Haawm grew out of Covid, when Dylan was living in his aunt's townhouse in On Nut. What was supposed to become an Airbnb instead became a supper club. He filled the space with vintage Thai finds and created something intimate and personal.

The cooking is bold, deeply Thai, and informed by research. Dylan digs into older recipes, regional traditions, and techniques, but he isn't simply recreating the past. He brings these dishes back to the table with his own signature.

Chow had already written about Dylan for National Geographic, where she included Haawm among her Bangkok food recommendations. She described Dylan's cooking as traditional with a cheeky edge, and his approach is exactly what made the evening so interesting.

For me, the best part was sitting around that table with Chow and Dylan, talking about Thai food as something alive: something to research, question, argue over, cook, eat, and keep discovering.

Which, really, is the best kind of table to find.

Haawm

The BKK supper club

Reservation only

Tuesday–Saturday

5:30 PM & 8:00 PM

Parking: Very limited

Reservations: Reserve through Haawm's website or DM Haawm on Instagram. They also take reservations through LINE: @HAAWMBKK.

Follow: @haawmbkk on Instagram