---
title: "Bangkok Nightlife & Bar Roundup: CHUNN Turns Seven, Chinatown Rises, and a Yuan Scandal Hits Huai Khwang"
description: "CHUNN celebrates seven years, Chinatown adds two bold new venues, a rooftop menu refreshes, and a payment controversy puts Huai Khwang in the spotlight."
publishedAt: "2026-06-05"
category: "News Roundup"
area: "Bangkok"
coverImage: "/images/blog/bangkok-nightlife-guide-2026.webp"
author: "Bangkok Venues"
schemaType: "Article"
---

## This Week in Bangkok: Anniversaries, Chinatown Energy, and a Currency Controversy

A quieter spell in Bangkok nightlife news was broken this week by a handful of genuinely interesting developments. [Chinatown](/areas/chinatown/) is pulling ahead as the city's most fertile patch for new concepts, an anniversary party out in [Ekkamai](/areas/ekkamai/) is worth planning a trip for, and an unexpected yuan-payment row has put [Huai Khwang](/areas/huai-khwang/) into the national conversation for all the wrong reasons. Here is what you need to know before the weekend.

---

### CHUNN Toasts Seven Years with Gene Kasidit Live

Seven years is an impressive run for any independent music venue in Bangkok, and CHUNN is marking the occasion properly. The anniversary party lands at CHUNNPLAY Ekkamai and the headline draw is a live set from Gene Kasidit, one of the more reliably compelling live acts on the local circuit right now. What began as a neighbourhood project has clearly built the kind of loyal crowd that makes celebrations like this feel genuine rather than just promotional. If you have been meaning to visit for the first time, an anniversary show with a strong headliner is about as good an entry point as you will find.

Source: [Time Out Bangkok](https://www.timeout.com/bangkok/things-to-do/toast-chunns-seventh-year-with-gene-kasidit-live)

---

### Tep Bar Keeps Chinatown's Soi Nana Honest

[Tep Bar](/areas/chinatown/) on Soi Nana has been a fixture of Bangkok's craft cocktail conversation for a while now, and its recent write-up as one of the city's best Thai bars is a useful reminder of why. The bar takes Thai spirits and flavour logic seriously, wraps them in a distinctly Thai atmosphere, and pairs the drinks with snacks like khao krieb wow that feel like genuine food rather than an afterthought. In a week when Chinatown features heavily across the board, Tep Bar remains the area benchmark for drinks-led venues. If you are building a Chinatown evening, it belongs on the shortlist alongside the newer openings below.

Source: [Time Out Bangkok](https://www.timeout.com/bangkok/bars/tep-bar)

---

### Chef Pam Opens Khao San Sek on Songwat Road

Chef Pichaya "Pam" Soontornyanakijr, already well established on the Bangkok dining scene, has added another project to her roster. Khao San Sek occupies a narrow shophouse on Songwat Road in [Chinatown](/areas/chinatown/), which is one of the more atmospheric stretches of the city for that kind of heritage setting. The details from the source are deliberately spare, but Pam's track record means this is worth watching from the moment it opens its doors. Songwat Road has been gradually building a reputation for considered, independent food and drink concepts, and this arrival should accelerate that.

Source: [Time Out Bangkok](https://www.timeout.com/bangkok/restaurants/khao-san-sek)

---

### Bar Luk Krung Brings Old Bangkok to Ari

[Ari](/areas/ari/) is already well stocked with [cocktail bars](/type/cocktail-bars/), but Bar Luk Krung is taking a different angle from most of its neighbours. The concept channels the sounds and feeling of an older Bangkok, translating that nostalgia into the glass rather than just the decor. That kind of clear conceptual anchor tends to produce more interesting menus than bars built around aesthetics alone, and it gives regulars a reason to return as the drinks programme evolves. Ari's walkable concentration of independent bars makes it easy to fold Bar Luk Krung into a longer evening in the area.

Source: [Time Out Bangkok](https://www.timeout.com/bangkok/bars/bar-lookkrung-ari)

---

### ANJU Korean Rooftop Refreshes Its Menu

ANJU Korean Rooftop Restaurant and Bar rolled out a refreshed menu this season, with Head Chef YoungDae Shim leading the update. The revision stays rooted in Korean cooking rather than drifting into fusion territory, which is the right call for a venue that has built its identity around a specific cuisine. Bangkok's [rooftop](/type/rooftops/) scene is crowded, and a focused kitchen identity is one of the cleaner ways to hold a position in it. If Korean food and elevated outdoor drinking is your combination, this menu refresh makes it worth revisiting.

Source: [Time Out Bangkok](https://www.timeout.com/bangkok/restaurants/anju-korean-rooftop-restaurant-bar)

---

### PITI Bar Is Doing Something Real Out in Lat Phrao

[Lat Phrao](/areas/lat-phrao/) is not a neighbourhood that shows up much in Bangkok bar coverage, which makes PITI Bar on Soi Lat Phrao 115 an interesting anomaly. The bar has built a genuine alternative music programme in a part of the city where that kind of programming simply does not exist elsewhere. For anyone who lives on that side of town and has been making the trip into [Thonglor](/areas/thonglor/) or [Ekkamai](/areas/ekkamai/) for live music, PITI Bar is worth knowing about. It is also a useful reminder that Bangkok's [live music bar](/type/live-music-bars/) scene has outgrown its traditional geography.

Source: [Time Out Bangkok](https://www.timeout.com/bangkok/bars/piti-bar)

---

### Maison Dunand: Fine Dining in Sathorn That Earns Its Star

Maison Dunand by Chef Arnaud Dunand sits on [Sathorn](/areas/sathorn/) Soi 10 and holds a Michelin star, which places it firmly in the destination-dinner category rather than a casual drop-in. The French fine dining format is executed by a chef who clearly understands the cuisine from first principles rather than approximating it for a Bangkok audience. This is not a nightlife venue, but for readers planning a special evening before heading out in [Silom](/areas/silom/) or Sathorn, knowing where to anchor the dinner half of the night matters. A Michelin-starred French kitchen within walking distance of some of the city's best bars is a practical combination.

Source: [Time Out Bangkok](https://www.timeout.com/bangkok/restaurants/maison-dunand)

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### Sahai Sahakit: Seven Decades in Chinatown's Shadow

This feature on Sahai Sahakit, a small Chinese-Thai hotel in [Chinatown](/areas/chinatown/) that has somehow outlasted seven decades of city change, is not a nightlife story in the conventional sense. But it belongs in this roundup because it captures exactly why the neighbourhood keeps producing interesting venues: the physical fabric of old Bangkok is still there if you look for it, and the best new bars and restaurants in the area are drawing on it directly. Reading about Sahai Sahakit alongside the Tep Bar and Khao San Sek pieces this week gives a clearer picture of what makes Chinatown's current moment different from the usual Bangkok opening cycle.

Source: [Time Out Bangkok](https://www.timeout.com/bangkok/news/sahai-sahakit-inside-chinatowns-forgotten-hotel-060226)

---

### Huai Khwang Yuan-Payment Row: What Actually Happened

A Chinese influencer named Wang Bingyang posted a video in late May claiming that a restaurant in [Huai Khwang](/areas/huai-khwang/) had refused Thai QR payment and accepted only Chinese yuan and WeChat Pay. The video spread quickly, raising questions about whether the business was operating outside Thai financial regulations. By this week, the restaurant had issued a denial of the allegation. The detail of who is correct has not been definitively resolved in the public record, but the episode has drawn attention to [Huai Khwang](/areas/huai-khwang/)'s growing Chinese dining district, where some operators appear to be catering almost exclusively to Chinese nationals. For visitors expecting the usual Thai payment infrastructure, it is a useful flag to carry some flexibility on how you plan to pay in that part of the city.

Source (original claim): [Thaiger Bangkok](https://thethaiger.com/news/bangkok/chinese-tiktoker-questions-yuan-only-payment-at-huai-khwang-restaurant)

Source (restaurant denial): [Thaiger Bangkok](https://thethaiger.com/news/bangkok/huai-khwang-restaurant-denies-yaun-only-payment-allegation)

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### Bangkok World Music Day and June Art Exhibitions

Time Out's June art and events roundup flags Bangkok World Music Day alongside Hotel Art Fair and a wider slate of exhibitions running this month. These are worth knowing about if you are filling out a Bangkok weekend beyond the bar circuit. Several music events tied to World Music Day will spill into live music venues across the city, and the crossover with Bangkok's [live music bars](/type/live-music-bars/) and [cocktail bars](/type/cocktail-bars/) means some venues will have one-off programming that does not appear on their regular schedules.

Source: [Time Out Bangkok](https://www.timeout.com/bangkok/art/art-exhibitions-this-june)

---

### Plan Your Week

Chinatown is the obvious neighbourhood to prioritise right now, with Tep Bar as the anchor and Khao San Sek on Songwat Road joining the circuit. If you are based further east, the CHUNN anniversary show in [Ekkamai](/areas/ekkamai/) and PITI Bar's programming in [Lat Phrao](/areas/lat-phrao/) both make strong cases for leaving [Sukhumvit](/areas/sukhumvit/) for a night. Browse the full [rooftop bar listings](/type/rooftops/) if you want to build an earlier-evening layer into any of those areas, or use the [bars directory](/type/bars/) to map a night around a specific neighbourhood.