Baan Thai

Verdict: Book It If You're Ready to Go Beyond the Obvious

If you've already eaten your way through Kolkata's Bengali classics and want something that holds up to serious scrutiny, Baan Thai at The Oberoi Grand is the right call. Thai cuisine in India is often a diluted, hotel-safe product, but Baan Thai has earned a spot on La Liste's Leading Restaurants 2025 with 77 points, which puts it in company that most hotel restaurants in India never reach. Chef Klae Somsuay leads the kitchen, and the La Liste recognition gives you a credible signal that the cooking is held to a standard. For a returning visitor, the question isn't whether it's worth a first visit — it is — but whether there's enough depth to reward a second or third. The short answer: yes, especially if you time your visits around what the kitchen is doing seasonally.

The Space

Baan Thai sits inside The Oberoi Grand on Jawaharlal Nehru Road, one of Kolkata's most established hotel addresses. The room carries the measured formality you'd expect from an Oberoi property: controlled lighting, well-spaced tables, and a sense of calm that separates it from the noise of the city outside. It's not a large, sprawling dining room, which works in its favour , the scale keeps service attentive and the atmosphere contained rather than cavernous. If you've dined at other Oberoi restaurants like Adaa at Falaknuma Palace in Hyderabad, you'll recognise the house approach: traditional hospitality codes applied with precision. The room suits couples and small groups better than large tables; it's a place for a proper dinner, not a loud celebratory gathering.

What to Focus On , Especially on a Return Visit

Thai cooking is deeply seasonal in its source logic , galangal, lemongrass, kaffir lime, and fresh chillies shift in availability and character through the year, and a kitchen operating at La Liste standard should be responding to that. On a second visit, ask what the kitchen is working with currently rather than defaulting to the same dishes you ordered the first time. Chef Somsuay's background in Thai cooking suggests the menu rewards this kind of attention. If your first visit leaned into the familiar , green curry, a clear tom yum , use a return to push further into the menu's less obvious corners. Dishes built around fresher, more seasonal Thai aromatics tend to show the kitchen's real range. Without confirmed signature dishes from the venue record, the safer approach is to ask your server what has come in recently or what the kitchen is currently emphasising. At a La Liste-recognised property, that question will be taken seriously.

The cuisine type is listed as Thai Indian, which signals some degree of local adaptation. Whether that means ingredient substitutions to suit supply chains or deliberate fusion is worth clarifying when you arrive , it affects how you calibrate expectations. For a comparable experience of high-end pan-Asian cooking adapted for an Indian context, Inja in New Delhi provides an interesting parallel. For farm-to-table seasonal rigour in India, Farmlore in Bangalore is the benchmark for how Indian fine dining can track seasonal availability closely.

Booking and Timing

Baan Thai carries an Easy booking difficulty rating, which at an Oberoi property means you can generally secure a table with a few days' notice rather than weeks. That said, Friday and Saturday evenings at hotel fine dining restaurants in Kolkata fill quickly, particularly for two-tops in better positions in the room. If your visit has a specific date , an anniversary, a business dinner , book a week out to avoid settling for an off-peak slot. The Oberoi Grand's reservations desk handles bookings directly; no third-party platform is required.

Seasonal timing matters here beyond just availability. Kolkata's climate divides sharply: the pre-monsoon heat of April and May, the monsoon from June through September, and the cooler, more comfortable October-to-March window. The post-Durga Puja period in October is when the city comes alive socially, and restaurant tables at addresses like this fill with the local dining crowd. If you want the room at its most energetic, book in that window. If you want a quieter dinner with more attentive service, the deep winter months of December and January are the better call.

Quick reference: Easy to book, 3-7 days advance recommended for weekends, Oberoi Grand reservations desk.

How It Compares

See the comparison section below for how Baan Thai stacks up against Kolkata's other strong restaurants.

Worth Noting

Baan Thai's La Liste 2025 recognition places it among the more credentialed restaurant options in Kolkata. For the full picture of where it sits in the city's dining scene, see our full Kolkata restaurants guide. If you're also planning where to stay or what else to do in the city, our Kolkata hotels guide, bars guide, and experiences guide cover the rest. For context on how Baan Thai compares to La Liste-level Thai and pan-Asian cooking globally, Le Bernardin in New York City and Lazy Bear in San Francisco illustrate what the leading of the list looks like at 97+ points , Baan Thai at 77 points sits in the solid mid-tier of that ranking, which for Kolkata represents a genuine outlier in quality.

FAQs

• What should a first-timer know about Baan Thai? It's Thai cooking in a formal Oberoi Grand setting, recognised on La Liste 2025 with 77 points. Prices will reflect a five-star hotel restaurant in Kolkata , expect to pay more than at standalone Thai spots in the city, but the quality signal from the award is credible. Come hungry and with time; this isn't a quick dinner.
• What should I wear to Baan Thai? The Oberoi Grand sets the standard: smart casual at minimum, and leaning toward formal for dinner is never wrong here. Think collared shirts for men, evening dress or equivalent for women. Turn up in shorts and sandals and you'll feel out of place regardless of the weather outside.
• How far ahead should I book Baan Thai? Booking difficulty is Easy, so 3-7 days ahead is generally sufficient for most times of year. For peak Kolkata social season , October to January, particularly around Durga Puja and the winter months , a week's notice is safer for prime Friday and Saturday slots.
• Is Baan Thai good for a special occasion? Yes, with the right expectations. The Oberoi Grand setting handles the occasion framing well: the room is formal, service is attentive, and a La Liste-recognised kitchen gives you a credible quality floor. It works better for intimate dinners of two to four than for large group celebrations.
• What are alternatives to Baan Thai in Kolkata? For Bengali cooking at a high level, Kewpie and Oh Calcutta are the two most-cited options. For Mughlai and North Indian in a hotel setting, Peshawri and Dum Pukht Kolkata are the peer comparison. If you want something more casual and local, Peter Cat is a Kolkata institution worth knowing about.
• What should I order at Baan Thai? No confirmed signature dishes are available in our data. The most useful approach on arrival: ask the server what the kitchen is currently emphasising or what has come in fresh. At a La Liste-recognised restaurant with a named head chef, that question gets a real answer. Avoid defaulting to the most generic items on the menu , this kitchen is capable of more.
• Is Baan Thai good for solo dining? It's workable but not the most natural fit. The formal Oberoi setting and the Thai menu format , which benefits from sharing multiple dishes , means solo dining is possible but you'll cover less of the menu. If you're solo and want a more natural single-diner experience, a counter seat or bar-adjacent dining elsewhere in the city may suit better.
• Does Baan Thai handle dietary restrictions? No direct booking contact or website is available in our data to confirm specific dietary policies. As an Oberoi property, the expectation is that the kitchen handles common restrictions , vegetarian, seafood allergies , competently. Contact the Oberoi Grand reservations desk directly when booking to confirm your requirements in advance.