What is mookata? Thai BBQ explained, and where to eat it in Bangkok

Mookata is Thai barbecue that you cook yourself at the table. A domed metal pan sits over a pail of hot charcoal. You grill pork on the dome, and vegetables, glass noodles and an egg simmer in the ring of soup around it, catching everything that drips down. The Thai name is หมูกระทะ, mu kratha, and you'll see it spelled mookata, moo kata, moo krata and mookrata. It's a group meal, and in Thailand it nearly always comes with beer.

In Bangkok a set for two costs about 240 to 400 baht, and a buffet about 200 to 400 a head. For a first go, sit down at Taweechok on Banthat Thong Road, nine minutes from BTS National Stadium. For air-con at lunchtime, Nak La in MBK opens at 11am. For a table of Thai regulars, take the MRT to Huai Khwang for Khun Ple.

Every place here was open when we checked on 28 October 2026. Prices come from menus and reviews of the last two years and only go up, so tap the map link before you go.

What is mookata?

Mu means pork and kratha means pan, so mu kratha is "pork pan". Say it "moo gra-ta". Singapore, Malaysia and the Philippines call it mookata, the spelling you'll see most online.

Where it started is less certain, and Thai writers admit it. The story goes back to Thai restaurants around 1957 that grilled meat on a dome and sold it as "Genghis Khan grilled meat", the name of a Japanese lamb dish, and to shops in the northeast that called it Korean grilled meat (เนื้อย่างเกาหลี). One old Bangkok shop told MGR Online that it started with beef and added pork and chicken for customers who didn't eat beef. Pork won, and gave the dish its name. Cheap buffets spread it everywhere in the late 20th century.

The pan: a grill in the middle, soup around it

Think of Korean barbecue and a hot pot sharing one pan. The middle rises into a dome with slots cut in it, so the heat of the coals comes straight through and the meat chars. Around it runs a moat a few centimetres deep, which the staff fill with a light broth. Fat and marinade run off the meat into it, so the soup tastes better at nine than it did at seven. Charcoal is the classic heat, though some air-conditioned places cook on gas.

How to cook mookata, step by step

The staff bring the pan, light it and fill the moat. After that it's yours.

1. Fat first. The set comes with a small block of pork fat. Put it right on top of the dome and let it melt down the sides, so the meat won't stick. When things stick later, slide the fat over the dome again.
2. Meat on the dome. Lay the pork around the fat a few slices at a time: marinated pork, belly and bacon are the usual. Chicken takes longest, so start it early. Crowd the dome and the meat stews instead of grilling.
3. The rest goes in the soup. Cabbage, morning glory, mushrooms, glass noodles and fish balls go in the moat, and so do squid and prawns if you don't grill them. Crack the egg into the broth.
4. Eat as you go. There are no courses. Take meat off when it's done, dip it, eat it, put more on, and ladle out soup whenever you like.
5. Ask for more broth. The moat boils down fast. Wave someone over before it runs dry and they'll top it up.

A typical small set, Khun Ple's for example, has marinated pork, belly, bacon, liver, squid, prawns, an egg, vegetables and two kinds of noodles. That's plenty for two. Pork has to be cooked right through, so give the thick slices time.

The dipping sauces

Mookata comes with nam jim, dipping sauce, and Thai diners will pick one shop over another for its sauce alone. Expect two or three bowls:

• Nam jim suki, the red one. It's built on chilli sauce with garlic and lime: sweet, sour and hot at once. This is the classic.
• Nam jim seafood, the pale green one: lime, garlic, chilli and fish sauce. Sharp. Made for prawns and squid, and good on pork.
• A house sauce. Areeya serves a pla ra dip made with fermented fish. Taweechok has an egg sauce. Heng Heng Heng makes its own, Korat style.

Chopped garlic, chilli and lime sit on the table or at a sauce bar so you can push it hotter, and refills are free at most places. At Khun Ple the owner tells people to mix the three sauces together.

What does mookata cost in Bangkok?

Sets, à la carte. You order a set in small, medium or large. It comes with the pan, a plate of meat and seafood, vegetables and the sauces, and you add single plates if you're still hungry. A small set feeds two.

Buffets. One price a head, then you order or fetch as much as you like. Cheap ones charge about 199 to 299 baht, often for 60 to 90 minutes. Better ones cost closer to 400, with soft drinks and ice cream thrown in.

At the seven places below, most people spend 200 to 400 baht each before drinks.

What to drink, and table manners

Beer, mostly. A big bottle of Singha or Chang to share costs about 80 to 120 baht at a mookata shop, and bigger tables order a beer tower. Soju has caught on with younger Thais too. If you don't drink, order a Thai iced tea; Khun Ple's has fans of its own. The legal drinking age in Thailand is 20.

The manners are simple:

• Don't overload the dome. A few slices at a time grill. A pile steams.
• Keep two sets of chopsticks. One for raw meat, one for eating, and keep your own out of the shared soup.
• Ask for broth early. Don't let the moat boil dry and burn.
• At a buffet, order small and often. Some charge for food left on the plate.

Where to eat mookata in Bangkok

These seven are the places Thai food writers and visitors both keep naming, and every one was open when we checked. Older lists still send people to places that have shut since, like 71 Mookata on Banthat Thong and Everyday Mookrata on Silom.

Near BTS National Stadium

Banthat Thong Road runs down the side of Chulalongkorn University, and at night it's one long row of shophouse kitchens full of students and office workers. Our Bangkok at night post covers its suki. MBK is on the other side of the stadium.

Taweechok Mookata

Taweechok (ทวีโชคหมูกะทะ) has branches all over Bangkok, and this corner shop at the top of Banthat Thong is its head office: two floors, air-con, a band at weekends and a 4.9 from more than 3,000 Google reviews. The pans are brass, which one Thai reviewer swears crisps the pork better. Order a pork set, which started at 330 baht for two in 2024, ask for the egg sauce, and add the salmon som tam if you like raw fish. Expect 200 to 400 baht a head, a little more than a buffet.

It opens at 4pm on weekdays and 11am at weekends, and closes at 1am. On the Wednesday night we checked it was as full as it gets, so come by six. It's 9 minutes (550 m) on foot from BTS National Stadium. Map

Chuankin Mookrata

For a buffet, walk on down Banthat Thong to Chuankin (ชวนกินหมูกระทะ). It's all you can eat, pork and beef both, with soft drinks and ice cream in the price, and recent bills come to just under 400 baht a head. You order plates from the menu as often as you like; get the dumplings. One pan gets crowded with four people around it.

It's open 4pm to midnight on weekdays and noon to midnight at weekends, 13 minutes (1 km) on foot from BTS National Stadium. You can book a table on Hungry Hub. Map

Nak La Mookata, MBK

Nak La (นักล่าหมูกระทะ) is a Thai chain, and its MBK branch, second floor, zone C, is the easiest first mookata in Bangkok: air-conditioned and open every day from 11am to 2am. Set M was 279 baht plus VAT in January (299 a few months before), and there's a buffet at 299. Vegetables, glass noodles and sauces come free from the bar. Add the garlic fried rice. It's a mall, so don't expect a street atmosphere.

Tables are walk-in, and the queue builds from 6 to 8:30pm, so come at opening or mid-afternoon. The skywalk from BTS National Stadium runs straight into MBK. Map

Worth the Grab

Khun Ple Mookata

Khun Ple (คุณเปิ้ล หมูกระทะ) has been cooking in a soi in Huai Khwang for more than 20 years, on charcoal, at outdoor tables where nearly everyone is Thai. It turns up on almost every Thai list of the city's best mookata. Order the small set, which is more than enough for two. The last prices we found were about 350, 450 and 550 baht for the three sizes. Three sauces come with it: the red one, a seafood one and a sweet chilli paste.

The menu is in Thai, with pictures. It's the table where a Bangkok friend earns their seat: they order in Thai, ask for the set without liver if you'd rather, and get the second round of pork on its way while you're still eating the first.

Google lists it open every day from 2pm to 12:30am, though older listings say 3:30 or 4. Come around 5 to beat the queue. It's in Soi 20 Mithuna, 17 minutes (1.3 km) on foot from MRT Huai Khwang, or a short Grab. After dinner, the Huai Khwang street market by the station cooks late, and our Bangkok night markets post has it. Map

Heng Heng Heng

This corner shop where Trok Chan meets Chan Road (หมูกระทะ เฮง เฮง เฮง ตรอกจันทน์) cooks mookata the way they do in Korat, the big city of the northeast. The pork is marinated sweet, and the marinade goes into the soup, so the broth is richer than most. Sets started at 239 baht in 2024, in two sizes. Add a plate of the fried shrimp wontons, which Thai write-ups keep mentioning. The sauce comes in a big cup.

It's small and smoky under a low roof, and people queue at dinner. Google lists it open from about 3:30 to 11pm, but Thai listings say it closes at 10, so don't turn up late. It's 15 minutes (1.1 km) from BTS Saphan Taksin along Charoen Krung Road, or a short Grab. Map

Areeya Mu Kratha

Areeya (อารียาหมูกระทะ) is the garden one, with open-air tables on Pradiphat Road. Go for the sauce. Next to the usual red one comes a pla ra dip made with fermented fish, salty and funky, which Thai writers single out. Sets were 399 baht small, 499 pork-only and 599 large in 2022, and still started at 399 in 2024. Add the garlic fried rice. If the sauces taste too sweet, ask for more chilli and lime.

It's open every day from 4pm to midnight. Areeya has other branches, and this is the first. It's 1.5 km from BTS Saphan Khwai, so take a Grab. Map

After midnight

Iam Pochana

Iam Pochana (เอี่ยมโภชนา) is an old Thai-Chinese kitchen in a soi near the 22 Karakadakhom roundabout that opens at 5pm and keeps cooking until 3am. Regulars come for the beef hot pot and the stir-fried vermicelli with water mimosa. The mookata is a marinated pork set on a hot pan for 250 baht, listed on the menu as Korean grilled pork, the older name for the same idea. Vegetables cost extra, and the service is basic.

It's 6 minutes (450 m) from MRT Wat Mangkon, so it fits after an evening on Yaowarat Road. One listing says it closes on Tuesdays and the fourth Wednesday of the month, while Google says every day, so check before a Tuesday. The MRT stops at about midnight, so it's a Grab home. Map

Do mookata with a Thai friend

Mookata is made for a table of people. Sets start at portions for two, and the pan wants someone feeding it while someone else eats. Take this plan, pick a friend in Bangkok, send the place, the day and the time, and meet at the station. They come along and order in Thai. They know which sauce goes on what, and when the pork's ready. It's booked by the hour and always platonic. Their time is the booking; the food, the beer and the Grab home you pay on the night. If beer is part of the plan, pick a friend who's 20 or over. Here's how booking works.

Questions people ask

What is mookata in English?

Mookata, or mu kratha (หมูกระทะ), means "pork pan" in Thai. In English people call it Thai BBQ or Thai barbecue hot pot.

Does mookata have to be pork?

No. Pork is the default and the name, but sets come with squid and prawns, most places sell beef, and many add chicken. If you don't eat pork, say so when you order: the block of fat for the dome is pork too.

How much does mookata cost in Bangkok?

A small set for two costs about 240 to 400 baht, and a large one up to about 600. Buffets cost about 199 to 400 baht a head. Most people spend 200 to 400 baht each before beer.

Is mookata the same as Korean BBQ?

They're cousins: Thai shops once sold it as Korean grilled meat. The difference is the soup. A mookata pan has a moat of broth around the grill, so you get barbecue and hot pot at once.

Where is the best mookata in Bangkok?

For a first time, Taweechok on Banthat Thong Road, near BTS National Stadium. For the most Thai table, Khun Ple in Huai Khwang, and for a buffet, Chuankin. After midnight, Nak La in MBK (until 2am) or Iam Pochana near Chinatown (until 3am).

Can you eat mookata alone?

You can, at a buffet or with Nak La's Set M. But sets come in portions for two, and on your own you'll spend more time tending the pan than eating. A Thai friend in Bangkok knows the sauces and the order of things.