The Five-Storey Former Pharmacy in Yaowarat You Book Four Months Out
Chef Pam's Thai-Chinese tasting menu, in a century-old Chinatown building that was once her family's pharmacy. The duck is the reason to book; the booking window is the cost.
The 14-day dry-aged duck arrives fifth or sixth into the evening, depending on which seating you take, and it is the course the room quiets for. Skin lacquered dark, fat rendered thin, the meat carrying that faintly fermented depth two weeks of hanging gives a bird. It is the dish Chef Pam is known for and the one that justifies whichever route you took to sit down.
Potong occupies a century-old, five-storey building on Soi Wanit 1 in Samphanthawong that was once her family's Chinese pharmacy. The kitchen calls what it does progressive Thai-Chinese. The tasting menu reads like an argument about what that family inheritance is worth on a plate.
The duck justifies the trip, and the four-month booking window is the tax you pay to sit down for it.
Editorial Deep
The duck sets the ceiling. Two weeks in the dry-ager gives it a concentration of flavour that the kitchen does not try to soften — the skin snaps, the fat is thin and clean, and the meat carries a faint funk that stops it reading as a European duck course dressed in Thai clothes. It is a Thai-Chinese dish that has decided what it is.
Conversation at a normal volume is possible throughout the meal, which given the building's narrow footprint is a design decision rather than an accident. The room is quiet enough to hear the server's course descriptions without leaning in, and quiet enough that a neighbouring table's laugh registers as company rather than intrusion.
The website advertises reservations as a straightforward booking through restaurantpotong.com or the potong-opium@thexprojectbkk.com email. In practice, booking runs on a three-to-four-month lead time, with slots filling in the days after they open and diners routinely reporting they secured a table via LINE months out. Chef Pam has publicly told guests to book only through the official site or the listed email — third-party concierges and unofficial booking pages are not endorsed and have caused enough trouble to warrant a warning on her own Instagram.
The cheapest way to eat well here is the tasting menu alone, no pairing — 6,700++ THB, with the service charge and VAT on top. That is the visit to send someone on if the question is whether Potong justifies the price of the tasting menu alone: the food is the argument, and the food alone makes it. The wine pairings are competent, and the stronger of the two is the one to add if you are drinking seriously, but neither pairing is the reason to come.
A return makes sense once the menu has moved. The tasting is a long arc built around specific courses, and eating the same sequence twice inside a year is not the shape this room rewards — the duck aside, the pleasure is in the argument, and an argument you have already heard is a different meal. Wait for the menu to rotate meaningfully, then book the four months out again.
What to eat
Don't miss.
14 Day Dry Aged Duck; Reimagined Pad Thai course within the tasting
“The duck is the reason to book, and the four-month booking window is the tax to sit down for it.”
Book direct through restaurantpotong.com three to four months ahead, ignore any third-party site claiming availability, and go for the tasting menu without the pairing if the bill matters. If the four-month window is unworkable, Le Du in Bang Rak is the modern-Thai room to book instead — the ticket runs meaningfully less and the calendar behaves.
The Verdict
