Mac Rating: 5.00 | Votes: 1 | Date: 04/06/2026 17:38:00

Running north-south for around three kilometres between Sukhumvit Road and Ramintra Expressway in the eastern districts of central Bangkok, Ekkamai or Soi Sukhumvit 63 is one of the principal commercial and residential streets of the wider Sukhumvit district. The street has developed during the past two decades from a primarily residential side soi into one of the most heavily concentrated nightlife and dining districts anywhere in central Bangkok, with several hundred individual restaurants, bars and clubs spread along the principal commercial section. The street takes its name from the Ekkamai bus terminal at the southern end, which served as the principal eastern bus terminal of central Bangkok continuously from the 1970s through the early 2000s. The original residential development of the area dates from the 1960s and 1970s, with the surrounding side sois originally built as low-density single-family residential streets serving the wider Sukhumvit middle-class district. The progressive commercial development of the principal street axis began during the 1990s. The principal contemporary commercial development of the street dates from the early 2010s. The opening of the Ekkamai BTS Skytrain station in 1999 had provided the principal initial impetus for the wider commercial development of the area, with the original entertainment establishments developing along the principal southern section of the street between the station and the bus terminal. The progressive northward extension of the commercial zone through the 2010s extended the principal entertainment district to the modern level. The current commercial section between the BTS station and the Ramintra Expressway contains around three hundred individual restaurants, bars and entertainment venues. The principal categories include a substantial collection of contemporary Thai restaurants, several major international restaurant brands including the Ekkamai branches of the major Japanese, Korean and Italian chains, a substantial concentration of speciality coffee shops and microbreweries, and around fifty contemporary cocktail bars and small live music venues. The supplementary residential and commercial development includes several major recent condominium projects along the principal axis of the street and the immediately adjacent side sois. The development has progressively gentrified the wider district over the past decade and has been one of the principal centres of the Thai young professional residential and lifestyle market alongside the parallel Thonglor district to the immediate west. The street is one of the principal centres of the contemporary Thai independent music scene and hosts several of the major small live music venues of the capital.