ThongSmith built its name selling some of the priciest, most luxurious bowls of boat noodles in Bangkok — and now it is doing the same in Wan Chai. The Thai brand chose Hong Kong for its first outpost outside Thailand, and on opening day the queue down Spring Garden Lane stretched to a 45-minute wait. Three months on, it is still one of the most talked-about new Thai tables in town.
What is ThongSmith?
ThongSmith is a Thai restaurant on Spring Garden Lane (春園街) in Wan Chai (灣仔), and its single specialty is boat noodles (船麵) — the canal-side street food of Bangkok, reimagined as something rich and refined. It opened on 18 March 2026 as the first overseas branch for Thailand's Iberry Group, the company behind a string of popular dining concepts back home.
The brand has spent years being known for one thing: doing humble boat noodles in an upmarket way. In Bangkok, a ThongSmith bowl is among the priciest in the city, precisely because the broth and the toppings are anything but cheap — the premise behind a Hong Kong debut that the South China Morning Post and others queued up to cover. That premium, polished take is exactly what has landed in Wan Chai.
It also plugs a real gap. For a city with deep Cantonese roots and no shortage of comfort-food noodle houses, Hong Kong has had surprisingly few destination Thai noodle specialists — which is why ThongSmith landed near the top of so many lists of new restaurants to try in Hong Kong this season.
What are boat noodles — and why is ThongSmith's version special?
Boat noodles are Thai street food with a backstory. The dish dates to the 1950s, when vendors ladled noodles from sampans drifting along Bangkok's canals. Bowls were kept small so they would not spill on the water, and the broth was made deep and dark to carry maximum flavour in a few mouthfuls. The result is one of Thailand's great fast foods.
ThongSmith's edge is the broth. It is simmered for eight hours with galangal, star anise, lemongrass and pickled garlic, then finished one of two ways: with pork blood for the traditional, deep, almost gravy-like umami, or as a lighter, clear soup for anyone who wants the aromatics without the intensity. Both are seriously savoury.
Then come the toppings, and this is where the "premium" label earns its keep. Instead of the usual offcuts, ThongSmith piles in Australian Wagyu, Kurobuta pork, braised beef shank, tendon and house-made beef balls. It is still street food at heart — fast, punchy, built for slurping — but dressed up for a Hong Kong dining room.
Who is behind ThongSmith?
The brand is part of Thailand's Iberry Group, with a co-founder who is also its cuisine director. ThongSmith began life as a love letter to traditional boat noodles and grew into one of Bangkok's best-known noodle names, with branches dotted through the city's malls. Hong Kong is its first step abroad, a launch Time Out Hong Kong covered in detail.
Much of the menu's personality traces back to co-founder and cuisine director Karn Kittivech, whose childhood favourites shaped several signatures — including one of the dishes created specially for the Hong Kong launch. That hands-on heritage is the point of difference: this is a noodle house with a clear point of view, not a format dropped into a new city.
It arrives in a season thick with high-profile debuts. ThongSmith opened around the same time as Italian heavyweight Vincenzo Capuano just streets away, part of a wider wave of openings reshaping where Hong Kong eats — the same wave we track in our running guide to the city's 50 best restaurants.
What should you order at ThongSmith?
Start with the signature boat noodles — that is the whole reason to come. The ThongSmith Signature Boat Noodles (HK$148) layer sliced Australian Wagyu round, braised shank, tendon and beef balls into the spicy broth. If you would rather skip beef, the Hokkaido pork bowl (HK$128) or the lighter tossed chicken noodles (HK$98), served with a clear pork-bone broth on the side, are the moves.
A quick tip for newcomers: order the broth as you like it. The pork-blood version is the classic and the bolder choice; the clear soup is the gentler one. Either way, the bowls are compact by design, so it is normal — and encouraged — to order more than one, or to pad the table with a rice plate.
What to order at ThongSmith
| Dish | What it is | Price (approx.) |
|---|---|---|
| Signature Boat Noodles ★ | Australian Wagyu round, braised shank, tendon & beef balls in the spicy 8-hour broth | HK$148 |
| Hokkaido Pork Boat Noodles | The pork alternative to the signature beef bowl | HK$128 |
| Tossed Chicken Noodles | Dry noodles with a side of clear pork-bone broth | HK$98 |
| Karn's Fried Rice ★ | Peppery Hong Kong-exclusive fried rice with chicken or shrimp | HK$138–148 |
| Khao Ka-Prao, Minced Beef & Tendon | Holy-basil stir-fry over rice, a Hong Kong-exclusive | HK$148 |
Signature dishes are starred (★). Prices are à la carte and were correct at the time of writing; menus change, so confirm on the day.
The five Hong Kong-exclusive dishes
ThongSmith built a handful of dishes just for Hong Kong, so this is your chance to eat something you cannot get in Bangkok. They reach beyond noodles into rice plates and grills, and they are where the kitchen shows its range.
The headliners are Karn's Fried Rice, a peppery plate (with chicken or shrimp) inspired by the cuisine director's childhood; a pad thai made in the Eastern Thai style; beef tongue green curry rice, built around whole beef tongue braised for two hours; and Chalee's Chicken "Ko Lae", a Southern Thai-style charred chicken thigh marinated in coconut and spices and served with a cooling cucumber salad. A holy-basil Khao Ka-Prao with minced beef and braised tendon rounds out the set.
Leave room for pudding, too. The Thai sweets lean nostalgic: Ka-Nom-Tuay pandan-coconut puddings, sun-dried banana fritters made from a honey-sweet Northern Thai banana, and Pung Sung-Kaya, a soft steamed bread served with a pandan or Thai-milk-tea custard for dipping. It is a tidy reminder that this is a full Thai meal, not just a noodle stop.
Prices, queues and how to visit
This is mid-range eating, not a blowout. Boat-noodle bowls run from about HK$98 to HK$148, with the Hong Kong-exclusive rice and noodle plates landing around HK$138 to HK$148. Order a bowl, a rice dish and a dessert to share and you are looking at roughly HK$120 to HK$200 a head — fair for premium Wagyu broth in a sit-down room.
The catch is the queue. ThongSmith has drawn lines since day one and does not take reservations for small groups, so timing is everything. Arrive a few minutes before the 11.30am opening, or slip in mid-afternoon between the lunch and dinner pushes; weekend evenings are the busiest, and the latest menu and any opening-hours tweaks go up on ThongSmith's official Instagram. You will find it at Shop 01–06, G/F, Spring Garden Mansion, 38 Spring Garden Lane, Wan Chai, about a five-minute walk from Wan Chai MTR, Exit A3, in the grid of streets just south of Johnston Road.
ThongSmith — Essential Facts
If you are building a Wan Chai food crawl around it, the neighbourhood rewards the effort once the sun goes down — our guide to the best of Wan Chai after dark picks up where dinner leaves off. And if it is the street-food spirit of boat noodles you are chasing, our Hong Kong street food guide maps out the local version of the same idea.
Frequently Asked Questions
Hungry for more?
From premium Thai boat noodles to the city's newest tables, see everything worth booking in our guide to the new restaurants to try in Hong Kong this June.