James Fancourt discovers the culinary delights of Thai Park…
I won’t lie. I rarely find a reason to visit Wilmersdorf, or even the West; but when spring kicks in and the weather turns warmer, there’s one very good reason to visit, quite possibly every single weekend that you can—Thai Park.
Berlin was a bit late to the street food craze, but these days you’re no longer short of options when it comes to sampling foods such as pulled pork and fancy burgers at places like Markthalle IX in Kreuzberg, Moabit’s Arminiushalle and the Kulturbrauerei in Prenzlauer Berg.
Thai Park is different to those. Having started in 1995 as a casual meeting point for the local Asian community, it’s much more low-key and ad-hoc, instead of celebrating global street food it focuses on the rich array of Thai cuusine with a few stalls run by Koreans, Chinese and Vietnamese people too. Regularly threatened with closure due to residential complaints about the number of people and the mess that is sometimes left behind in the park, it has become more organised since 2020 with a designated area for 60 stalls—but its character remains intact.
Image by James Fancourt.
Located in Preußenpark, rows of (mainly) Thai women sit with their delicious home cooking in front of them, ready to serve up some tasty authentic food at a great price. Being no expert on Thai Food I couldn’t tell you all of what’s available—just that all of it tastes great. Red and green curries, pork, fish, tofu, chicken satay, spring rolls, noodle soups, pad thai, papaya salads, the list is endless. There are also insects but I haven’t been brave enough to try those yet.
