For the 8th consecutive year a Bangkok restaurant does not win the “coveted” American Express One To Watch Award

Congratulations to August restaurant in Jakarta for being named the “American Express One To Watch Award”. Or perhaps this could be called the “101 in the Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants 2023 Award of 100 Restaurants”.  

The Asia’s 50 Best organizers explain the process for the award saying they collaborated with their regional advisers presumably to ask them to cooperate on a new restaurant they have most likely not yet been to. 

There is no “One to Watch Out” award in 2023 as the most endangered restaurant currently on the top 100 of Asia’s 50 Best list so all currently in the 100 should be on high alert to keep their places in 2024 as August is coming for you.

August joins an exciting line-up of recent “One To Watch” award winners Florilège in Tokyo (2016), TocToc in Seoul (2017), Toyo Eatery in Manila (2018), JL Studio in Taichung (2019), Masque in Mumbai (2020), Meta in Singapore (2021) and Eat & Cook in Kuala Lumpur (2022). 

As yet the regional collaborators/advisers in Thailand have not found an up and coming restaurant that they can pitch hard enough to the Best 50/100 organizers and other collaborators/advisers across the region.

None-the less, Koktail has a sneaky suspicion that 2024 may well be the year when Thailand and specifically Bangkok earns this “coveted” award.