Well-known shopping venue for many locals and tourists for its cheap everyday items with the vibe of a market fair in an air-conditioned area at the heart of Bangkok’s commercial district. If you are looking for a place to buy souvenirs for your friends and family as well as every item and do not want to travel too far from the inner city area, MBK Center is the place you should visit.
What is the highlight?
1. Massive independent shops for apparels, travel equipment and IT products
There is a loose zoning inside MBK Center. Starting from the 4th floor, almost the entire floor is filled with small shops offering gadgets and IT related products such as second hand refurbished smartphones, earphones, smartphones related equipment like chargers, screen protection films, or equipment for live broadcasts.
On the 3rd floor, there will be an enormous “Shopping Street” zone where tons of individual small shops are packed together in this area. Shops here offer mostly apparels for everyday use at a cheap price like T-shirts with nice prints, polos, belts, underwear, some Thai-Thai style of apparels such as elephant pants, T-shirts with nice screens, etc. On this floor, you can also find a number of shops that offer unbranded cheap travel equipment such as luggages, backpack, etc. in case you want to buy some extra baggage to carry something back or to replace your old luggage.
If this is going to be your first time to visit MBK Center, you will easily get lost and confused in this area. The simple trick is not to set any goal on what to buy. Do not expect that you will find a very very specific item or brand you need as they might not have it, so you will not feel pressured to find them among tons of shops in front of you. If you find something interesting, do not hesitate to talk to the seller and negotiate the price. Do not think that you will be back at the same spot again as there are tons of shops selling similar items in this area. If you think that there could be another shop selling the same thing further away where they have less customers due to bad location in order to get a lower price, you might be wrong as nothing guarantees this logic.
Last but not least, from G floor (ground level) to the 2nd floor, there are also mixes of individual small shops across the floor areas, offering various items but mostly apparels, jewelry, souvenir shops, beauty services like nail salons and a few drug stores. There are also supermarkets located in the area as well. Tops supermarket on the G floor, offers fresh fruits as well as dairy products. Donki, a Japanese supermarket on the 2nd floor, offers a range of Japanese products and freshly made food for you to take back to your place.
2. Collectibles from Japanese anime, manga and more
There are several stores inside the zone called “SFtown” on the 7th floor which offers you collectible items from various anime and manga ranges from Gandam figures, dolls or even small collectibles like small cards to keep in your wallet or bookmarks, etc. Some stores offer a customization for your collectibles such as a customized design of your favorite character for your brooch as well.
3. Various choices of restaurants
There are restaurants on almost every floor of MBK Center, offering various choices from local restaurant chains to the fancy restaurants or bars. You can always find simple dining from local restaurant chains such as Katsuya which offers a simple tonkatsu set menu. Suki Teenoi offers a super cheap hotpot buffet. Eat Am Are offers a reasonable steak dish. Phra Nakhon Boat Noodle for exotic boat noodles served with crispy porkskin, etc.
More sophisticated restaurants such as Ponn Café offer upscale Thai food dishes, Chao Lay offers local seafood dishes, Shu Daxia, a fancy Chinese offering premium mala hotpot with exotic shows, etc.
If you want to experience plates of street food, you can also go to Food Legends by MBK which is a food court on the 6th floor next to Shu Daxia restaurant. Here you can find various Thai street food and snacks at a decent price.
For Muslim visitors, there are also a few Halal’s restaurants across the shopping mall. Biryani Bonus Dosa on the 3rd floor offers Indian halal food. Yana Restaurant on 5th floor for Thai halal dishes.
Global fast food chains, in case you are not enjoying the local food, also present here around G floor and 1st floor such as Big Boy Burger, McDonalds, KFC, etc. Global coffee brands such as Starbucks on G floor and Tim Hortons are also here on the 3rd floor.
Opening hours
MBK Center opens daily from 10:00 until 22:00. However, shops inside may open late or close earlier than the shopping mall’s operating hours. In case you already have your favourite shop in your mind you want to visit, it is better to contact them and make sure you arrive on their operating hours.
Entrance fee
There is no entrance fee for entering MBK Center as it is a shopping mall. However, if you go there by car, it might be parking fee applies (see “By Car” topic)
How to get there?
By BTS
This is the most convenient way to visit the MBK Center. Get off the train at BTS National Stadium station. There will be the skywalk connected from the BTS at the concourse level right at the exit of the station to the shopping mall.
If you come from BTS Siam Station or from shopping malls around that area such as Siam Paragon or Siam Square One, you can also easily walk to MBK without going to the street level. Get inside Siam Center and find the connecting sky bridge to Siam Discovery on the 3rd floor. Once you arrive at the Siam Discovery from the sky bridge, you will be on the 2nd floor of Siam Discovery at this point. Go down one level to the 1st floor, then find the exit to the skywalk on the other side of the shopping mall called “One Siam Skywalk” or “MBK Bridge” which connects to the shopping mall.
By MRT
There is no direct connection from any MRT station to MBK Center. However, it is still a great way to travel to the shopping mall if you come from another part of Bangkok where MRT is closer and accessible to you. First, you need to transit to the BTS skytrain network which can be done either from MRT Silom station or MRT Sukhumvit station.
From MRT Silom station, you will transit to BTS at BTS Sala Daeng station. On this line, you can go directly to the BTS National Stadium Station without any further transit and access directly to the shopping mall right from the front of the BTS station.
If you come from MRT Sukhumvit station, you will transit to BTS at BTS Asok station. From this point, you have to choose whether you want to stop at BTS Siam station and walk according to the recommendation above (see “By BTS” topic) or do another transit to BTS Silom line (dark green line) at BTS Siam station. The transit between the BTS line at this point will be very easy, just using the platform on the opposite side, same floor after you get off the train at BTS Siam Station and continue a ride for 1 more station. The fare should not be different even if you ride one more station, as it already reached its ceiling price at this point.
By Car
In case you drive a car, you can park at MBK Center. You can enter the parking lot from Rama I road or Soi Chulalongkorn 12.
For the parking fee, you will be charged 30 Baht for the first 2 hours and 20 Baht per hour from the 3rd hour onwards. You can get a stamp at the information counter on G floor to waive some part of the parking fee if you shop inside the MBK center. Over 500 Baht, you will get 3 hours free of parking fee and 20 Baht per hour from the 4th hour onwards. Over 2,000 Baht, you will get 6 hours free of parking fee and 20 Baht per hour from the 7th hour onwards.
By Taxi/Tuktuk
It is possible to go here by Taxi or Tuktuk. The driver may charge you an overpriced rate but you can always negotiate for a lower price. As a local, I recommend negotiating the price first before entering the vehicle and keep in mind both you and the driver can always reject the deal.
