Long Chim

Thai Cooking in a Heritage Setting

Al Bujairi Terrace sits against the mud-brick walls of Diriyah's UNESCO-recognised historic district, and on any given evening the terrace fills fast. Visitors move between Saudi heritage restaurants, international concepts, and cafés strung along the pedestrian strip. Long Chim occupies a position in that mix that few other venues can claim: it is the address where the crowd that has already walked past the Saudi fare, weighed up a dozen options, and decided they want something precise and regional comes to settle.

The name translates from Thai as "come and try," which frames the restaurant's approach accurately. This is not a broad pan-Asian concept softened for a regional audience. The cooking draws on the recipes of David Thompson, the Australian chef whose long engagement with Thai culinary tradition produced one of the most documented bodies of work on the subject in the English-speaking world. His menus at Long Chim properties have always prioritised the kind of intensity, sourness, and chilli heat that Thai food requires at its core, and that track record is the credential anchoring this Riyadh outpost.

What Keeps the Regulars Returning

In a city where the dining scene has expanded rapidly, the restaurants that build genuine repeat custom tend to do so on consistency and specificity rather than novelty. Long Chim's position at Bujairi Terrace means it sits among some of Riyadh's more considered dining options, including addresses like Aseeb, which works the other end of the spectrum with Saudi regional cooking, and Marble. Against that peer set, Long Chim's case rests on offering something the others cannot: a cuisine tradition with genuine depth, delivered through recipes rather than approximation.

The dishes that draw people back are the ones rooted in technique. Chicken satay leu, green papaya salad, and khao soi Chiang Mai all appear on the menu, and each represents a different register of Thai cooking — grilled street food, the sharp, herbaceous logic of a northeastern salad, and the layered coconut broth of the north. That range is what regulars tend to cite when explaining why they return. The kitchen is not rotating its entire identity with the seasons. There is a menu you can learn, and the pleasure of returning is in going deeper into it.

The Maa Long Chim set menu functions as the structured version of that experience. For a first visit, it provides the sequencing and breadth that makes sense of the kitchen's range. For regulars, it is often the shorthand for a table that wants everything handled. The service team, described consistently as friendly and engaged rather than formal, is part of the reason this format lands well. Thai hospitality has a warmth that translates across cultures, and the front-of-house here mirrors that register.

The Terrace and the Upstairs Room

Physical setup at Long Chim gives it more flexibility than most single-room restaurants in the area. The ground-floor terrace faces the wider Bujairi stretch, which means the energy of the destination flows through it. Evenings here have movement and ambient noise, and the cooking is assertive enough to hold its own against that backdrop. The upstairs area, when open, offers a different proposition: more contained, quieter, better for a table that wants to concentrate on the food and the conversation around it.

That split between terrace energy and interior calm is a practical consideration worth making before you arrive. The terrace suits a longer evening that starts with drinks and moves through the menu at a relaxed pace. The upstairs suits a more focused dinner. Both serve the same kitchen, which is the point.

Diriyah as a destination has been developing quickly, and the terrace is now one of the more consistently animated dining strips in Riyadh. Visitors to the district tend to spend time rather than pass through, which means the pacing at Long Chim suits the broader rhythm of an evening at Bujairi rather than a standalone meal stop. If you are combining it with a visit to the heritage site, arriving at the terrace as the light shifts in the late afternoon gives you the longest version of the evening.

Thai Cuisine in Riyadh's International Tier

Riyadh's restaurant scene now includes serious representation from Japanese, French, and Italian traditions, with addresses like Myazu and Benoit anchoring those categories. Southeast Asian cooking, and Thai cooking specifically, occupies a smaller niche in that mix. Long Chim's position as the most documented Thai address in the city is therefore less about being part of a crowded field and more about being the reference point for a cuisine that does not yet have the depth of representation it warrants.

That context matters for how you approach the menu. Dishes like khao soi or a properly prepared green papaya salad are not difficult to execute poorly — versions of both appear across the city in various forms. What Long Chim is doing, by anchoring its recipes in Thompson's documented approach, is providing a baseline of fidelity that positions it differently from casual approximations. For a reader who has eaten Thai food seriously elsewhere , in Bangkok, in Chiang Mai, or at Thompson's other addresses , the Riyadh outpost is worth benchmarking. For a reader who hasn't, it is a reliable introduction to what the cuisine can do when it is not adjusted downward.

For broader context on where Long Chim fits in the capital's dining scene, see our full Riyadh restaurants guide. For the wider picture on visiting the city, our Riyadh hotels guide, bars guide, and experiences guide cover the surrounding infrastructure. Elsewhere in Saudi Arabia, Kuuru in Jeddah and Harrat in AlUla represent the range of what the country's dining scene now covers. For international reference points in the tier of chef-driven destination restaurants built around a specific culinary tradition, Le Bernardin in New York City, Alinea in Chicago, and Alain Ducasse at Louis XV in Monte Carlo illustrate how a strong culinary lineage shapes a restaurant's identity and peer set.

Planning Your Visit

Long Chim is located at Al Bujairi Terrace in Diriyah, which is accessible from central Riyadh and sits within the broader Diriyah heritage development. The terrace is a destination in its own right, so arriving with time to walk the area before sitting down makes practical sense. Given the volume of traffic the terrace draws on weekends and public holidays, booking ahead is the more reliable approach, particularly if you have a preference for the terrace or the upstairs room. The Maa Long Chim set menu provides the clearest path through the kitchen's range and is the logical choice for a first visit or for a table that wants a defined arc to the meal. For homemade ice creams to close, that course comes recommended by those who return often enough to have worked through the rest of the menu already.