Thai food is often steamed, quickly stir-fried, or grilled, and such cooking methods, plus the use of fresh ingredients, make it unusually healthy. For this reason, it is being widely adapted for use in spas, especially the many new ones that have opened in Thailand over the past few years. At the famous Oriental Hotel Spa, for example, a wide range of dishes have been developed that are both delicious, as well as, low in calories and cholesterol. The menu includes not only salads, red chicken curry, and vegetable fried rice, but also invigorating health drinks concocted with fresh local fruits like papaya, pomelo, mango, guava, and tangerine, as well as, assorted herbal teas made from lemon grass, galangal and basil. These health drinks are also offered at other well-known spas like Chiva Som in Hua Hin and The Banyan Tree in Phuket.

While the cooking process tends to be relatively brief, with a minimum of complications, preparation of some dishes may require considerable time and effort. Generally this involves peeling and chopping the various ingredients, as well as, blending them with a mortar and pestle. In more elaborate dishes, particularly those known as royal or palace-style, fruits and raw vegetables are skillfully carved into beautiful shapes that amount to an art in itself, adding to the aesthetic appeal of the presentation.

Almost always, eating Thai style is a social affair that involves a group of people sitting around a table or, in rural areas, on the floor. A typical meal will be comprised of a number of dishes, either in the form of soups or served in bite-sized pieces, and each diner will have only a fork and a spoon. In fact, a century or so ago no cutlery apart from serving utensils was used at traditional meals. Rice, if glutinous was pressed into small balls with fingers and dipped into other dishes: ordinary rice was spooned on to individual dishes with utensils made of wood or coconut and then eaten with fingers. European spoons and forks appeared during the 19th century, at first among royalty and later taken up by the general population. The custom today is to eat with a dessert-sized spoon, using the fork mainly to move food around on the plate. A Chinese-style ceramic spoon may be provided if there is a soup, in which case each guest will have a small bowl, as well as, a plate and chopsticks are used when Chinese-style noodles are included on the menu.

There will be a variety of dishes, for it takes more than one or two to achieve the blend of flavor Thais like. A large bowl of rice, often replenished, is always the centerpiece and except for sweets, all the dishes are served at the same time and may be eaten in any order desired.

Ideally, a Thai meal offers a combination of tastes: sweet, salty, and sour, with hot and bitter often as minor flavor. Sometimes several of these are presented in a single dish, subtly blended, while in others one flavor predominates. Most often, in addition to the obligatory bowl of rice, there will be a soup of some kind, a curry, a steamed dish, a fried one, and several basic sauces which can be used to adjust the flavor to suit individual taste. Sweets for a formal meal may also consist of several dishes; fresh fruit of some kind, as well as, one or more of the traditional confections made of egg yolk, sugar and coconut cream.

The preferences of the individual cooks will dictate how strongly the various flavors are emphasized Thai restaurants abroad, for instance, often serve food that is generally milder, less salty, or less hot than in the country itself.