Cultural heritage is increasingly incorporated into commercial environments as a means of strengthening local identity and encouraging public engagement with cultural traditions. Restaurant spaces provide an important setting in which heritage can be interpreted through contemporary artistic practices while remaining closely connected to everyday urban life. This study comparatively examines how local cultural heritage is represented through contemporary art in selected restaurants in Kunming, China, and Bangkok, Thailand, and explores its contribution to spatial identity, cultural communication, and sustainable social development. A qualitative comparative case study involving ten restaurants was undertaken using field observations, visual documentation, semi-structured interviews, and thematic analysis, supported by visitor perception questionnaires as contextual evidence. The findings reveal that heritage resources are reinterpreted through architectural references, symbolic artifacts, decorative installations, and immersive spatial experiences. Restaurants in Kunming mainly emphasize ethnic diversity and historical narratives, whereas those in Bangkok draw more extensively upon Buddhist symbolism, community traditions, and everyday cultural practices. Although the artistic approaches differ, both contexts demonstrate how commercial environments can facilitate cultural communication and reinforce community identity. Based on these findings, the study proposes a comparative framework explaining the relationships among heritage resources, artistic interpretation, spatial identity, cultural sustainability, and sustainable social development. The proposed framework offers a useful perspective for understanding heritage-based artistic applications in contemporary restaurant environments and provides implications for future cultural design and heritage interpretation.

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