KO CHANG | Restaurants & Dining
Koh Samet offers many and varied experiences for the palate. Some of the excellent resorts offer their own brand of 5 star cuisine and all resorts have restaurants serving a mix of Thai and international cuisine, making sure no one will go hungry.
Snacking on the beach is also easy with a myriad of small beach stalls offering Thai bbq, sticky rice and much more.
Tips from fellow travelers
Bang Bao Cliff Cottages
Enjoy good breakfast, lunch, and dinner at the restaurant in Bang Bao Cliff Cottages. It's an open-air with sea and cliff views.
Jumbo Pancake for breakfast Thai Spicy Salad Green/Red Curry Fried Banana (Sweet) Banana in Coconut Milk
Baan Nuna Restaurant
This is the resturant for western palate hungry eaters. owned by a german, this restaurant serves both local and western dishes, but more focused on the western dishes such as pizzas, pastas, even western cocktails. the ambiance is an old large hut with low key light bulbs ornamented over the ceilings and bali hand paintings on every direction. bamboo tables and chairs. lower chairs and triangle pillow seatings are also available on the upper loft. BAAN THAI: from the exterior of this restaurant / hotel, the complex is a thai sala adorned with art pieces from the sukothai era with a minor flair of the cambodian touch. (Koh Chang is only hours away to the Cambodian border). 2 stone lions greet the travelers at their gates. as one walks down the narrow alley, gush of sea breeze calls you closer only to find yourself upon an open hall over looking the ocean! one can choose to dine seated on homemade wooden furnitures by theedge of the waters or in the hall with low dinning tables and traingluar pillows. i choosed the pillows! i had already envisioned myself after a big good thai meal, i'd sprawl myself on that pillow.....oh yes, like the majesties did back in the days!
I ordered a few dishes: the salami pizza and pasta alforno which was pretty good. i'd say that it is pretty good since I was looking to fulfill my western palate, the italian dishes did the job! (the orders come in western sizes) But the anecdote to all was the Coconut and Pineapple shake! For 40 Baht (about US$1), that thing will have you craving with intense addiction for more! Try it and you'll realize that Culinary World Magazine coverage isn't global, they missed this spot! BAAN THAI: again, several dishes were ordered. most were the regular thai dishes....but 2 dishes that really blew me away, other than just the ambiance and dining steps away from the ocean....was: Sea Food Garlic over Rice...... ummmmm... forget the bad breath...the aroma of the garlic mixed with fresh squid, shrimp, clams, and chunks of garlic in peppery sauce. Steamed Cotton Fish with lemon. I instantly fell back into my reclining triangular pillow with a big smile on my face. As i looked up to the ceiling, i could see fish swimming above my head! hahah... Succently, steamed with garlic, ginger, slices of more garlic, thai herbs....and the fish was soft and tender....served on charcoal steamed iron pan!
Beach Barbeques
Anywhere you stay, there will be a nightly barbecue nearby. I highly recommend taking part at least once. A local person will cook the meal right on the beach. You will have choices of vegetables (corn, potato, peppers, etc...) and meat/fish (pork, beef, shrimp, squid, fish). It's very tasty and very reasonably priced. $5 US will be more than enough for one person, including a beer.
Barbecued squid - ask for them to make the hot dipping sauce to go with it!
Cookies Restaurant
As I was strollin' along the beach, I noticed that there were alot of restaurants along Whitesand beach.However they seemed fairly expensive by "Thai standard "especially if you wanted to eat seafood.Shouln't it be cheaper near the sea? Anyway it pays to look around and we got to eat Grilled shrimps at a reasonable price at place called 'Cookie.' Cookie is situated right on the beach ,so you can dig your toes in the sand.You can choose the seafood you want and they will cook it up for you .It can gets rather packed in the evenings on weekends around 8pm so if your hungry ,get there early ! Around 9 pm some of the locals show what they can do with fire and techno music...
The Bar-B-Q shrimps were good at 250 baht a plate.They weren't very big but tasty!.Also the fish cooked with herbs and spice was yummy too, at 200 baht each. All the single dishes over rice such as 'pat grapow gai kai dow' fried basil with chicken and a fried egg were good value at around 45-50 baht.
Chi Chet Restaurant
Even though we stayed at their bungalows, we never ate here all that much during our stay. However, the few times we did come here were very good. The view from the restaurant provides a great view of the bay and beach area. Most of our times here were rushed (like when we were waiting for our elephant trek), we had leave before we could really enjoy anything. The day of our trek we were told we could have breakfast, but the taxi arrived when we first got our meal. Lucky we were able to get our lunch "to go" and made it on time to start the trek. The staff was very good and didn't mind our quick stops at times and were extra nice when we had a little more time to spend. I think I will try this place again in the future, mainly to experience the view from the beach side tables, and possibly enjoy a qiuet night out with my lady.
I didn't get a chance to try much from the menu here, but the food that I did try was very good. I had my usual garlic pork with rice, while my girlfriend had fried noodle or spicy seafood salad. The meals were priced very nice with mine costing around 60 bht and my girlfiends 40-60bht.
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