Hungry in Railay Beach. Thoughts For Food.

A lesson in food safety.

Railay Beach is stunningly gorgeous and quite possibly the greatest beach in all of Thailand (maybe anywhere?). The food however, is a different story. Like many beaches here, Railay is not known it’s food, which, as far as we are concerned for the purposes of Megatrip, is completely fine. Unlike our previous, relatively abbreviated, journeys, the name of the game here is eat to live, not live to eat (until we get to Italy…cuz pasta). Which means we can handle not stuffing our faces for a few meals knowing there will be better menus on the horizon.

Regardless of reputation, we are huge proponents of sticking to local fare when we travel. However, in doing a Trip Advisor search of Railay restaurants, top comments include “Food Poisoning”, “Medical Clinic” and our personal favorite “Great For Weight Loss”. Eating here was going to be an exercise in caution, not in the tensile strength of our waistbands. So we immediately decided to throw our traditional rules over the edge of the longboat in favor of not spending 24 hours in the hotel bathroom stocked with a limited and flimsy supply of toilet paper.

In full disclosure, we 100% accept that at some point during Megatrip we will get sick. We have an entire bag dedicated to every form of digestive medication which may or may not be labeled “poop pills” (we can’t completely grow up yet). That said, we want to avoid the inevitable as much as possible.

With over 24 hours after our last meal in Railay, we can write with confidence that we successfully dodged any foodborne illness. Using common sense, a ton of restaurant research, and the amount of hand sanitizer to make the surface of a Lollapalooza portalet clean enough to eat from, we ended up having some pretty decent meals.

Some Faves

Govinda’s at the Beach

If this vegan sandwich stand were a Spotify playlist, it would be Wrap Caviar. All the fresh ingredients were safely prepared in nearby Ao Nang, meaning we could enjoy black bean and falafel wraps without having to drink Pepto Bismol for dessert, which we didn’t hate. Their condiment game was also on point, with varying degrees of chili sauce, tamarind chutney, hummus and pebre salsa making it a little on the boujee side.

Always trust a stand that could have been transplanted from Brooklyn.

We would have eaten here for every meal. Sadly, this spot was only open for lunch which lead us to…

Kohindoor Indian

Indian food at the beach typically doesn’t sound like a natural fit. And yes, we said we did not want to spend more time in the bathroom than on the sand. But remember, conventional thinking was not a factor. Kohnindoor is the #1 Trip Advisor restaurant in Railay, with the fewest amount of illness reviews so it was an easy choice. The food itself was very good, and even better, we made it through our first dinner without getting sick. This resulted in a return visit for our final dinner, after a “safely” rated Thai restaurant our second night revealed “safe” meant flavorless pad thai and soggy spring rolls. Back at Kohindoor, we cautiously sampled saffron rice, lamb curry and our newfound carb obsession, onion stuffed naan. It was the perfect sponge to soak up our sunset induced Chang buzz.

Pulao, Indian saffron rice. The next best thing (if not better in this case) to Thai Fried Rice.

The Struggle is Real

Have you even been reading this post?

Only time you’ll see us pass on a doner kabab is if it’s sitting in the sun, covered in flies.

Overall

With a different definition a success, we dodged sickness and did so while still having a few decent meals. Things certainly could have been worse. And that beach tho…