Koh Phi Phi, Koh Pha Ngan and Koh Samui. Photo ready scenary doesn’t always produce Instagram worthy food.
Considering each island has only been connected to electricity within the past 30 years, it doesn’t come as a huge surprise they don’t boast the greatest reputation for the traditional Thai aggressively flavorful, rip-your-taste-buds-open, sweat-and-canker-sore-inducing spicy cuisine.
But hey, 30 is young (right?). Sara is 30 and while she can run a marathon with minimal training, she still cant walk down the street without tripping on the sidewalk. David is 30, has taken hundreds of flights in his lifetime, yet hasn’t mastered the art of consuming liquids on a plane without spilling all over everything.
So we get it, but we still gotta eat.
Some Faves
Koh Phi Phi: Garlic 1992
This unsuspecting tent boasting itself as local thai diner caught our attention due to its huge bed sheet sign letting passersby know that in its 26 years of business, it was the only restaurant to survive the 2004 tsunami, and two weeks prior to our visit, a massive fire destroyed its brick and mortar location.
If this place can continue on after that, while packing its rickety folding tables and worn out lawn chairs with patrons every night, we figured it had to be good. After inhaling a meal made particularly sweaty due to sitting outside with no fans, 90 degree heat and hot chili food spice, our suspicions were confirmed, this place does not mess around with its food.
Our lives were changed by the introduction of “Mama Noodles” into our diet. This ramen-style noodle is stir fried with veggies and proteins, then mixed into a garlicy sauce. It was the perfect food redemption after only eating street pizza and beer our first trip to the island.
Koh Pha Ngan: Bamboo House
This was easily our least favorite island for food, but finding a treehouse style yoga studio/lookout point/existential drum circle round table discussion/restaurant was the perfect chill AF lunch spot before the debauchery known as the Full Moon Party. We had shrimp glass noodle salad, Pad Thai, and garlic bread (don’t knock the combo until you try it) while enjoying a picture perfect view of Haad Yuan Beach. Eavesdropping on old British hippies complain about the baby boomber generation’s role in fostering a society of materialism and greed in the United States also made for nice break from reggae covers of Ed Sheeran’s “Shape of You”, which was inescapable pretty much everywhere else on the island.
Koh Samui: Khaw Glong Thai
On an island whose restaurant scene caters to European tourists (think TONS of Italian/German fusion restaurants) we were limited in Thai options during our last few days in the country. After a successful dinner audition our first night, Khaw Glong Thai landed the staring role of our final meal in Thailand. We ordered a laughable amount of red curry, noodles, rice and spring rolls, but it was the perfect finale to our Thailand food journey.
Also, a brief shoutout to best supporting meal at…
Sabienglae
This spot rolled out the dankest seafood lunch before making a much needed return visit to Rock Bar near Lamai Beach. We carefully deboned a whole white snapper, bathing in chili and lemon broth, a process made especially urgent after it took over 30 minutes to arrive. Why so long? Because until we ordered, the fish was still swimming in a pool, only to be butchered, prepped, seasoned, steamed and served straight to our seaside seats. Talk about a great tank to table experience.
The struggle is real
Not all Pad Thai is created equal.
After 10 hours of travel from Koh Phi Phi to Koh Pha Ngan, with the contents of our stomachs consisting of Tong Garden Party Time Mix washed down with Coke Light, we were thirsty starved to the point that we started DMing restaurants desperately asking to send noods. Due to a late arrival on the island, we received no responses to our “U up?” texts. In fear of not eating again until breakfast, we left our inconveniently located hotel and resorted to the first and only restaurant we could find. The result, glue-like Pad Thai that came to our table suspiciously fast because it was most likely microwaved and then covered in a pool of sweet chili sauce that may have given us cavities. Oh also, did we mention witnessing our server doing shots of of nitrous balloons? And he didn’t even share??
Overall
The delicious meals outweighed the inauthentic or downright disgusting, allowing us to leave the islands and Thailand as a whole with a good taste in our mouths and gram worthy pictures on our phones.
