Best Restaurants in Klong Nin, Koh Lanta: Where to Eat

Cook Kai: a family kitchen on the road

Cook Kai is a small family-run restaurant on the Klong Nin road. It cooks Thai food at honest prices and is best known for its breakfasts, which makes it a useful address if your accommodation does not serve one. Guides and regulars also mention how accommodating the staff are, for instance adjusting spice levels.

It is the kind of place you come back to rather than a destination dinner: simple tables, a menu of Thai standards, and a family atmosphere. On the road side of the beach, it is also easy to reach on foot or by scooter from the bungalows set back from the sand.

Baan Peek Mai: the evening fish barbecue

Baan Peek Mai is another family restaurant and one of the names most often cited for Klong Nin. It is known above all for its fish barbecue in the evening: you choose your fish, it goes on the grill, and you eat it with rice, dipping sauces and a few Thai side dishes.

Because the barbecue depends on what came in that day, the choice changes from one evening to the next. Ask what is fresh, how it is priced (often by weight for grilled fish in Thailand) and how long the wait is before you order, especially on busy high-season evenings when tables fill up early.

Klong Nuiy Seafood Restaurant & Bar: by the sea

Klong Nuiy Seafood Restaurant & Bar is a family restaurant right on the seafront, serving Thai seafood. It suits a long dinner with the sound of the waves, and its setting makes it a natural choice for the sunset hour, since Klong Nin faces west across the Andaman Sea.

The menu is built around the classics of Thai coastal cooking: grilled and fried fish, prawns, squid, curries and stir-fries. If you have a shellfish allergy or do not eat spicy food, say so clearly when ordering; seafood restaurants in Thailand cook many dishes with shrimp paste and fish sauce.

South and Sea Beach Bar & Restaurant: on the sand

South and Sea Beach Bar & Restaurant sits directly on the beach and has more of a beach bar feel than the other three. In the evening it grills fresh fish, so it overlaps with Baan Peek Mai, but here you eat with your feet almost in the sand and can stay on for a drink afterwards.

It is the obvious choice if you want dinner and an evening out in the same place without leaving the beach. Klong Nin is not a party beach, so expect music and conversation rather than a club, and a crowd that thins out earlier than on Long Beach.

Beach side or road side

The basic choice on Klong Nin is between the sand and the road. Beach restaurants sell the setting: tables facing the sunset, a breeze, a longer evening. Road-side kitchens sell the food and the price: the menus are often similar, the cooking is often just as good, and the bill is usually lower.

A good pattern for a stay of a few days is breakfast or lunch at a road-side family place like Cook Kai, and dinner on the beach for the sunset. Walking between the two takes a few minutes, since the road runs close to the beach along most of its length.

Practical tips for eating in Klong Nin

Carry cash. Small family restaurants on Lanta often prefer or only take Thai baht, and a quiet beach is not the place to go hunting for a cash machine at nine in the evening. For grilled fish sold by weight, ask the price before the fish goes on the fire rather than when the bill arrives.

The season matters more here than on busier beaches. Between November and April most places are open every day. In the rainy months some beach restaurants close or cut their hours, and road-side kitchens are more likely to stay open. If you arrive in May or October, ask your accommodation which places are open that week.

Vegetarians can eat well even in seafood restaurants, but should say so clearly: the word "jay" means strictly plant-based food in Thailand, and many curries, soups and dips otherwise contain fish sauce or shrimp paste. A family kitchen such as Cook Kai can usually adapt a dish more easily than a busy barbecue night on the beach.

When you want more choice

Klong Nin is deliberately small. If you want a wider choice of cuisines, international restaurants or a busier evening, Long Beach is the place to go, a short ride north. Our guide to Long Beach restaurants covers that strip in more detail.

If you would rather cook Thai food than order it, a cooking class is a good way to spend a rainy afternoon, and at least one of the island's schools lists pickups as far south as Kantiang Bay. Our cooking class guide explains where each school is and what its transfer covers.

For a change of scene, the Old Town on the east coast is worth a lunch: stilt houses over the water, seafood and a very different atmosphere from the west coast beaches. Plan it for the day rather than the evening, since it is quieter after dark.