Asia
Best Restaurants in Koh Tao
Koh Tao’s kitchens range from focused roast-duck bowls to a ten-course Thai dinner in a family home. Beach cafés and long-running Mae Haad restaurants add daytime meals without pretending every dinner needs a sea view.
Barracuda Rooftop Restaurant & Bar
Barracuda serves seafood sharing platters, barracuda ceviche and fish tacos above Sairee, with a wine list and cocktails that justify lingering over dinner. Guitar and vocal sets run from 19:00 to 21:00; reserve a sunset table during busy periods.
The Gallery Restaurant
Chef Pbu cooks a ten-course journey through traditional Thai food in her family home, with only seven tables and one sitting. The menu changes with produce from the farm and garden. Reserve at least a day ahead; there is no à la carte option, and the four-hour format requires an appetite for the whole experience.
995 Roasted Duck
995 Roasted Duck concentrates on duck over rice or egg noodles, with roast pork and broth-based bowls alongside. The dry duck noodles with spicy sauce explain the steady demand better than an oversized menu could. Lunch and dinner are separate services with an afternoon break.
Chuchu Thai Food & Pizza
Chuchu cooks massaman and panang curries, pad krapow and cashew chicken on a Sairee side street. Curry-topped pizzas are the less traditional attraction, with thin bases carrying familiar Thai flavours. The small dining room keeps the meal casual and the prices modest.
Coconut Monkey
Coconut Monkey makes falafel wraps, vegetable bowls, espresso and homemade cakes on Mae Haad beach. Vegetarian and vegan dishes occupy a substantial part of the menu without excluding meat eaters. The kitchen closes at 17:00, so treat it as a breakfast or lunch address.
Pranee’s Kitchen
Pranee’s Kitchen serves Thai cooking in one of Mae Haad’s remaining old wooden restaurant houses. The same family has run the kitchen for more than thirty years, and the timber floors, low cushions and tables retain a modest scale beside the ferry town’s busier streets.
Cafe del Sol
Cafe del Sol has served French and Italian food near Mae Haad since 1999, with its own bakery supplying bread and pastries. Pizza, pasta, steaks and grilled fish make the menu broader than the name suggests. A separate children’s menu helps when a group wants different things.
Blue Water Café & Restaurant
Blue Water serves breakfasts, khao soi and seafood beside the sand at Sairee. A mezzanine dining area and beach seating offer different views of the same bay, while live music changes the atmosphere around sunset. The northern Thai curry noodles give the broad international menu a useful point of focus.