Koh Tao is known for diving, sunsets and that classic backpacker vibe. What people forget to tell you: for such a small island, the food here is surprisingly good. Fish that was still swimming that morning, stalls with steaming noodle soup, and in between, places where you could swear you had just landed in Italy or France.
There is one thing to know before you start looking, and it saves you half your food budget: the best and cheapest food is not on the beach. On Sairee you pay for the view, not the plate. Walk a few streets inland or over to Mae Haad and you eat better for less than half.
Below are our favourites, sorted by what you are after that night: local and cheap, something international, or an evening where it can cost a bit more. Want to know how to spend the rest of your days on the island? That is in our things to do on Koh Tao.
Start at the night market in Mae Haad
Before you pick a restaurant, go to the night market in Mae Haad at least once. This is where the dive instructors get their own dinner, and that is usually the best sign there is.
A plate here costs around €1.50, roughly a fifth of what the same dish costs by the water. You walk past stalls with pad thai, fish off the charcoal grill, curries from big pots and sticky rice with mango for dessert. You eat standing up or on a plastic stool, and you are done within twenty minutes.
Do this on your first night, and you know straight away what food on this island should actually cost. Everything after that, you judge more fairly without even trying.
Our verdict: the cheapest and tastiest meal on the island, which makes it the place to start
For the authentic, local experience
These are the places you keep coming back to. Small family businesses, short menus, and prices that make you happy after a day of diving.
Mama Tam
It does not look like much from the outside, but do not let that fool you. Plenty of people say this little family restaurant does the best pad thai and morning glory on the whole island. They only open at eleven, so this is one for a late lunch or dinner, not breakfast. Expect a small queue, because the secret has long been out.
995 Duck
One of the best-known spots on Koh Tao, and for good reason. The menu is compact, but what they do, they do perfectly: crispy roast duck, Chinese noodles and good soups. Get there on time, because from about six in the evening a queue forms fast.
Tree House Cafe in Chalok
A homely little place that is often described as the best properly Thai restaurant on the island. Freshly made dishes, fair prices and owners who know your name after a few days. Also one of the few places here with a decent vegetarian and vegan menu.
Timber
A local favourite with a relaxed, homely feel. Open in the evenings only. No fuss, just good, honest food at a price you are glad to see after a day on the dive boat. Exactly the kind of place you walk into once and are still going back to a week later.
Our verdict: Mama Tam for your pad thai, 995 Duck when you want to treat yourself without it getting expensive
When you fancy something international
Somewhere around day four of your dive course you will want a break from rice. Completely normal, and Koh Tao is well set up for it.
ChuChu
Curry on your pizza. Sounds odd, tastes amazing. You choose between Penang, green curry, massaman or pad thai as the topping, with chicken or veggie. Friendly service, and reportedly the cheapest gin and tonics on the island too.
La Pizzeria da Claudio in Sairee
Often named as the best pizza on the island. Prices are a little above average, but if you want proper Italian food on a Thai island for a night, this is the place.
French Market and Croissant & Ko
Two places from the same owner that make you forget for a moment that you are on a tropical island. Freshly baked bread, croissants and a pizza section of its own with a chef who knows what he is doing. Croissant & Ko is our favourite spot for breakfast and lunch on Koh Tao. It is a bit further inland, so a scooter or a taxi comes in handy here.
Beeritos in Mae Haad
Craving tacos and a cold beer? Beeritos hits that Mexican craving just right, with a nice selection of beers on tap to go with it.
Coconut Monkey
The place practically every backpacker you meet will send you to, and not without reason. Casual, vegan-friendly and properly social: exactly what you want on a night when you do not know anyone yet.
Our verdict: Croissant & Ko for breakfast, ChuChu for the night you want to try something a bit mad
When it can cost a bit more
For your last night, or the day you get your certificate. Expect to pay many times the €1.50 at the market here, and sometimes that is worth it.
Meatlab
The island’s only premium butcher with a steak restaurant, set up by a Dutch master butcher. No additives, no nonsense, just good meat. The steaks here are known as the best you can get on Koh Tao, and you taste it from the first bite.
Baracuda Rooftop
A Koh Tao institution since 2010. From the roof above Sairee Beach you eat fresh seafood and Thai fusion, with a view at sunset that is frankly unfair. The place for dinner for two or a last night with the group.
Charcoal
Beachfront dining on Sairee Beach. Everything goes on the grill over charcoal, which gives every dish that smoky depth. Come here for sunset with a glass of wine: this is one of the best spots on the island to watch the sun go down.
IBIZA Beach Club
For the night you stop looking at the bill for a while. The garlic prawns are the dish people mention most, with your feet in the sand and a view out to sea.
Our verdict: Meatlab when it is about the food, Charcoal when it is about the evening
Got time to spare?
Looking for a table with a sea view? Go for Charcoal or Baracuda: you get the same view as along the rest of the Sairee Beach strip, and the food is a good deal better.
Got a bakery around the corner? Start your day at Croissant & Ko instead of with your hostel breakfast. Koh Tao lives off tourism, so you will find as many English breakfasts here as Thai curries, and the tastiest ones are out on the street.
And a practical one: keep dinner light the night before your first dive day. Diving on a full stomach is a lot less pleasant.
The rest of the island, from the hostels to the diving, is on our Koh Tao page.
So where is the best food on Koh Tao?
If we have to choose: the night market in Mae Haad. Not because it is the most unusual food on the island, but because it is the most honest meal you will get here. €1.50, fresh off the grill, and you are sitting among people who live here instead of people who are here for three days.
After that, we would spread it out. Start your day at Croissant & Ko, have lunch locally at Mama Tam or Tree House, and treat yourself on your last night to something with a view at Charcoal or Baracuda. That way you taste the island every way there is, from plastic stool to tablecloth, and all together it still costs you less than three dinners out back home.
And end a day like that on the beach with a cold Chang for about €1.80. That is Koh Tao in a nutshell.
