Lamai’s dining scene bolsters the popular status of this charming resort town located on Samui’s east coast. The dining options available are eclectic enough in cuisine, style, and atmosphere to satisfy the choosiest gourmets. Curiously, Samui Island is a magnet for French citizens looking for a second home, and according to this fact, Lamai hosts quite a lot of French-run restaurants.
Our Top 10 Restaurants in Lamai’s list counts two of them; the other most recommended dining venues in Lamai feature Indian, Italian, Swiss, and of course Thai food. Whatever type of cuisine you like, you’re sure to find it in Lamai.
Kob Thai Restaurant is a rather large open-air venue that features a few tables and eight wooden salas set on the side of a children-friendly swimming pool (maximum depth is 1.20m). It is the perfect place to chill-out and enjoy excellent traditional Thai cuisine. Kob Thai Restaurant’s Thai Chef prepares all the classics of Thai cuisine from outstanding seafood (their crab curry is a must-try) to spicy salads, to mouthwatering Thai desserts (mango with sticky rice), all of them at affordable prices. With a relaxing atmosphere, excellent service, and delicious food, Kob Thai is a highly recommended place if you come by Lamai. Read More...
- Opening Hours: 10:00 – 23:00 daily
- Location: Soi Haad Lamai 3
- Tel: 0 82-5349325
- How to get there: Heading north on Samui Ring Road, Soi Haad Lamai 3 is 200m on the right before Lamai Temple. Kob Thai Restaurant is 200m further down on the right hand side of the Soi.
Saffron
Located in the northern area of Lamai, on the grounds of the majestic Banyan Tree Samui, Saffron is really an outstanding restaurant. Set at the top of a hill, overlooking the Andaman Sea and the northeastern coast of Samui Island, Saffron is decidedly a class-act. With a refined atmosphere and décor, impeccable and discreet service and, above all, delicious Thai food, Saffron is the kind of venue perfectly dedicated for a memorable treat of the senses in Koh Samui. The fact that many guests residing in other resorts come – sometimes more than once during their stay – to indulge themselves at Saffron tells a lot about the qualities of this restaurant.
- Opening Hours: 18:00 – 23:00
- Location: at Banyan Tree Samui
- Tel: +66 (0)77 915 333
Baobab Samui is a tropical dream restaurant come true. Set right on the southern part of Lamai Beach, next to Ammatara Pura Pool Villas, Baobab is as much a beach club as a restaurant as a dedicated team is in charge of serving customers lying on the sun loungers installed on the beach. Baobab Samui has an impressive menu apt to satisfy the most demanding customers: Thai, French and western dishes, salads of the day, smoothies and shakes, café latte and espresso, there’s something for everyone here. Read More...
- Opening Hours: 09:00 – 18:00 daily
- Location: on Lamai Beach, just south of Ammatara Pura Pool Villas
- Tel: 084-8383 040
An ambitious beachside location, Beach Republic incorporates lazy, poolside dining, chilled-out music, very modern design and pioneering tapas and mains menus. With a good wine list, impressive 'mocktails' and a chic, urbane feel to the place, beachside dining doesn't come much better than this. Try the Republic masaman lamb shank or the raw diced tuna steak and hang around on the huge outdoors sofas and enjoy one of the best sea views around. Don't miss the famous Sunday Sessions Ultimate Sunday Brunch Club Buffet. Prices are on the steep side. Read More...
- Opening Hours: 08:00 – 23:00
- Location: Beach Republic The Residences - North of Lamai Beach off the Ring Road – look for the signs
- Tel: 077-458100
No Stress Beach Bar & Restaurant is, as the name suggests, a relaxing place to chill out on Lamai Beach. With sun loungers, umbrellas, free Wi-Fi and a great selection of food and beverages, it has all you need for a relaxing day on the beach. Food is best enjoyed in the small beach shack-style restaurant part of No Stress Beach Bar & Restaurant. The choices are pretty much what you would expect of a French-owned eatery in Thailand, with a choice of baguette sandwiches, mussel dishes and well-known Thai favourites like pad Thai, som tam and pineapple fried rice, among others. Snacks, salads, pasta dishes, homemade ice cream and grilled meat and fish are also available, all for impressively low prices. Read More...
- Opening Hours: 08:30 – 18:00
- Location: 127/64 Moo 3, on Lamai Beach
- Tel: +66 (0)85 891 2102
Reputedly the most beautiful restaurant on Samui, Rocky's subtle lighting arrangements are due to silk hanging lanterns that provide a uniform touch throughout the restaurant. Located just south of the Grandmother and Grandfather rocks, this 60-seater restaurant is open sided and flanks a free-form swimming pool overlooking a rocky beach in a stunning setting. Rocky's Thai chef has had extensive international experience and the result is a fine choice of Thai and worldwide cuisine. There's plenty of entertainment in the form of a Filipino singer and Thai traditional dancing. Read More...
- Opening Hours: 19:00 – 24:00 kitchen closes at 22:30
- Location: Just south of Hin Ta Hin Yai Rocks – look for the sign
- Tel: 077 418 367
Open since 1995, Live India is, at first impression, the heights of unpretentious and even humble sub-continental cuisine but open the menu and you’ll get a huge shock and surprise. On it there are no less than 140 dishes to choose from! Live India is sparkling clean with several discreet pictures on the wall and not a lot else except six wall fans and a TV. The devil is in the details at Live India where the food does all the talking and the service is unfailingly polite and brisk. With only eight tables, this medium-sized shop-house restaurant is not exactly the Taj Mahal in size but it has had a huge reputation since its opening as being one of the finest Indian outlets around; the place to get the genuine stuff. Read More...
- Opening Hours: 11:00 – 22:30
- Location: Lamai Main Street
Sala Thai Restaurant is among the top restaurants located by the side of the main road through the middle of Lamai. Serving an impressive selection of good-quality Thai cuisine at affordable prices, it is a big hit with visitors to Koh Samui and is even quite popular with the locals. The restaurant is in a charming, traditionally Thai-style building. Having no walls, diners can enjoy the mild evening air with their dinner. The table settings and surroundings give the impression of quite a high-class establishment while the low prices keep the place busy, creating a friendly atmosphere which the polite and helpful staff further enhance. Read More...
- Opening Hours: 14:00 – 24:00
- Location: Haad Lamai Road, near Lamai Night Plaza, Lamai
- Tel: +66 (0)7 723 3180
Sabienglae Restaurant in Lamai Beach is an outstanding local Thai restaurant. It serves first-class cuisine in an easy-going setting right by the beach, with remarkably low prices given the quality. It is quite a rough-and-ready building, with a palm thatch roof supported by bare concrete pillars and wooden tables and chairs set out on a bare concrete floor. At the far end is a wooden deck with steps leading down to the beach. Despite these simple surroundings and service which can be a little blunt at times, Sabienglae Restaurant is one of the top-rated establishments in Lamai. The food is astonishingly good. Read More...
- Opening Hours: 10:00 – 22:00
- Location: 438/82 Route 4169, Lamai
- Tel: +66 (0)77 233 082
Samui Röstiland
Samui Röstiland is an extremely popular Swiss/Thai restaurant located in the northern area of Lamai, in Soi Flower Paradise that leads to Silavadee Pool Resort. Open since 1993, Röstiland is a neat and clean bamboo & thatch venue that features wooden furnishing and a beautiful sea view. As for food, Röstiland serves Thai and Swiss favourites; all dishes are prepared with quality ingredients and served in generous portions. Green chicken curry in the Thai menu and cordon bleu with rösti (fried potatoes Swiss style) are two must-try dishes. Both food and drinks (they also have an excellent wine list) come at very reasonable prices.
- Opening Hours: 09:00 – 23:00 closed on Sundays
- Location: right north of Lamai off Samui Ring Road in Soi Flower Paradise
