Hua Hin • Prachuap Khiri Khan • Where to Eat
Hua Hin Restaurants: Where to Eat (4 I Keep Going Back To)
The 4 Hua Hin restaurants I keep going back to: a design-led seafood splurge, an old beachfront institution, a cheap fisherman-village oyster joint, and an open-air cafe to slow down at.
I have eaten a lot of forgettable seafood at Hua Hin restaurants. These 4 places are the ones that earned a second visit, and then a third.
If you only have a few meals here, these are the Hua Hin restaurants I send people to, and together they cover the full spread. There is premium design-led seafood at one end, a cheap fisherman-village joint at the other, an old beachfront institution in between, and a coffee break to cut through all the chili and crab. Every one of these is a place I have been back to more than once, and the photos are mine. This guide skips the night market in favor of sit-down spots I can actually vouch for.
Baan Ko: The Premium Seafood Splurge
Baan Ko is the most polished of the Hua Hin restaurants in this guide. Modern, design-led Thai seafood on Naebkehardt Road, on the town side near the north end of the canal. Forget the rustic seafood shack picture. The room is bright and polished, with blue birdcage pendant lights, a terrazzo floor, navy and rust chairs, and an open courtyard built around a tree. It looks like a cafe and cooks like a serious seafood kitchen.
The stir-fried clams (hoi lai) with chili, garlic and Thai basil are the standout. Fresh, well balanced, and the chili is judged right, hot enough to matter without burning the dish out. My personal favorite is the stir-fried prawns with stink beans (sator). The bitter melon with egg and glass noodles is a mild, earthy counterweight that gives your palate a rest between the spicier plates.
Basically everything I ordered was good, and it held up across the menu rather than leaning on one hero dish. Expect just over 1,000 baht for a spread, which is a splurge by Hua Hin standards and worth it. Go here if you want the best seafood meal of the trip and do not mind paying for it.
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Baan Itsara: The Old-School Beachfront Institution
A beachfront seafood institution that has been running 25-plus years, set in a 1920s 2-storey seaside house at the Nong Kae end of Naebkehardt Road. You eat on the terrace with sea views, and the feel is casual: green tablecloths, group tables, families. It is the clear opposite of Baan Ko’s polished modern room, and that contrast is half the reason both of these Hua Hin restaurants make my list.
The sizzling green-herb shrimp on a cast-iron hot plate is my must-order. Back it up with the steamed blue swimmer crab and its 2 classic Thai dips, a green chili-lime nam jim seafood and a red sweet chili. The crab fried rice (khao pad poo) and a side of greens round it out.
Plenty of old beachfront places coast on the view. The food is what brings me back here, not just the sea breeze. Pricing is very similar to Baan Ko, so another premium meal. Go here if you want fresh seafood with a proper old-Hua-Hin setting, and come early because it gets busy at dinner and on long weekends.
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Chao Ruea Seafood: Fresh off the Boats, Half the Price
Down at the Khao Takiab and Nong Kae end, Chao Ruea (ร้านชาวเรือ ซีฟู๊ด) sits right by the fishing port and village. That matters, because the ingredients come straight off the boats and you can taste it. Everything here is genuinely fresh, and it costs a fraction of what you pay at the 2 premium spots. For sheer value, it is one of my favourite Hua Hin restaurants in town.
The sizzling oysters with egg, served over cabbage with spring onion and white pepper and a sweet chili dip, is the dish to get. It is the one plate on this whole guide that none of the others do.
2 honest warnings. Parking around the restaurant is bad, and the place itself is small and cramped. Neither is a reason to skip it. Go here if you want the best value seafood of the trip and do not care about polish.
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Kraft Cafe: An Open-Air Antidote to the Instagram Cafes
After all that chili and crab, you will want somewhere to sit with a drink. Kraft Cafe on Soi Hua Hin 19 is a local, open-air, slightly hipster coffee spot, all gravel floor and rustic timber rather than the polished, identical cafes that fill this part of town. A wall of single-origin bean bags from Thai highland roasters like Doi Chang and Pangkhon, plus the usual Colombia and Brazil, tells you the coffee is the point here.
I should be straight with you: I am not a coffee drinker, so I had tea and a matcha latte rather than anything off that bean wall. I cannot personally vouch for the cup quality. What I can vouch for is the feel of the place, and the resident beagle, who belongs to the owner and is a cute reason to linger.
Prices are normal for Hua Hin. It is the odd one out on a list of Hua Hin restaurants, but a welcome one after all that seafood. Go here if you want an alternative to the cookie-cutter Instagram cafes, you appreciate a proper range of coffee, or you just want an easy open-air sit with a dog at your feet.
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Practical Notes for These Hua Hin Restaurants
Image Credits
- Baan Ko dining room, Hua Hin / Wandering Asia
- Stir-fried clams (hoi lai) at Baan Ko / Wandering Asia
- Stir-fried prawns with sator at Baan Ko / Wandering Asia
- Beachfront at Baan Itsara, Nong Kae / Wandering Asia
- Sizzling oysters with egg at Chao Ruea Seafood / Wandering Asia
- Coffee bean wall at Kraft Cafe / Wandering Asia
- Resident beagle at Kraft Cafe / Wandering Asia