The Krabi restaurant guide - May 2005

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This month, the good eating guide explains why it’s time to leave the safe confines of your hotel dining room - and go to someone else’s

HOTEL restaurants generally have a bad rep. With overpriced food and lazy service, most play second fiddle to the main task of providing rooms. This doesn’t of course stop their own guests eating in them - simplicity and convenience often outweigh the other option of heading out into the unknown - but it is rare to see outside visitors venturing in.

But there are many reasons why you should consider doing so. Krabi has some excellent hotel restaurants, all of which welcome non-residents.

You’ll find many hotels enjoy a better location and setting than the mainly roadside tourist restaurants. In Railay, the resort dining rooms of Railay Bay, Sand Sea and Railay Village occupy the best spots directly overlooking the Sunset beach. For unparalleled panoramic views, Pavilion Queen’s Bay in Ao Nang (Japanese and Thai) and Crystal Hotel in Krabi Town (excellent Thai) both offer sixth floor rooftop dining experiences - the latter at very reasonable prices.

Other hotel restaurants are worth visiting simply because they have superior food on offer. The recently opened Central Krabi Bay Resort, for example, does the best special occasion dining in the Ao Nang area, with excellent service that will allow you to concentrate on your food and companions.

All five of the resort’s restaurants are located on the beachfront, with a semi-open plan, that allows one to flow into the other. This means for example, that one can choose to sit in the breezy, formal Thai dining room of Rim Saai, or the cool, black marbled teppan-yaki bar of Hagi, the Japanese restaurant, and order food from either place.

And Hagi is simply superb, outclassing any other Japanese restaurant in the region (albeit with a price tag to match). Sushi and sashimi are made with the finest imported and local catches and cut to perfection. Portions are generous and the thick slices really do justice to the texture and flavour of the fish on offer. The teppan-yaki menu promises rare delicacies like Kobe and Wagyu beef, as well as seafood staples, and there is also an excellent noodles and rice menu.

At the opposite end of the spectrum is Da Carla e Poan, the tiny, unpretentious restaurant that belongs to Sabai Resort on Nopparat Thara Beach. Even though Ao Nang is rapidly turning into a Little Italy, you’ll find nowhere else that serves this type of authentic Italian home cooking, or cucina casa linga. No pizza here, just simple, beautifully cooked food, just like (Carla’s) mamma makes it. Try the spaghetti with a proper, slow-simmered ragu, tender smoked ham cooked in milk, or escalope alla milanese. The only downside is that in this resort none of the guests ever go out to eat, so you may have to fight with them for a table.

Several other hotels in Krabi have restaurants that have become known in their own right and are often situated slightly apart from the hotel itself. ‘The Roof’, part of the Krabi Seaview Resort complex in Ao Nang, is one such establishment, whose standards of service and Thai and international menu are highly regarded.

Wanna’s Place, located in front of Andaman Sunset Resort on the main beachfront in Ao Nang, actually pre-dates the hotel, which was added after Wanna’s original som tam shack, established more than 15 years ago, started to get popular. Now the restaurant offers excellent Thai curries - in particular the chicken massaman - as well as some Swiss specialties. The som tam (green papaya salad) is still on the menu.

Finally, The Beach House, part of The Krabi Sands Resort, stands alone on the beachfront in Klong Muang. Open only a couple of years, this restaurant has quickly established a local renown for its Thai cooking and classic European dishes. The full English breakfast is particularly satisfying overlooking the beach and the distant Hong Islands.