15 BEST Thai Food Gems in Koh Samui (meals under 100 Baht!) ✨FREE GUIDE✨

This is your no frills, straight up delicious local food joint that is open 24 hours in the heart of Chaweng. You'll often see local Thais enjoying their meals here before or after work. Must try dishes include their stewed pork leg on rice, dried rice porridge and roll noodles with soup. After 5pm, they sell patonggo, which are deep fried donuts that you dip in pandan custard or condensed milk!

You'll find us here when we're craving a hot and comforting bowl of beef noodle soup. Make sure to give their grilled meatballs with spicy sauce a try too! For drinks, they make their own roselle juice and chrysanthemum tea.

Best value and taste for chicken rice aficionados! For 70 Baht (~$2 USD) you get a full plate of chicken rice, few slices of cucumbers and hot broth. We love getting the mix plate with half boiled chicken and half fried chicken and douse it with their chili soybean sauce. You'll find us here at least 2-3 times a week!

This is our go-to place for Isan food on the island! Their som tams (papaya salad), laab pla duk (catfish salad), moo dad daew (sun dried pork), tom saap (spicy pork rib soup) are so bold and flavourful! Make sure to order some sticky rice and try eating with your hands.

We've featured this gem in one of our Koh Samui videos before because they make the BEST tom yum noodle soup on the island! It's sweet, sour, spicy and it goes so well with their bouncy fish balls, egg noodles and crispy wontons. They also serve a killer authentic Pad Thai as well!

The ladies running this place cook up a storm! So far we've enjoyed their green curry, garlic chicken with rice, and stir-fried yellow noodles with chicken but 100% we'll be going back to try more dishes. It does get packed because it's in a busy location so sometimes the food may take a bit longer, but it's worth it!

This family-run restaurant in Maenam is famous for their Thai rice noodle curries, our favourite being the crab curry rice noodle! They serve the noodles with a huge selection of local vegetables, herbs and house-made pickles. Make sure to also try their traditional Thai herbal drinks and desserts!

You can find simple rice dishes for under 100 Baht but they also have a huge selection of curries, seafood, and stir-fry dishes that are perfect for family-style sharing. Our favourites here are pad see ew moo (stir fried wide noodles with soy sauce and pork), grilled beef and spicy salad, tom yum goong (Thai spicy soup with prawn) and deep fried chicken with black pepper. Give their fresh coconuts or fresh orange shakes a try too!

This little gem that's run by an older Thai couple is so hidden that we missed it during our first two years living in Koh Samui! It looks very humble from the outside but we were so impressed with the flavours and portion sizes of the food served here! Everything is made-to-order so the food is fresh, hot and delicious. Must try their stir fried hot basil leaves with chicken, pad Thai chicken and panang curry chicken. You can probably tell we love chicken but you can also order these dishes with pork, shrimp, squid or seafood too.

We featured this place in one of our videos because they serve the BEST braised chicken noodle soup in Koh Samui. If you like fall-off-the-bone chicken drumsticks with chewy rice noodles in a slightly sweet and salty broth then you must come here. We can't get enough of their braised chicken feet and usually order a bowl to share, but if that sounds too exotic for you then just tell them you don't want any (yay more for us!). Go early because they tend to sell out by 1:00pm.

We weren't sure if we should include The Fish because most dishes are over 100 Baht but we decided it's too good to not share! Their Massaman Curry and Panang Curry are super delicious. However, the highlight for us here are the fish dishes: steamed whole snapper in ginger soy sauce, BBQ seabass, and grilled barracuda. Don't miss out on their deep-fried coconut ice cream and mango sticky rice too!

There are SO MANY REASONS why you need to make your way to For Rest Bar - laid-back vibes, beautiful sunsets, gorgeous cocktails, one-of-a-kind coffee drinks, and delicious home-style cooking. Note's go-to dish is crab fried rice and Flora's favourite is pad kra pao grilled chicken (stir-fried hot basil with grilled chicken). There's not a lot of seating so make sure to come early, grab a spot and enjoy the sunset!

Whenever we come to Lamai, we make sure to eat here or buy some chicken rice (khao mun gai) to take home. This small shop is run by a young Thai couple and they make the most tender chicken, even the chicken breast is still juicy! The broth and the chili sauce are perfection. The fried chicken is lightly battered and not greasy at all. You must come here, you won't be disappointed!

This unassuming little place caught our attention when we saw the huge portions of food being dished out. This restaurant on the main road is run by a Thai lady who makes healthy made-to-order food. All the dishes are packed with veggies and served with brown rice. Her speciality is chicken cashew nut with rice and red curry with duck!