Dining on the beach in Hua Hin

At the northern rocky end of Hua Hin beach between the Hilton and the beach access road, there are many ramshackle restaurants with brightly coloured sunshades, tables and deck chairs, serving Thai and fairly unremarkable European food. Most have an impressively large selection of Thai food, but prices can be quite high. These are mostly informal beachside affairs with no toilet facilities, but the views are good and there’s usually a welcome sea breeze. Food quality can vary but it’s possible to find tasty Thai dishes here. By late afternoon, they start to close up. It’s a pleasant way to spend a lazy day and there’s always something interesting to watch.
Each restaurant is handily numbered from 1 to 21 but a few are no longer open. Food wise there’s not really much to distinguish between them; you may as well pick a restaurant at random or just the sunniest or breeziest spot. Wherever you choose to eat however, the food will probably be good.
The current lineup (north to south) is:
No. 21: Aoy’s Beach Restaurant
No. 19: Moonlight
No. 15: Sunny Thai
No. 11: Toy’s Bar
No. 9: Lek-Bee
No. 7: Mr Por
No. 6: Miss Pou
No. 5: Taew
No. 3: Rumyai
No. 2: Gayo
No. 1: Miss Dang
As well as the restaurants listed above, there is another Thai place with sea views next to the Chinese temple, on a curved and sheltered terrace just before the stairs leading down to the beach and next to the Hilton. The owner insists it has no name, but it’s easy enough to find.
Coming to the beach from the Damroen Kasam Road entrance you’ll pass the tourist police and beach stalls on the left, where you can always find cheap and tasty snacks such as grilled squid with sweet chilli sauce. There are also countless hawkers plying their trade up and down the beach selling bananas, mango, watermelons, nuts, papaya salad and much more.



Further down the beach heading towards Khao Takiab, a few hotels and resorts have classy beach-side restaurants such as the Sofitel and Baan Laksasubha. These are good spots for a romantic meal and altogether more upmarket affairs. Next door to Laksasubha is the Paleo Beach Bar (also known locally as the Reggae Bar) which serves food and drinks, and has live music and jam sessions later in the day. It’s truly the embodiment of a beach shack with a leaky roof and tiny plastic chairs but the atmosphere is great. The food on offer is mostly Thai and European such as burgers, sandwiches and breakfast. It’s a cool hangout where you can listen to rock and reggae and watch the kite surfers in action. Prices are inexpensive and cheaper than the restaurants mentioned earlier.
There are also many good quality restaurants (such as Coco 51, which has live jazz nightly) along the beach’s northern side, just a few minutes from town and accessible from Naeb Kehardt Road.