Introduction

Hat Yai doesn't have a fraction of the dining choices Bangkok has to offer but it's not bad. What always happens is that supply matches demand when it comes to food (and everything else). Hat Yai doesn't see many farang tourists, which is one aspect I like about the town, but the result is that good, authentic farang food is limited.

It's not like being in Bangkok, Phuket or Pattaya where, for instance, large numbers of German expats means that great bread is available.

Hat Yai itself has a large Chinese-Thai population and the majority of visitors from Malaysia and Singapore are also of Chinese descent. Consequently, there are many Chinese restaurants.

For farang visitors used to the Westernised Chinese food they eat at home, the Chinese food in Asia is quite different. Songkhla, being one of the Southern provinces, also has a large Muslim population so there are many Muslim restaurants. These are poles apart from the Chinese restaurants so all tastes are catered for.

The Muslim restaurants sell Halal food and offer a variety of cuisines - Thai, Malaysian and Indian. They are found everywhere around Hat Yai but certain areas seem to have higher concentrations. There is a cluster of Muslim restaurants around the junction of Thanon Niyomrat and Niphat Uthit 1 Road (Map 3).

Dim Sum is another Chinese favourite and restaurants selling it can be found everywhere around Hat Yai. Most restaurants charge 10 Baht for each dish except the larger places in central Hat Yai which cater to tourists and charge 12 Baht. It's commonly eaten for breakfast and some places are only open from 6am to 11am but others stay open all day.

The Dim Sum dishes are pre-prepared and kept refrigerated. Once a customer has selected some dishes they are put in a small cane basket (pictured) and heated up on a special steamer device. The baskets are piled up and a metal lid is put on the top to prevent the steam from escaping.

American junk food has become popular in Asia so there are the usual chain restaurants in town to satisfy these tastes. MacDonalds, KFC and Pizza Hut are all prominently located at Lee Gardens Plaza right in the centre of town. These places are also very popular with the Thais who have probably become fed up being slim and healthy as a result of eating Thai food.

I used to be very critical of American fast food restaurants in Thailand but I have to admit that after spending quite a long time here they can be welcome relief on occasions. For farang stomachs, eating rice day-after-day can get a tad boring and sometimes a pizza or burger just hits the spot. On the subject of burgers I would strongly suggest against eating locally produced ones and stick to MacDonalds.

At the local fresh market it never ceases to amaze me what is actually sold to be eaten. Even the most disgusting offal and innards are bought to be cooked and consumed. The stuff left over that even the locals won't eat gets mixed with sawdust and put into the mincing machine to be turned into burgers.

Of course this is Thailand so Thai food is available but really good Thai food can sometimes be elusive as most of the Hat Yai restaurants have a Chinese bias. It's there though if you look in the right places. Street food is everywhere and represents a fantastic bargain. I prefer the places that cook everything fresh rather than the ones that have several pots of pre-prepared food. Fried rice or fried dishes on steamed rice cost between Bt20 and Bt40. Gwa-tiew (noodles) are also very popular.

Farang Breakfast Food

For farangs passing through Hat Yai, one of the problems can be what to eat for breakfast. I have met quite a few foreign people looking around for something to eat early in the day. Most Westerners prefer bread, eggs and coffee in the morning rather than rice and a fish curry.

The big hotels offer 'Western breakfasts' as do some smaller restaurants along Thamnoon Vithee Road who have tried to cash in on the farang market. I have tried quite a few of these and been most disappointed. The eggs are fine (difficult to go wrong with) but that's about it. Thai versions of ham and bacon are, well, not what I am used to, and the bread tastes sweet. Even the bread from some places that call themselves bakeries isn't that good.

TOPS supermarket in the basement of the Central Department store sell good bread and cakes but it doesn't open until 9am. Worse still is that even after opening some of the best stuff doesn't start to appear on the shelves until around 10am or 11am. TOPS also has a deli counter which serves proper German ham and they sell good butter and cheese from New Zealand.

Other alternative are one of the many 7-Eleven stores which sell pizza slices and boxes of doughnuts or the local market where you can get freshly cooked banana pancakes. The pancakes make a nice breakfast snack for only Bt15.

For the closest thing to a real English breakfast, your best option is one of the expat bars around the junction of Thamnoonvithee and Saengchan roads. The Bamboo (run by a Welshman) prides itself on its breakfast menu and opens at 6am. This is the probably the closest thing to a real greasy-spoon fry up you will get in Hat Yai.

Local Breakfast Food

To really get your day kick-started a glass of the local coffee should do the trick. They call it 'Kopi', which I think is a Malaysian term, or 'gaa fair dum' (black coffee). It is thick and black, almost having the consistency of mud. The locals drink it with lots of sugar but I don't like it sickly sweet so request - 'mai sai naam dtaan' (without sugar). I like it with some milk but even the condensed milk they use is sweetened so there is no getting away from a sweet taste.

There are various places around town but the photo was taken at a small place on Duangchan Road, opposite the Inter Hotel (Map 3). They also sell Dim Sum between 6am and 11am at just 10 Baht per portion.

Vegetarian Food

I was introduced to vegetarian food in Hat Yai by a good friend who is vegetarian. She's a local Hat Yai girl so knows the area very well. I was quite surprised at how many places there were catering to vegetarians, and also surprised that I hadn't noticed them before.

I've heard and read comments that vegetarian restaurants are difficult to find in Hat Yai. They can indeed be difficult to find but they are there. Having said that, I haven't covered vegetarians places very well below so that is something I will try to put right.

As in Phuket and other places, Hat Yai holds a big Chinese vegetarian festival every year during the ninth lunar month of the Chinese calendar (late September/early October, but Western calendar dates change from year to year). This is when religious devotees perform strange rituals which involve damaging their own bodies.

The vegetarian festival activities in Hat Yai are centred along Supasarnrungsarn Road and during this time many carnivorous restaurants will close for a week. Eating vegetarian food is considered by many Thais (especially Chinese Thais) to be an act of merit-making (tum-boon) so even non-vegetarians will observe a vegetarian diet during the festival.

Supasarnrungsarn Road is a good place to begin if you are looking to avoid meat. There is a good place next to BKK Grill and a few other places if you walk towards Gim Yong market.

The Thai word for vegetarian is pronounced แจ but written เจ.

I don't know why this is. The English pronunciation is 'jair' but with a breathy 'h' sound at the end and not a rolled 'r' sound. Most vegetarian places also use the English word so just keep your eyes open.

Halal Food

Muslims, of course, must eat Halal food for religious reasons but finding Halal food can be a problem in some parts of the world.

There are a lot of Thai Muslims in the southern Thai provinces and many visitors to Hat Yai from Malaysia and Indonesia are also Muslim. Because of this, Halal food is easy to find in Hat Yai. Muslim restaurants are easily identifiable from the signs outside and/or the veiled female staff.

If you eat at a restaurant that is obviously run by Muslims then you don't need to worry about the food being Halal.

Some restaurants that serve various different types of cuisine (such as Saneha restaurant at the Novotel hotel) display a certificate awarded by the Central Islamic Committee of Thailand indicating that the restaurant is certified to serve Halal food.

If you are in any doubt, ask.

The Hat Yai Coffee Shop Bubble

Most Thais are followers, not leaders; imitators, not innovators. If they see something that looks like a good idea, they all follow suit.

When the Jatukham Ramathep craze swept the country, every new shop that opened in Hat Yai was opened specifically to sell Jatukham Ramathep amulets, and almost all existing businesses - from restaurants to pharmacies - started selling Jatukham Ramathep amulets alongside their regular goods. It was a joke, and absolutely nothing to do with Buddhism even though some shops advertised themselves as selling 'Buddhist amulets'. This must have made Buddhadassa Bikkhu turn in his grave.

The Jatukham Ramathep craze fizzled out, naturally, and the Thais started looking to see what the next craze would be. They seem to have decided on coffee shops. A few years ago there were just a few coffee shops in Hat Yai - places like Ome Bake House, Ep's and the Bakery Box. Now, there are hundreds of them.

It's no fun being an employee in Thailand so all Thais want to have their own business. At the moment, the business of choice seems to be a coffee shop. What they don't seem to think about though is that the market has been completely saturated.

I hardly ever see customers in the shop in the photo. If you're in Hat Yai, therefore, spare a thought for the many coffee shop owners trying to make a living and order lots of cakes and cups of coffee before the bubble bursts completely.

The Japanese Food Craze

Thais love crazes, and once a craze begins everyone follows. A few years ago there wasn't much Japanese food available in Hat Yai. There were a couple of branches of Fuji (excellent but a little expensive), and a couple of cheaper options - Kiriko and Mariko.

The craze for Japanese food seemed to start some time in 2008 and accelerated in 2009. Every small new restaurant that opens seems to sell Japanese food. There is even a conveyor Sushi restaurant in Hat Yai nowadays.

This is good news. Japanese food is good but it used to be quite an expensive meal. With all these new restaurants opening it means being able to get Japanese food for not much more than you would pay for Thai food.

Restaurant Summary

There are hundreds of individual eating establishments in Hat Yai ranging from large, fancy restaurants to mobile one-woman food stalls on the street. I have my favourite 'hole-in-the-wall' eateries but frankly they are not worth listing here because they are not worth making a special journey for.

Put it this way; if I moved I wouldn't go back to these places, I'd just find new places that were closer and more convenient which I'm sure would be just as good. On this page I will include only those restaurants that I think are worth making a journey for.

Hat Yai is very much a Chinese town. There are a lot of Thai-Chinese residents and the vast majority of visitors (who come from Malaysia and Singapore) are Chinese. Good burgers, steaks, sandwiches, and other Western food can therefore be a little difficult to get. Really good Indian food is impossible to find.

I also need to add a caveat to the effect that the restaurant scene in Hat Yai changes incredibly often and frequently. A number of restaurants I have been to and enjoyed have closed while new ones have opened. I will attempt to keep this page up to date but I make no guarantees that anywhere listed below hasn't closed or moved.

Transliteration of Thai names

I started writing this page before I could read Thai and because some places only have their name written in Thai I had to rely on Thais to help me.

Unfortunately, when I look back now, I can see that my early attempts were quite wrong. This is something that I am in the process of correcting.

Where restaurants have made an attempt at transliterating their own name into English I have kept their version (even if it is bad). With road names I have either used the version on the restaurant business card or the version used on the map.

In cases where there was no English transliteration I have transliterated myself using a phonetic system. This method gives native speakers the greatest chance of being understood by a Thai, unlike the 'official' system of transliteration which is about as useful as a chocolate teapot.

Comments: This restaurant specialises in cuisine from the Isaan region of Thailand in the north-east of the country. Isaan food is very popular throughout Thailand and although individual dishes are commonly sold by street vendors this is the only restaurant I am aware of in Hat Yai that bases its entire menu on food from that region.

Regular Thai food can make Western food seem a bit bland but Isaan style dishes almost make Thai food seem bland. It's spicy and excites the taste buds like almost nothing else. The woman who appears to be in charge speaks some English and there are English descriptions of the food in the menu. It is therefore quite easy for foreigners to order food while speaking no Thai.

Typical dishes are 'Gai Yaang' (barbecued chicken with a spicy sauce), 'Laap' (a kind of spicy salad with chopped chicken 'Laap Gai' or pork 'Laap Mu'), 'Yum Wuun Sen' (almost transparent glass noodles) and of course, the most famous dish of all, 'Som Tum' (spicy shredded papaya salad with a pulverised crab in it).

Sticky rice (kaaw niaow) is normally eaten with Isaan food (it is rolled into small balls and eaten with the fingers) but I am not a big fan and prefer steamed rice (kaaw sawai).

As is usually the case with these simple Thai restaurants the prices are so low as to be almost insignificant. Last time I ate there we stuffed ourselves with delicious food and the bill came to Bt62 each.

Comments: A Hat Yai restaurant with a bit of a difference. The owner is an artist and art lecturer who used to teach at Chula University in Bangkok. I believe her daughter also inherited the same artistic skills.

At the front of the restaurant is a small, air-conditioned eating area with Karaoke equipment if you feel the sudden urge to break into song. The large dining area at the back is not air-conditioned but this is the gallery area where the owner's work is on display and can be bought. Paintings in oil or water colour can also be commissioned.

There is a boutique on the premises which specialises in Thai silk and offers a design service. In addition, the owners offer an interior design services for the home, office or garden.

The food is good and reasonably priced. Finally, and not to be missed, are the various pet animals that run around. These include a handsome Persian cat, a dog and a pet chicken called Boulong who is very friendly and clucks when you feed him. Fortunately, he managed to survive the bird flu panic. They recently set up a salt-water aquarium which is another nice addition.

The latest restaurant addition is a projector with which they show movies, using a large, white wall as a screen. I think that the owner's original plan was to show Thai dancing and other elements of high Thai culture but the staff prefer HBO movies and football games.

Update July 2008: As fast as I can write about restaurants in Hat Yai, they close down, and Baan Khun Luwang appears to be the latest casualty of the ongoing economic recession. I hasten to add, though, it is only a partial casualty. The air-conditioned front part of the restaurant is now a clothes shop. The back of the restaurant, however, is still open.

On first appearances, the restaurant may look closed but it isn't. So, why are so many Hat Yai restaurants struggling at the moment?

Malaysian tourists visiting the town don't tend to travel very far from Lee Gardens Plaza. Restaurants further out depend more on local customers than tourists, but with a worsening economy, more Thais are tightening their belts.

For a very long time now, whenever I have walked past Baan Khun Luwang there have been no customers. On the last few occasions I ate there (the last time being just before the front section of the restaurant closed), the service wasn't great. Many menu items weren't available but you can't blame the owners for not keeping the kitchen stocked when they have no customers.

This restaurant has been around a long time. The owners are really nice people as well so I find this quite sad. The other sad piece of news was that their handsome Persian cat was killed by a car some time ago. I have started to lose count of the number of cats I have met in Thailand who were subsequently killed by vehicles.

Comments: This restaurant serves the best dtom kaa gai (chicken soup with coconut milk and galangal) in Thailand! It's a dish I like but at some places it can taste a bit medicinal. Not so at Baan Lalit.

Whatever the secret ingredient is they use, it tastes delicious and I always lap up every last drop of soup after eating the meat and other ingredients. Their fried chicken with cashew nuts is also probably the best I have ever tasted.

They have a good selection of Thai food on the menu including fresh fish and even ostrich. The menu has descriptions in English for those who can't read Thai.

The building in the photo is new as of November 2008. Prior to this they had an indoor eating area without A/C and a garden. This got a little hot during the hot season so the new building with A/C is a welcome addition. There is also a coffee shop right next door that sells good cakes.

It's run entirely by females - and the owners like animals. Check out the fat cats and various mutts you see around the place.

Prices are a little high for local rates but the food is very good. There are plenty of other places where you can find cheaper food but it isn't as tasty. Take your choice. The restaurant is located behind the Shell petrol station on Karnchanawanich Road, opposite the rubber research centre.

Comments: This coffee and cake shop is next door to - and run by the same people - as Baan Lalit (see above).

In recent years there has been an explosion of coffee shops in Hat Yai but a few years ago there weren't that many. Bakery Box is one of the originals, along with Ome Bake House and Ep's.

The girls who run it are friendly, they like cats, and the cakes are good. What more could you ask for?

Comments: This place started off quite big anyway but doubled in size when it took over the computer shop next door.

It is right at the end of Thamanoonvithee Road and quite near to the university. It is thus popular with the Mor Or crowd. As well as coffee and cakes, they do Thai food and a few steak dishes.

The food is quite good and there are lots of cute, young waitresses if you like that sort of thing. I do!

Comments: The Basil is one of those rare beasts in Hat Yai: a Thai-run restaurant that serves good farang food. The owner, Khun Anusorn, is a man of vision who would like to see Hat Yai and the surrounding area promoted more as a tourist destination.

I'm not sure if anything will ever change though. The Malaysians will continue to come to Hat Yai for cheap clothes, food and 'booking-girls'; and farangs will continue to pass through as quickly as possible on their way to beaches and islands.

A friend of my brother's who visited a few years ago now describes Hat Yai as the Harlow of Thailand and if you know Harlow in Essex you will understand that his comment isn't very complimentary. I admire Khun Anusorn, nevertheless, for being adventurous with opening a restaurant that is a little different to everything else in town.

The menu is described as 'Mediterranean Cuisine' and it certainly has an Italian flavour. The bruschetta and the salads are good, as are the pasta dishes where you can choose your own combination of sauce and pasta type.

I was very surprised in a restaurant like this not to find pizzas on the menu. I then found out that pizzas (three types) are available even though they don't figure on the menu. They are not the largest or the best I have ever had but I find them preferable to 'Pizza Hut' type pizzas.

The desserts are excellent and I can thoroughly recommend the freshly-made tiramisu.

There is even a wine selection with wines available by the glass. Depending on how you look at it, prices are either cheap or expensive. I have paid just under Bt300 for a three course meal and around Bt350 for four courses (without any alcohol).

In this area - which is predominately a student area - you can eat local food (and eat well) for Bt30. This might make The Basil seem expensive. However, a very tasty four course Italian meal for the equivalent of a British fiver would be considered cheap in many other places so it's all relative.

The restaurant is located in Soi 2 of the road that runs alongside the Prince of Songkhla university. In the address above I have used the transliteration used on The Basil's business cards. If I was doing the transliteration myself I would probably opt for ta-non bpuh-na-gun.

The opening hours are from 11:30-14:30 and 18:00-22:30. It is closed all day on Mondays.

Comments: The Thais love their own food but enjoy variety and are partial to certain types of ahaan farang. These local-style steak houses are quite common across the country and stick to a fairly set formula.

the steaks are local pork, chicken or beef. There may also be some fish and sausages, etc., on the menu. The beef is normally sourced locally but some places offer imported steaks for about four times the price. The local beef is variable - it can be OK or it can be a bit chewy.

The steaks are served with some kind of a sauce, for example, pepper or barbecue. In addition to your steak you get a few chips (french fries), some shredded lettuce with a sweet sauce and a piece of toast. The Thais seem to have this notion that farangs must eat bread at all times and a Western style meal isn't complete with some bread so they give you half a slice of toast.

The final part of the Thai steak house formula is that prices end in a '9' so dishes typically cost Bt39, Bt59, Bt79, Bt99, etc.

What is the BKK Grill now used to be the Bt39 Steak House which was OK but pretty average. The BKK Grill is a definite improvement and they have got the well-proven formula absolutely right.

The main dishes (served on large plates) are good and they do a great apple salad. When Thais prepare Western-style food and there are sauces involved they normally make them far too sweet but the sauce with the apple salad was just right.

It's a great place, good food, not expensive and - consequently - always busy.

Comments: This is a typical larger-style Thai restaurant where Thais go for a night out, rather than purely to eat. There's live music and a lot of serving staff.

The charge for the entertainment and ambience is included in the food prices so eating at somewhere like this is more expensive than your average Bt30 rice shop.

Bor Bai Mai is located near the Acoustic pub, Pink Resort, and Sittara Spa.

Comments: The restaurant sits next to a large rectangular body of water reminiscent of a shrimp farm. People come here to fish but I'm not sure if fish are bred here to be consumed in the restaurant.

I've only been once and it wasn't a very memorable occasion. I was greeted by those strange looks from the Thai staff they give when they don't expect to see a farang. They then proceeded to ignore me until I asked to see a menu.

After serving me with a plate of chicken and cashew nuts it took them five minutes to get me a plate of rice. Every restaurant in Thailand, including this one, has rice cookers full of already cooked rice so there is never any reason to wait but I had to here.

The food was OK but I've had better elsewhere for cheaper. I won't be rushing back.

Comments: The quality of the food is excellent at Bon Khao but I have included it here more for its location and the great view. It is located on the road that runs from Hat Yai Municipal Park up to Bodhisattva Kuan Im. The setting is very tranquil as the restaurant is completely on its own surrounded by trees. Perched up on the hill it offers an excellent view over Hat Yai. I have visited in the day time but am told that the view at night is very nice with Hat Yai lit up.

For directions and comments about getting there see 'Bodhisattva Kuan Im' on the Things To Do page.

Comments: Hat Yai has a number of very pleasant small cafés that serve coffee and cakes and this one is probably the most pleasant of all. In fact, it is quite gorgeous. People who go on about how ugly Hat Yai is just don't know Hat Yai. Overall, it's not the most attractive of Thai cities but there are a few hidden gems; some of which I have included in this web site. You will find tips here that you will not find in any other web site or guide book (that is, until they start plagiarising what is here).

Chill Chill's pièce de résistance is its exquisitely created garden. Sitting there feels like being a world away from the noise and traffic of downtown Hat Yai. There are two levels but the tables on the upper deck are very popular and seldom vacant.

A natural curtain of plant roots hang in the air from plants suspended on a trellis above and the garden is full of carefully manicured Bonsai trees. There are also other plants and water features.

The coffee and cakes are delicious, matching the surroundings. The bad news (or possibly good news) is that Chill Chill is not easy to find and casual visitors to Hat Yai are very unlikely to stumble across it.

It's in the vicinity behind JB Hotel. On Map 2 it is fairly close to where Samchai and Jiranakorn roads intersect. Tuk-tuk drivers should know Soi Tongdee 1 if you want to make a visit. Chill Chill is open from 14:30 to 22:00.