Where to Eat Near Sairee Beach
Sairee is Koh Tao's busiest kilometre — dive schools, beach bars and more restaurants per metre than anywhere else on the island. Here's how to eat well there, meal by meal. Written by locals. (Yes, we make pizza. We'll be upfront about that part.)
Breakfast: café culture runs deep
Koh Tao's dive-crowd mornings created a serious café scene. Around Sairee village you'll find smoothie bowls, proper flat whites, and banana pancakes on every corner — look for the cafés packed with instructors between boat trips; they know where the good coffee is. Most kitchens open early, around 7–8am, because the first dive boats leave at dawn.
Lunch: eat Thai, pay local
The best-value food on the island is still a plate of pad krapow or a bowl of noodle soup from a family-run Thai kitchen — usually 60–100 baht. Walk one street back from the beach and prices drop while the food gets better. If a place is full of Thai staff from the dive schools on their lunch break, sit down. That's the sign.
Don't leave the island without trying fresh seafood at least once — the fish comes off the boats at Mae Haad in the morning and onto grills all over Sairee by evening.
Sunset: dinner on the sand
From about 5.30pm the entire west coast turns gold, and the beachfront restaurants along Sairee fill up fast. The move: reserve or arrive by 5pm, order slowly, and let the fire dancers do their thing. Expect beach-bar prices for the front-row seats — you're paying for the postcard.
Late night: wood-fired pizza (this is us 🍕)
Full transparency — this section is about our own restaurant, so take it with a slice of bias. Picatso Pizza sits in the Sairee area and serves wood-fired pizza until 11pm daily: slow-cooked tomato sauce, farm-fresh burrata, homemade Luganica sausage, and a menu that runs from ฿280 Margherita to ฿650 Parma Ham & Burrata. There's wine, island cocktails, and a mustachioed cat on the logo who takes quality control seriously.
Too comfortable at your bungalow? Delivery is free on Koh Tao — order via WhatsApp (092 996 6548).
Quick answers
How much does eating on Koh Tao cost?
Thai street plates: 60–120฿ · café brunch: 150–250฿ · beachfront dinner: 250–600฿ · wood-fired pizza: 280–690฿. Cheaper than Samui, pricier than the mainland.
Do restaurants deliver on Koh Tao?
There's no Grab or Foodpanda on the island — restaurants handle their own delivery. Ours is free; just message us on WhatsApp.
When do kitchens close?
Earlier than you'd think — many kitchens wind down by 9.30–10pm. We cook until 11pm, which is one reason divers love us.