Prachuap Khiri Khan

Prachuap Khiri Khan

What Prachuap Kiri Khan lacks in restaurants specifically geared towards tourists, it more than makes up for with a wide choice of spots to tuck into well-cooked local staples. A number of markets provide bustling spots to enjoy a roving meal, and the excellent seafood both lives up to the coastal location and is keenly priced.

The smaller, food-only night market that takes place nightly diagonally opposite the Yuttichai Hotel on Kong Kiat Road serves up a range of staple dishes that keep the locals fuelled. Among the standout options are a particularly good pad thai stall, an enormous cart of Thai-style desserts including kluay cheuam, stewed bananas in coconut milk. Of the two fruit shake stalls, the smaller is eclipsed by the larger and more impressive one, staffed by a gregarious lady dripping in rather expensive looking gold jewellery. Her stall front is bursting with fresh fruit, even though she takes out the fruit actually used in her shakes from the freezer. Even so, the shakes taste good and at around 20 baht a glass are a bargain.

A larger market runs every Friday and Saturday on the beachfront at Ao Prachuap -- which can be reached by following the same road down further from the Yuttichai Hotel and the train station. Officially it is open from mid-afternoon until around 22:00, but it's worth getting here early as in reality it is all but closed up by 20:30. It offers a wider selection of street food than the smaller night market -- including a seeming abundance of moo ping marinated and grilled pork skewers. It also showcases a wide choice of typical Thai desserts plus a couple of open-air restaurants serving up a range of Thai specialities and fresh local seafood. Food aside, there are also plenty of stalls selling everything from second-hand shoes to T-shirts, watches and postcards. Although it is over quickly each evening, the market has a real buzz to it while it lasts -- teenagers and adults alike congregate on the beach promenade over beer and fruit juices and there's a sense that this is a real focal point of what is still largely a small, traditional community.

A daytime market also takes place along Maitri Ngam Road, with many food carts interspersed among the greengrocers and sundries shops.

In addition to the markets, a number of no-name restaurants -- both along Chaitalay Road opposite Ao Prachuap, and along the road that trails Ao Noi -- offer great quality, locally caught seafood at far less than you will pay elsewhere around the country. Try the place just a few houses down from Chabakeaw Guesthouse in the direction of the town centre, where they serve up an exceptional gaeng som sour fish curry, plus delicious goong che nam pla, raw prawns marinated with lime, chilli and fish sauce and eaten with plenty of garlic and yet more chilli.

At Ao Noi, follow the road all the way as close as you can get to the headland and, just before the road turns into a dirt track and comes to a complete end, you will find an equally nondescript spot with just a few bamboo-thatch covered tables out the front of the kitchen. The focus here is entirely on seafood and they serve up a wide selection, but especially impressive are their enormous goong pao whole grilled prawns and pla meuk yaang grilled squid. Prices are slightly higher than elsewhere but still a great deal. Otherwise, around the city there are plenty of low-key places offering standard Thai staples like noodle soup and crispy pork on rice. Just don't expect Western restaurants -- Prachuap has none.

Visitors to Ao Manao are well catered for by informal restaurants set up on the beach which can keep you fed and watered with excellent papaya salad. The beach here also makes the perfect place to kick back with a cold beer, which these spots are equally happy to provide.

The military base has a food court on the beach road and a couple of new coffee shop and bar setups. Likewise at Ao Noi you are never too far from a simple food shack but, if venturing out to Ao Khan Kadai, the stretch of beach on the other side of the cave temple from Ao Noi, be warned that it is an entirely different story here -- you won't find a thing to eat anywhere around, so come with supplies.