Best Restaurants in Fisherman's Village
Your complete guide to exceptional dining experiences in Koh Samui's historic village
Eating Your Way Along One Short Street
Fisherman's Village is a few hundred metres of Sino-Portuguese shophouses at the eastern end of Bophut Beach, and it holds more independent kitchens per metre than anywhere else on Koh Samui. Thai, Indian, Mediterranean, steak, seafood, plant-based, plus a row of beach bars on the sand behind them. Almost none of it is hotel-run, which is why the standard holds up.
We run one of those kitchens, so read this for what it is: a guide written by a neighbour, not a neutral review site. We have put our own café first and said exactly what is on its menu and what it costs, then listed the places up the street that we actually send guests to. Nothing here is paid for, and nothing is invented.
If you want the wider picture — the Friday Walking Street, the beach, how to get here — start with our guide to Fisherman's Village.
GREENLIGHT Café
Organic-leaning, plant-forward cooking with a full Thai section, at 3/28 Moo 1, Bo Put — inside the village block, about 20 metres back from Bophut Beach. The kitchen runs 7:00 AM to 10:00 PM every day, so it covers breakfast, lunch, sunset and dinner without a gap in the middle of the afternoon.
Cuisine: Thai, Asian, international, vegetarian and vegan
Hours: 7:00 AM – 10:00 PM daily; bar 11:00 AM – 11:00 PM
Reservations: +66 87 389 5673
Location: 3/28 Moo 1, Bo Put, Fisherman's Village
What to Order at GREENLIGHT
Real dishes and real prices in Thai baht, taken straight from the menu rather than written to sound good. The complete list is on the restaurant page.
Thai curries
Choose tofu, chicken, prawns or fish. Served with rice.
- Jungle Curry — 360. Yellow curry, chickpeas, vegetables, sweet chilli and herbs.
- Green Curry — 320. Eggplant, snow-pea melon, red chilli.
- Red Pumpkin Curry — 320. Red curry with pumpkin and sweet basil.
- Massaman — 320. Potato, white onion, peanuts.
- Paneng Chicken — 300. Kaffir lime leaves, red chilli.
Signature plates
- Miang Kham Seabass — 420. Seabass in banana leaf, miang kham salad, cashews, rice.
- Teriyaki Salmon — 420. Sweet-potato glass noodles, vegetables and herbs.
- Salmon Steak & Veggies — 430. Pesto-grilled vegetables and rice.
- Mushroom Scallops — 320. Grilled mushroom "scallops", zucchini-spaghetti stir-fry, pesto.
- Pat's Super Sandwich — 420. Grilled salmon on sourdough, fried egg, feta, miso-tahini.
Soups and salads
- Tom Yum Gung — 300. Spicy prawn soup, lemongrass, kaffir lime, coriander, red chilli.
- Miso Salmon Soup — 290. Poached salmon in miso-lemongrass broth, enoki and shimeji.
- Creamy Pumpkin Soup — 280. Baked pumpkin, roasted vegetables, coconut milk.
- Thai Fusion Salad — 280. Green papaya, green mango, lotus chips, toasted cashews.
- Grilled Salmon Salad — 390. Ginger and sweet-chilli glaze, sesame-soy dressing.
Gluten-free wraps
The whole section is built on gluten-free wraps, not adapted on request.
- Greenlight Wrap — 310. Baked falafel, grilled vegetables, chickpeas, hummus, miso-tahini.
- Mexican Wrap — 320. Avocado, coriander, red-bean chilli, celery, sweet chilli.
- Chicken Salsa Wrap — 310. Grilled chicken, mango-salsa dressing, grilled vegetables.
- Chicken Burrito Wrap — 310. Grilled chicken, rice, grilled peppers and carrots.
Plant-based bowls
- Zucchini Pad Thai Bowl — 320. Zucchini noodles, avocado, bell pepper, carrot, tamarind-peanut sauce.
- Quinoa & Veggies Bowl — 380. Baked pumpkin, zucchini, shiitake, basil pesto.
- Tropical Rolls — 200. Brown-rice rolls, seasonal vegetables, sprouts, tamarind-peanut sauce.
- Falafel Platter — 290. Baked falafel, hummus, miso-tahini, olives, vegetable sticks, pita.
Drinks and desserts
- Cocktails — 240. Sixteen on the list, from a passionfruit mojito to a Coffee Star with espresso, rum, cinnamon and star anise. The Sangsom Sour is 180.
- Fresh juices — 160. Eleven cold blends including Love the Beet and Balanced Green.
- Kombucha — 100. Six house infusions.
- Chocolate Lava Cake — 240 and Fruity Chia Pudding — 240.
Where Else We Send Guests
Four places on or beside the same street, all within a walk of our door. Details here are the ones we can stand behind; menus and hours change, so call ahead if it matters.
Coco Tam's
Beach bar, snacks and cocktails · Daily 11:00 AM – 1:00 AM
Bamboo-shack beach bar on the sand between the village and Hansar, built around bean bags, swing seats and hanging chairs. Long cocktail list, nightly fire shows and live music. The default sunset stop on this beach.
On the sand, western end of the village
The Shack Bar & Grill
Steak and grill · Dinner only
Twenty-plus years on the same grill in the middle of the village, built around Australian Black Angus. Dinner only, and it fills up — book ahead in high season.
Centre of Fisherman's Village
Karma Sutra
Indian · Live music through the week
Indian cooking with tandoori dishes and house-made naan, sea views from the terrace, and a live music programme that has kept the bar running for two decades.
Main street, seafront side
Zazen Restaurant
Thai and Mediterranean · Dinner, beachfront
At Zazen Boutique Resort along Bophut bay. Tables on the sand, candlelight and live acoustic music — the closest thing on this beach to a formal dinner.
Bophut bay, west of the village
Eating at the Friday Walking Street
Every Friday the main street closes to traffic from roughly 5:00 PM to 10:00 PM and about 500 metres of it fills with stalls. This is the cheapest and best street food in the village: grilled prawns, pad thai cooked to order, papaya salad, roti, mango sticky rice, coconut ice cream. It is the only weekly market night in Fisherman's Village.
Two practical notes. It gets genuinely busy — the Tourism Authority of Thailand puts peak high-season attendance above 15,000 people on a Friday evening — so come between 5:00 and 6:30 PM if you want room to look at the stalls. And do not drive in: approach roads and village parking fill from around 4:30 PM.
If you would rather sit down on a Friday, book your table earlier than usual. The restaurants on the street fill up alongside the market.
Practical Notes on Eating Here
How the day runs
- 7:00 – 10:30 AM. Breakfast service. Quietest before 8:30.
- 12:00 – 3:00 PM. Lunch. Wraps, salads and bowls travel well to the beach.
- 5:00 – 7:00 PM. Sunset. Bophut faces northwest, so the sun goes down over the water behind Koh Phangan.
- 6:00 – 10:00 PM. Dinner, full menu. Our bar runs to 11:00 PM.
Worth knowing
- Several of the best-known places are dinner-only. Check before walking up at noon.
- High-season dinner tables go early. Book, especially on a Friday.
- Dietary requirements are normal here, not a favour — say what you need when you order.
- The village is walkable end to end. You do not need a scooter to eat well for a week.
- Parking at GREENLIGHT is THB 40 per hour; tell us in advance.
Fisherman's Village Dining: Common Questions
What is the best restaurant in Fisherman's Village?
There is no single answer, because the street is short enough that you can eat somewhere different every night for a week. For grilled steak it is The Shack; for Indian it is Karma Sutra; for a drink on the sand at sunset it is Coco Tam's; for a beachfront dinner it is Zazen. For organic, gluten-free and plant-based cooking with a full Thai section, it is our own kitchen at GREENLIGHT.
Where can I eat gluten-free in Fisherman's Village?
At GREENLIGHT the entire wrap section is built on gluten-free wraps — the chicken salsa, chicken burrito, Mexican and Greenlight wraps, all THB 310 to 320. The banana pancakes, the shakshukas, the salads, the nourish bowls and the curries with rice are gluten-free as they come. Say so when you order; the kitchen adjusts.
Is there good vegan food in Fisherman's Village?
Yes. Our menu carries plant-based cooking as a main line rather than a footnote: the zucchini pad thai bowl (THB 320), quinoa and veggies bowl with basil pesto (THB 380), mushroom scallops with zucchini spaghetti (THB 320), tofu scramble on toast (THB 260), the five superfood smoothie bowls (THB 280) and the tropical brown-rice rolls with tamarind-peanut sauce (THB 200). Curries can be ordered with tofu.
Do you need to book restaurants in Fisherman's Village?
For dinner in high season, yes — particularly at the smaller dinner-only places. Breakfast and lunch are walk-in everywhere. Friday is the exception in both directions: the Walking Street brings crowds from about 5:00 PM, so either book early or plan to eat from the market stalls.
What time do restaurants in Fisherman's Village open?
Cafés open from around 7:00 AM — GREENLIGHT's kitchen runs 7:00 AM to 10:00 PM daily. Several of the grill and dinner restaurants open only in the evening. The beach bars run latest: Coco Tam's is open until 1:00 AM.
Read Next
Stay Where the Restaurants Are
Every place on this page is a walk from our front door — which on a Friday night, when the village parking has gone, is worth more than it sounds.