Tamarind Cuisine — Restaurant in Ko Lanta Yai

No impressed at all, taste is bland, cost is high.

By the looks of the restaurant, it suggests that it's a simple hole in the wall place, with ramshackle jet charming décor. However, the prices were surprisingly steep for portions that were hardly more than appetizers. This might have been acceptable if the food had been exceptional, but unfortunately, it fell short in flavor as well. The Massaman curry lacked depth and was disappointingly watery. Even the novelty of serving it in a coconut shell couldn't distract from its small size and lack of taste. Similarly, the fried squid with baby corn was overwhelmingly seasoned with Maggi seasoning, leaving no room for any other flavor to shine through. The best part of the meal was the Som Tam (Pappaya Salad) which at least had some Thai flavours and also a bit of spice. Regrettably, this dining experience stands out as the worst we've had in our eight weeks of travel through southern Thailand. And it was at least 50% more expensive than what we normally would pay for these kind of dishes (not even factoring in that the portions were small).

1* rating for the food, but overall 2* given the...

Didn't actually eat here, we walked out for to the weird customer service. I needed to wash my hands because they were dirty, and their bathroom, despite it looking cool has no sink or soap. When I asked to wash my hands, they initially said no but then found a small hose that was trickling water. My hands were filthy due to some roadside repairs I had done.

After this whole hand washing weirdness, the service just got weird. Servers kept looking at us and talking to each other, though we don't know what they were saying. Server kept coming up to us to take our order when it was clear we were still looking at the one menu we were sharing amongst us (didn't give two).

The whole thing felt weird. Their restaurant is definitely faranged up to appeal to tourist tastes. Do yourself a favour and go next door to a more local restaurant that locals actually eat at. Their bbq is delicious and their service...

We were very happy with our surprise find of the Tamarind restaurant. We were driving past, and the place looked busy, so we stopped, and decided to eat. Our son can be a little fussy so we had to ensure his palette was catered for, they told us they had everything, and I think they did! The menu was extensive. Son had chips and egg fried rice, whilst wife had a papaya salad and fish cakes (tod mun pla). The papaya salad was on sale of something - 30 baht! Wife was offered spice levels, we were told Thais eat with 4 chili's and wife opted for 2. It was delicious. I had a massaman with prawns. Prawns were exquisite and the peanuts and potatoes perfectly cooked. Everything arrived super quick. We also got some drinks - we all loved my Taro shake. Will return....