Baan Ya Jai — Restaurant in Ko Samui

Came for dinner tonight - no reservations accepted and cash only. Very inconvenient for tourists. Waited about 30 mins for a table, which was not too bad. Just walked around the outlet down the street.

Overall, the food was average to decent, ruined by the poor service. Starting with the food, the cashew chicken that was recommended to us was dry and flavorless. It was a big disappointment. Would not order again. For our clam dish, at least 25% of the clams were closed, which means the clams were dead. This is highly concerning as the restaurant prides itself with using fresh ingredients. The sauce was pretty good though. The tamarind shrimp was my favorite.

As for the service, one of our dish, laab, was completely forgotten by the kitchen until we reminded them, which was too late as we were already finished with our dinner. It was so hard to flag down the waitstaff to ask about the dish. Also, our rice didn’t come until we were 75% of the way done with our meal, and we had to ask twice for the staff to bring over the rice, then they brought over the incorrect quantity of rice. Maybe some language barrier, but not an excuse for poor service.

I feel like it’s hard to be a successful business without nailing down the service, or making sure the kitchen delivers in all fronts. The chef came from another restaurant in Chaweng (Khaw Glong Thai), which I thought was much better in terms of flavors and service. It was the little things that mattered, such as the owner coming by the check in on our meal, repeating the order to us, accepting credit cards, more indoor seating, etc. the menus are pretty much identical, which is odd....

To sum it up, I wouldn’t recommend going out of your way to come here, but rather Khaw Glong. There are many other restaurants in Chaweng, so not sure how this is the #3 Thai restaurant in Koh Samui. I had such high expectations only to...

I recently dined at this authentic Thai restaurant in Koh Samui, it wasn’t the most memorable experience.

Having taken a Thai cooking course in Bangkok, I can confidently say that the flavors here were authentic when it came to the The Tom Yum Gai soup it was absolutely on point, with a good balance of spicy, sour, and fragrant herbs—exactly like we learned to make it!

The Pad Thai was not as good and was a very different dish to what we cooked in our cooking class it seemed coated in sauce.

After reading some recent negative reviews, I was curious and considered swerving this restaurant but decided to give it the benefit of the doubt.

After leaving both me and my partner also experiences a few painful stomach pains and didn’t feel great. We were not sick but it just left us feeling very uncomfortable and in a bit of pain. We are generally clean eaters and avoid processed foods so as the previous review suggests there maybe some processed ingredients being used that really upset your body if you’re not used to them.

The service was okay but wasn’t over friendly. Some staff seemed less than pleased to be working.

If you want cheap food dive in, but I wouldn’t go back or recommend it. It’s also very casual so doesn’t feel like a quality dining experience just cheap...

Eaten here 2 days in a row, that speaks a lot for the place as we never do this, try to explore and find different restaurants but after so much mediocrity we found this and didn't want to risk trying somewhere else. The food is really good and made in the proper Thai ways with proper Thai flavours. Others have already said that you can choose spice level. I will add that the level 3 "Thai" level is not as spicy as Thai food, but I know it is a tourist area so I understand. The staff did prepare a level higher on our second visit and even that was not as spicy as I usually encounter in Bangkok. Otherwise the staff are great and the food is fresh and super tasty. Prices are well worth it for the quality you get. It is small (10 tables) so book ahead or be happy to wait a little bit. Food we ate (in order of yum) Chu chi goong (red curry chu chi style with prawn), Hor Mok talay (steamed red curry seafood), steamed fish with lime and chilli, spring rolls, pad pak and Tom yam goong. The Tom yam prawn was not the style I like but it is the more recognised style, with coconut rather that the clear soup, but that is just personal preference. Overall well worth it! Will not find better in Chaweng...