Whitening Restaurant — Restaurant in Ko Tao

How many ways can a venue be spectacular? Atmosphere? Fitout? Food? Drink? Service? Playlist? Views? Whitening hits it out of the park with all of them.

Atmosphere: From the outside and the inside, this venue would be as welcome on the beaches of Miami, Ibiza, Santorini or Goa. Clean, white lines, breezy flow in floorplan and air, it exudes style and comfort. It was great to be in. Fitout: As soon as we sat down, the first thing my wife said was "These are the most comfortable chairs I've been in in a restaurant. And they stayed that way for the next 2 hours. The tables, lighting, tableware, all of it - massaged the senses. The food: Exceeded our expectations, and we had high expectations. Generous serves of fantastic quality. It is common for places like this to have you leaving hungry because they are more into style than substance. Not here. One suggestion to management - we walked past Whitening a number of times and didn't come in because of the photos of the food on the menu outside the restaurant. The photos look like they're styled for a gourmet magazine - giant plates with tiny portions and dots of flavoured oils - and do not do justice the real experience. PLEASE replace them with photos of the actual food you serve, and no-one will be walking past. As for price, it's not your 100baht cheapy roadside diner. Mains are 300+baht, and still worth every one. Drinks: Creative and don't skimp on the booze like many places on the island. Service: We have been disappointed with the service at every place on Koh Tao that isn't your basic family Thai restaurant, and were hoping there would be good service here. There is. The staff are well trained, attentive (they notice when your drink is empty and pay attention to your plates). Other places on the island trying to serve this level could get some pointers from here. Playlist: The music was so awesome - like Chemical Brothers are the DJ. I asked what the playlist was on Spotify or Apple so I could play it at home. I was told the owner selected the music. It shows the level of detail \that has been put into the concept.

I think you get it. If you want an amazing experience - go. My only regret is we paid attention to the photos on the menu and didn't come here every week for the month we...

Great! We visited Whitening after reading about it in a guidebook and walking past and seeing the beautiful setting. The restaurant is very trendy, mostly white and wooden, with a beautiful view over the sea.

There’s a huge range of spirits and a well stocked bar, we made the most of 160 baht Aperol spritz during happy hour (4-7pm).

It was tricky to decide on food as everything looked very appealing. We started with local oysters, which sadly were a little disappointing, we live by the sea at home and have lots of fresh oysters. I wouldn’t want to say they weren’t fresh, but they were very cold and hard, as if they could have been frozen.

The other food was tasty, we had a salmon crostini to start, and Vongole and king mackerel fillet for mains. The clams were cooked well in the pasta, and it was lovely and garlicky, the sauce maybe could’ve been cooked off for a bit longer as it tasted quite wine-y. The mackerel fillet was delicious, super crispy, we added the wasabi aioli, which I really recommend.

We had a slight issue with our pudding, the banana split was super disappointing. Just a sliced banana, which was cold, 4 dots of chocolate sauce and one scoop of ice cream. I understand it was supposed to be more refined than a regular banana split, but it didn’t really match the description on the menu, or our expectations. Staff were super good as resolving our issues though!

Overall, it was very pleasant, despite the couple of errors. It is one of the more expensive restaurants on the front, so we would’ve hoped for a perfect...

This star would have gotten 5 stars if not for the service. Excellent food, great place to sit and watch the beach/sea. European vibe and chill music. They have excellent seats/beds beach facing and you can actually eat on the beach in the evening. Also: good happy hours , where the mojitos only set you back 120. The service however is something else. This is the first place I encounter where the service surcharge is included in the bill. Now: it is 5%, which is less than I usually tip, but the fact alone that they include it in the bill is one star less. Add to this that service in general was mediocre. Everywhere I went in Thailand I received the service with a smile I quickly got acustomed to. Not here: here I got the 'can you please be away fast so we can have more customers look'. Also add that when presented with the bill they gave me the wrong amount back. It was just 10 baht, but that has never happened to me in Thailand before. So all in all: 3 stars. So if you do not mind the above: go eat the crostinis here and drink a cocktail...