Jungle Kitchen — Restaurant in Krabi Province

If you’re reading this then I’m guessing you’re overwhelmed by the rather large number of restaurants in the area and don’t know where to eat, or you walked up off the main area and saw Jungle Kitchen and thought, ‘hey this looks nice, I wonder if it’s good?’. I’ll give you the short answer. The very high number of reviews and overall high rating is accurate. It’s good. You should go eat here.

So why am I writing a review? Because of something else. Thailand is known as the land of smiles. We found it here and I want to tell you about her. The paradox of travel is that we arrive in a foreign land, hoping for a ‘local authentic experience’, but if you’ve heard of the place as an outsider, so has everyone else. I shouldn’t have been surprised when walking down to the water that it started to look a little too ‘vegas’ for my liking. What I wanted was a nice Thai family to eat dinner with and that’s what I found at Jungle Kitchen. I urge you to walk further up the road, away from the thumping dance music, the spinning shiny lights, the tuk-tuk drivers, the stores selling tourist junk, and the massage places. Don’t get me wrong, all of that is fine and a part of the ‘experience’, so I understand, and many people want that, but I prefer to try to get a sense of the country underneath all the decorations. That’s why you’ll go to Jungle Kitchen.

We were greeted by a family. They live and work here. There’s a small bed off to the side to snooze during the heat. We saw a little play house tucked away in the corner for the kids. The point of my review is actually about the person who helped us that night - their daughter, Biw (pronounced Byew). A kind, gentle, sweet young girl about 10 years old at the time of my writing this. She’s the smile we now think of when we think about Thailand.

We speculated that her mom wasn’t just asking her to speak with us to take food orders to be trained to work in the restaurant, but rather to meet people from around the world and to practice her English. She was shy and sweet and she lingered a little as if she wanted to ask us something. We gave her some quiet space for her to open up into. It started with ‘where are you from?’ That led into a conversation about her hopes for the future. Tearing a sheet off of our travel plan notepad, we gave our names and our country (Canada) and drew a picture of our flag. I did my best to write a few words in Thai. We wrote a message to tell her that we were happy to have made a new friend. We wished her the best and she smiled and asked us to come back. So we did.

The next evening we walked by the restaurant again because we thought the offer was genuine, and it was. Biw’s mom saw us through the window and within a minute our young friend excitedly skipped out of the restaurant to meet us, letter in hand. She had written out our names and drawn fantastic pictures of stars and flowers and the Thai flag. It was as bright and colourful as she is. She drew an amazing picture of herself and us. Biw remembered, and cared. She took the time to write to us in our own language and drew us pictures, not knowing if we would ever come back. We were just tourists who ate at the restaurant, after all. But that’s the generous spirit this young lady and her family have. We sensed it was worth coming back for.

So if you’re still reading this, don’t worry about the food and the ambience and all that stuff. It’s good! Go eat at the restaurant. But take from this… Go to this restaurant because it’s real people and real life, and keep an eye out for our young friend Biw and introduce yourself and give her a smile. Tell her about the world you’re from. Ask her about her hopes and dreams for the future. Enjoy basking in the excited optimistic warmth of youth she radiates. I don’t know when or how, but hopefully one day we’ll return. In the meantime, when you go, please say hello for us until we can go...

This was the best restaurant for us in Ao Nang, away from touristy area. This restaurant is run by family and they are really friendly and take care of each customer. Most likely you will have to wait a while to get seated, as they are very busy and popular. Best time to go between 5-7pm or after 9pm. But it’s absolutely worth a wait. The food they prepare is super simple but very very delicious. Our favourites were pork neck, crab curry (you will need to get dirty to get all the meat out), papaya salad very fresh and flavourful. Of course Pad Thai and fried rice pineapple with mixed seafood out of this world! Watermelon smoothies top! At the end of our meal they serve platter with watermelon which is a nice touch. Prices are great for the quality you get, as Ao Nang restaurants in the centre area are more pricey. We went there many times while we stayed in the area, and every time it was amazing experience to try different authentic Thai...

What a wonderful experience and a wonderful meal we ate there. The food is literally the best thai food i have ever eat in my life. The staff there are very welcoming and helpful. The service is very rapid. We came for dinner and we were 5 persons, we haven t done a reservation and the restaurant full. It was our last night in Krabi. The waiter was very kind and asked us to come back after 45 minutes. We came back and he offered us a very nice table. I really recommend this one of a kind restaurant which have it all( the food, the service and a very good price) you feel very relaxed there and a very important thing is the good and very good prices. A really very cood deal. Not to missed if you are around Krabi and dont forget to book...