Khao Kwan Restaurant ( ร้านอาหาร ข้าว ขวัญ ) — Restaurant in Trat Province

Strong presentation, weak flavour.

The presentation of the food is among the best we’ve seen in Thailand, certainly in this (moderate) price category. Our expectations were high, as we’ve read the 4.9 star rating on google maps and with many reviews praising the food as the best they’ve had in Thailand. Well! our verdict: perfect for those that prioritize food presentation over flavour. But not the place to experience bust of flavours with every bite… we found the food to bland and borderline boring.

The Miang Kham was served in little ‘Kueh Pie’ cups instead of the traditional betel leaf. Flavour wise the lime was overpowering, while there was almost no tase of roasted coconut, dried shrimp and peanuts, chili, or betel leaf. Instead of honey the sauce tasted like a mix of palm sugar, soy sauce and a bit of ground coconut. Miang Kham should normally ‘explode’ in your mouth with every bite, this one was dull from start to finish. The Ceviche with blue spotted snapper was very mild too and not tangy enough for our tastes, it was served with a peanut sauce, which is great for satay, but a strange combination with ceviche. The Pomelo salad with tiger prawns was the best dish, but it was also served in a large ‘Kueh Pie’ cup, making it very difficult to taste the prawns together with the pomelo in the same bite. A nice touch was that the prawns were wrapped in a layer of thin noodles before frying them, creating a nice crunch, but sadly also for this dish presentation took priority over combining flavours. Our least favourite dish was the mantis shrimp with basil leaves (Pad Kra Pao). Although it had a generous amount of mantis shrimp , they were a bit chewy. But it was the only dish with actual flavour, though dominated by what we though was Maggi seasoning – to be fair, it tasted similar to some of the Pad Kra Pao that we had from simple streetside vendors, who also tend to go a bit heavy handed on the Maggi.

Overall, we think this restaurant caters to European pallets, which are not used to the exquisite, and sometimes intense flavours of authentic Thai cuisine. The prices are fair given the beautiful presentation and quality of ingredients., but for us, none of the 4 dishes tasted good enough to return. 5 stars for presentation 3.5...

Extremely Disappointed by Dishonesty and Poor Service Management

As long-time patrons who have dined at Khao Kwan during our annual visits to Koh Chang, our recent experience (in December 2024) left us deeply disappointed. What troubled us wasn't just the service issues, but the dishonesty in handling them.

We made our reservation in February 2024, ten months in advance, demonstrating our commitment to dining here. Upon arrival, the staff claimed they had no record of our reservation and attempted to seat us on the second floor. As regular customers, we know this area is typically reserved for walk-ins and last-minute bookings – a fact confirmed by our numerous previous visits.

What makes their later claims particularly egregious is that we witnessed a walk-in party of three being offered seating upstairs right after our incident. This clearly demonstrates that the second floor serves as an overflow area, exactly as we've observed over our years of patronage.

After explaining our advance reservation and knowledge of their usual seating arrangements, they reluctantly accommodated us on the first floor. However, what truly disappointed us was their attempt to cover up the mistake during payment. Instead of acknowledging the oversight, the staff claimed the second floor was "for VIPs" – a statement that directly contradicts not only our years of experience dining here but also the walk-in party we had just witnessed being seated upstairs.

This lack of transparency is particularly disappointing. A simple apology for losing our reservation would have been far more professional than fabricating excuses. Good restaurants can make mistakes, but great restaurants own up to them.

The most valuable currency in the restaurant business isn't just the quality of food – it's trust. By choosing to lie rather than acknowledge their error, Khao Kwan has damaged the trust of loyal customers who have supported them for years.

While we have enjoyed many meals here in the past, this experience has made us question whether we'll return. We hope the management takes this feedback as an opportunity to improve their reservation system and, more importantly, to train their staff in handling mistakes with honesty and...

After reading some wonderful reviews and hearing how amazing Khao Kwan restaurant is, my partner and I booked with high hopes. Sadly our experience was not a positive one. We were greeted warmly and asked to take a seat upstairs and were left with a bottle of water and two menus.

The menu's had some differences which created some confusion when trying to decide what we wanted to order. Then we waited. And waited and waited. For about 30 minutes. It was extremely windy on the roof terrace where we were seated (no fault of the restaurant) and the wind blew the glass holding the napkins off the table which smashed. When a member of staff came to clear it, we asked whether it would be possible to order some drinks. Ordering our drinks and food we then settled in and waited with anticipation as we were excited to try what had been suggested as the best elevated Thai cuisine on the island. And we waited and we waited and we waited. In the hour that we had spent at the restaurant we hadn't even received our drinks.

People in the downstairs restaurant who had arrived after us were being served had we been forgotten?

We decided to maybe cancel the order and re-book for another night as it was getting late and we were thirsty and hungry. Unfortunately the reaction from the restaurant was not great and they were somewhat bristly when my partner said that we didn't want to wait any longer as we had bee sitting patiently for an hour without drink. The decision was made that we wouldn't be re-booking and we left dissatisfied frustrated and hungry. Leaving customers for an hour forgotten and without even an apology? Not the restaurant that we...