Places to eat in Kanchanaburi

Kanchanaburi is a great place to taste excellent Thai food and despite the number of tourists that come here all year round it’s still reasonably cheap when compared to other popular destinations in Thailand. Don’t expect anything particularly fancy and innovative though; many of the best restaurants in town will not indulge in any decoration of your plate and most of the time you will be sitting on plastic chairs or wooden stools.

Markets

The first place to start is the night market close to the train station. Every night starting from around 5.30pm a mix of Thai and Westerners head to JJ market (this is how it is known to everybody) for a quick snack or a full meal while drinking a beer or shopping at the clothes section.

Different stalls will offer you pork or chicken skews which seem to be the favourite snack for Thais when walking around. There are also stalls offering any sort of just cooked Thai dishes ready to eat on the spot or to take home. Only few of them have tables and chairs but a couple of shops will let you eat at their tables if you buy a drink from them.

Try mu grop if you fancy some crunchy pork (be aware that it’s almost only skin) with sticky rice to soften the flavour. Papaya salad (som tam) is a good choice for vegetarians but remember to tell the seller how hot you want it: Thais like it burning hot, but for newbies one chilli is normally more than enough. The majority of the dishes will come for THB30/40 while snacks are no more than THB10 a piece.

There’s another night market at the bus station. It’s still worth a visit if you have one more night but the food will be more or less the same, both in diversity and quality.

Thai food

On Mae Nam Khwae Road there’s the biggest concentration of Thai and Western food venues. A lot of street food options are available with vendors selling simple dishes like noodle soups, papaya salad, fried chicken, fried rice or pad thai for less than THB50.

At the southern end of the road, close to JJ market, you will find Zeb Zeb (16/27 Donruk Road), one of the favourite restaurant for locals. It’s always busy and you might need to wait for a few minutes to have a table but the food is delicious and it comes at Thai prices. The restaurant has been recently renovated and has lost a good deal of its original charm but the quality of food is still there. Everything on the menu is good but our special mention goes to the minced pork salad (lab moo) or frilled fish (pla pao) that comes fresh from the river Khwae. Most of the dishes will come for THB70/80 while the fish will be around THB150.

Slightly out of the tourist area, on the other side of the river, you will find Mangosteen Garden Restaurant (74/12 Moo 4). Enjoying a wonderful location in a beautiful garden, the restaurant has very large menu with tasty Thai food and international faves with dishes from all South East Asia. It is slightly overpriced by local standards with main courses coming for THB120/150.

Vegetarian

For vegetarians and vegans there are quite a few options in every Thai restaurant but the place to go is On’s Thai Isaan (268/1 Mae Nam Khwae Road). Specialized in vegetarian food from the Eastern provinces of Thailand, they are the best with their masaman curry and vegetable tempura for a special occasion. All the dishes are around THB60.

Western food

There are some good options for those missing Western food. Go to Bell’s pizza and restaurant (opposite of On’s) for the best pizza in town (from THB160), Schluck (20/1 Mae Nam Kwai Road) for delicious steaks (from THB180) and BBB bar (33/1 Mae Nam Kwai Road) for a proper burger (THB140)