Far and away our favourite feet-in-the-sand restaurant on Samui was Takho Bang Por Seafood. Judging by the number of locals who frequented the restaurant during our numerous visits, Takho know their seafood. Catering to Thai tastes you’ll find intriguing dishes like fried sea anemone curry, wasp larvae with coconut milk and horse crab egg salad. But never fear if you’re after a more sedate crab curry, grilled fish or prawn stir-fry, Takho offers these too.
We ate at Takho a number of times mainly because the food was excellent, the service friendly and it was located 5 minutes by scooter from our hotel, Code. Below are some of the mind-blowing dishes we tried and are still dreaming about:
Part of the charm of Takho were the young waiters (about 13 years old) who would race to the kitchen when the bell sounded, race to bring you a menu, race to bring you your complimentary starter of shrimp paste and greens and stand at vigilant attention to meet the diners needs. They were brilliant. Most nights we started with a couple of Changs or Leos and a plate of crispy fish. These were the ultimate beer snack- crunchy, delicious and designed to be devoured whole after dunking them in garlic and chilli sauce.
The fresh shrimp with hot sauce was another favourite. Raw butterflied prawns topped with chilli and then dipped into a fiery sauce before being wolfed down. The prawns were creamy and incredibly fresh.
We would often order two plates of the stir-fried baby clams with roasted chilli and basil as they were SO AMAZING. The sauce was rich with a sweet spice- the tamarind and palm sugar playing a large part, the basil’s fragrance enveloped the whole dish and the little morsels of clams were tender. Add to the works the striking textural patterns of the clam shells and you had a cracker of a dish. A ‘must have’.
The simple grilled or steamed fish was popular amongst punters with red snapper, pomfret, sea bass, mullet, mackerel and grouper to choose from. We sampled the grilled red snapper which was moist and smoky and accompanied by a refreshing green mango salad and the steamed sea bass that was superbly cooked with limes, lemon and chilli. It’s hard to beat fresh fish eaten on the beach.
Everything we ordered at Takho was memorable and tasty- in addition to the above we sampled stir-fried crab with curry, stir-fried prawn curry, morning glory, sea urchin egg salad- it was all damn good.
If I could have only eaten at one restaurant during our entire stay on Samui, it would have been here. It’s authentic, mouth-wateringly good and so affordable given the quality of the food. Don’t miss out.
Good to know:
We would spend between 700 and 1500 THB per meal, including drinks.
Takho Bang Por Seafood
56/4 moo 6 Mae Nam (right on Bang Por beach)
Koh Samui
Telephone 077 420 010
Open 7 days for lunch and dinner.
Images: Thomas Southam
