When you go to Hua Hin for vacation, you would want to enjoy seafood and a chill vibe by the beach. There are plenty of options for this and you can enjoy both Thai and non-Thai food in such places. Other than places for food, there are many places in Hua Hin with amazing offerings for beverages as well, especially coffee beverages. In our previous articles, we have talked about general info on Hua Hin as well as Hua Hin hotels. Now we will talk about cafes, restaurants and night markets in Hua Hin.
Table of Contents
Seafood restaurant in Hua Hin
We went to a famous local seafood place called Sungwean Seafood. This restaurant offers a wide array of seafood. The portion is huge so ideally you go with a big group or your whole family. Then you will be able to try many different types of food and not struggle to finish them. The coconuts in this place are amazing! Make sure you try their coconuts.
The venue is semi outdoor, so it’s very open and airy. The distance between tables is quite substantial as well so every group of guests will be spaced out from each other. They have a big parking lot but it can be packed quite fast during peak hours. However, rest assured that you will be able to get your parking space inside the compound or nearby, because they have very good parking attendants.
The food itself was great but the taste was a bit different from what we remembered from 2-3 years ago when we visited. The taste was a bit sweet this time. So you might want to ask for less sweet if you are particular about sweetness.
Restaurant by Hua Hin beach
Next in our list of restaurants in Hua Hin is a Thai seafood restaurant located by the Hua Hin beach. We walked for 30 mins from our hotel at Cape Nidhra to the Sailom hotel restaurant. This restaurant is located pretty close to Intercontinental and it has a very nice sea view. You can walk along the beach from other areas and end up in this restaurant too. The vibe is super chill. We recommend going there around dusk for dinner. You can see the horizon over the sea and the sky changing colour to orange-pinkish hues.
Pick the table nearest to the beach. We recommend putting mosquito repellent as there were quite a bit of mosquitos when we were there. All in all, food was great and the seafood was super fresh.
Hua Hin beach clubs
We visited 2 beach clubs while in Hua Hin. Both were amazing, the atmosphere was on point, not too crowded and the food and drinks were great!
Oceanside Beachclub
One of them is the Oceanside beachclub. It has accommodation inside the area as well. There is a swimming pool located quite close to the beach. Guests who just finished swimming can grab drinks or food at the nearby cafe/restaurant. We had drinks and also our lunch at the restaurant, while looking at the blue sea and enjoying the sea breeze. Highly recommend this place for a chill afternoon by the beach.
Sundance Dayclub
Another one that you can try to visit is Sundance Dayclub. This place feels even more exclusive than Oceanside. You better make a reservation before going to this beach club. There is a minimum of THB 500-1000 per person depending on which area of the club you wish to sit. Even with the THB 500 per person you can sit in a good area with a nice sea view.
The food and drinks were great. For the price, we could not expect less though. Amazing service too.
This place has a basement parking lot, accommodation, a shop for beach-related stuff, and cafe inside the compound. We recommend you go there around dusk, the vibe is very nice once they start turning on the lights of the venue.
Restaurant for non-Thai cuisine
We had some cravings for non-Thai food when we were in Hua Hin and had been stuffing ourselves with local cuisines for days in a row. So we found Carlo Ristorante Hua Hin that serves Italian cuisine. You can simply search on google “carlo restaurant hua hin” and you’ll be able to locate this place.
The ambience that this place offers is wonderful. They put yellow lights for its outdoor seating, giving the place a very warm, inviting glow. They have some fans outdoors as well so it’s not hot when you sit outside.
Food was great, and the house wine was of high quality too. Service was superb. The food came quickly and the owner/manager visited each table to check how everything was going. We will definitely go back to Carlo if we need a fix for Italian craving while in Hua Hin next time.
Hua Hin beach cafes
We visited some cafes with very nice beach view as well. First was Miss T. Miss T is popular for its Instagram-worthy venue and installations within the venue. It can be very hot to go there during the day as a lot of the areas are uncovered. We went there during noon time for lunch (not a very good idea!). It will be much more comfortable to go there around dusk. However, despite the nice venue, the beverages themselves are so-so in our opinion. Therefore, we will not recommend this place if you are looking for superb drinks and food – but if you want to take photos, go for it!
Another one that we love so much is Baan Gliwang. The cafe is located inside a house-like compound, so it looks very homey. We went there 3 years ago when we visited Hua Hin and the quality is very consistent. The coffee was as good as we remember it and a must try is their coconut cake! You can spend the whole afternoon there with your loved ones for lunch and coffee, while watching the sea.
Pro tip: go there during the weekday or non-peak hour of the day. We went there during a weekend before (also pre-covid) and the waiting time in the afternoon around 2-3pm was quite long (almost 1h). This place is popular, y’all.
Other cafes for coffee in Hua Hin
Other than the traditional coffee (cappuccino, americano, etc.), there are coffee beverages that have gotten popular recently using non-conventional ingredients. We tried some of them while in Hua Hin and will show you some places to get these drinks.
The first one was coffee with palm fruit/syrup. There are some palm tree farms around Hua Hin that have their own coffee shop selling this drink. We tried 2 places: Farmily and บ้านไร่ภู่หวาน. The taste of palm fruit and coffee mixed together creates a very unique flavor.
Another place that has been popular lately among millennials and Gen Z is bOnnie on the beach. This place is unique in a way that the cafe building itself is super simple and minimalistic. It has a very big window facing the sea that makes it a very scenic place to sit and sip coffee for the guests. It also has a dedicated area for guests with pets to sit down and have their coffee. The drinks are unique and they mostly combine coffee with tonic water to give that fizzy, refreshing sensation. We tried raspberry tonic coffee and coconut tonic coffee. We are a fan of these drinks – perfect for the hot day in Hua Hin!
However, we are not sure if this place has any toilet (didn’t see any when we were there). So if you are thinking of going there for coffee + toilet stop, it may not work. You can find other place with proper building and toilet!
Hua Hin night market
Thais and visitors have learned to live with Covid-19, and this has brought life back to various night markets in Hua Hin. We recently visited Cicada night market in late
2022, and the vendors have told us that the life and vibrant have returned to pre-Covid
level if not better.
Cicada night market is broken primarily into 3 zones 1) street food stalls run by
local vendors 2) organized food stalls which require official coupon and 3)
non-food area where you can shop for locally made souvenirs and clothing.
Food wise you can everything from local Thai food, fresh seafood to pizza and hamburger. Various beverages like fruit juice, coconut water and beer are also available.
Live music by local bands also lighten up the atmosphere during Friday/weekend evening.
Our take on cafes and restaurants in Hua Hin
There are many options available for cafes and restaurants in Hua Hin and many of them are really good. Each has its own unique offering. Even if you spend a longer time in Hua Hin, you will not run out of options for food and beverages.
While we are in Hua Hin, we try to stay on the beach side as much as possible to enjoy the sea and beach view. This is simply because we cannot have that anymore once we are back in Bangkok. Personally, we really enjoyed the beach clubs experience, and the meals over there tasted very good as well. They provided us with a comfortable environment (clean, very few mosquito if any) to enjoy the beach and the sea.
As coffee lovers, we also love cafes with beach view and a great cup of coffee. Baan Gliwang is still our favorite all this time. Other than great coffee and food, it has a unique homey vibe inside the cafe as well. We will always go back to that place in our future trips to Hua Hin.
Learn more about Thailand via our other posts: