How Much Does Food Cost in Koh Samui?
How much does food cost in Koh Samui? On current published figures, anywhere from ฿10 to ฿20 for a grilled skewer at a night market to ฿1,500 to ฿4,000 per person for fine dining. The island runs several price scales side by side, and where you sit down matters far more than how much you order.
Four price tiers for eating out
Markets, casual Thai kitchens, beachfront restaurants and hotel dining rooms all operate on Koh Samui at the same time, often within a few hundred metres of each other. The table below lines up typical prices per person for each tier, from sources that track and publish their own Koh Samui numbers.
| Tier | Typical price per person | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Night markets and street stalls | About ฿40 to ฿250 per person, depending on the market | travelarbitrage.net, Jan 2026 |
| Local Thai restaurants | About ฿80 to ฿250 per person | Mykeythai, Apr 2026 |
| Mid-range Western/fusion and beach clubs | About ฿400 to ฿900 for mid-range Western or fusion; beach club lunch ฿800 to ฿2,000 including a drink | Mykeythai, Apr 2026 |
| Fine dining (including upscale hotel restaurants) | About ฿1,500 to ฿4,000 per person | Mykeythai, Apr 2026 |
Average spend per person at the island's night markets ran from about ฿40 to ฿80 at the Nathon town market up to ฿150 to ฿250 at the Fisherman's Village Friday market in Bophut, with Chaweng in between at ฿100 to ฿200, according to travelarbitrage.net, published January 2026. Its peak-season street prices: pad thai ฿40 to ฿50, mango sticky rice ฿50 to ฿80, and grilled skewers ฿10 to ฿20 each.
Local Thai restaurants run ฿80 to ฿250 per person per meal as of April 2026, per Mykeythai's Koh Samui cost breakdown. That lines up with Numbeo's own figure for an inexpensive restaurant meal on the island: about ฿150, with contributor-reported prices ranging ฿90 to ฿474, current as of 12 September 2026 on Numbeo's Koh Samui cost-of-living page.
Mid-range Western or fusion restaurants run about ฿400 to ฿900 per person, and a beach club lunch adds up to ฿800 to ฿2,000 including a drink, per Mykeythai's April 2026 breakdown. For comparison, Numbeo's contributors put a three-course dinner for two at a mid-range restaurant at about ฿1,000 without drinks (reported range ฿900 to ฿2,800), as of 12 September 2026. Fine dining sits at the top: Mykeythai puts it at ฿1,500 to ฿4,000 per person.
What "++" means on a hotel or restaurant bill
Prices written with a plus sign or two, such as 500++, show up mostly at hotels and upscale restaurants. Each plus adds a separate charge on top of the menu number: the first is a service charge, commonly 10 percent, and the second is value added tax, currently 7 percent, according to The Finest Thai's plus-plus pricing guide, published 31 May 2026. That 7 percent is a reduced rate: Thailand's standard VAT rate is 10 percent, but the government has kept it at 7 percent through a long series of royal decrees, Nation Thailand reported in August 2026, and the Cabinet's latest extension, per HLB Thailand, keeps it in place through 30 September 2027.
Working out the real total
For how a service charge fits into the rest of a Thai meal, from what arrives at the table to who pays, see how a Thai meal works. The order of the calculation matters: VAT is usually applied after the service charge. A ฿1,000++ dish becomes ฿1,100 once 10 percent service is added, then ฿1,177 once 7 percent VAT is applied to that larger subtotal, an increase of close to 18 percent over the menu price, per The Finest Thai's worked example.
What drinks add to the bill
Drinks can move a bill more than food does. Numbeo's contributors put a regular cappuccino on Koh Samui at about ฿72 and a 0.5 litre domestic draft beer at about ฿80 (reported range ฿55 to ฿149), as of 12 September 2026. Imported wine is where costs jump: Mykeythai's April 2026 breakdown says import duties push a decent bottle to ฿1,500 to ฿2,500 at restaurants, while describing spirits and Thai beer as very reasonable.
Delivery app fees vary by distance and area
If you'd rather eat in than go out, delivery apps set their fee by distance and area. Check the fee the app shows for your address rather than budgeting from a figure you saw elsewhere, since it changes by order and by area.
Our guide to getting food delivered on Koh Samui covers apps, villas and hotels, and the ordering page walks through our own checkout steps for delivery or pickup.
A sample daily food budget
Put the tiers above together and you can build a realistic daily number instead of relying on one average. Here's a sample day that mixes a street-food breakfast, a local lunch, a drink and a mid-range dinner, with each line drawn from the ranges cited earlier.
| Meal | Where | Typical cost per person |
|---|---|---|
| Breakfast | Street food stall | ฿40 to ฿80 |
| Lunch | Local Thai restaurant | ฿80 to ฿250 |
| A drink | Domestic draft beer, 0.5 L | About ฿80 |
| Dinner | Mid-range Western or fusion | ฿400 to ฿900 |
| Day total | About ฿600 to ฿1,310 per person |
Eat all three meals at street stalls and local Thai restaurants (฿40 to ฿80, then ฿80 to ฿250 twice) and the day comes to roughly ฿200 to ฿580. Swap dinner for fine dining (฿1,500 to ฿4,000) and the same day comes to roughly ฿1,700 to ฿4,410.
Where Khun Yak fits into these numbers
We're a Thai restaurant in Choeng Mon, on Koh Samui's north-east coast; see our guide to the Choeng Mon area for what else is nearby. We're open every day from 11:00 to 22:00, and typical spend here runs ฿200 to ฿400 per person, between the local Thai restaurant range and the mid-range Western or fusion range described above.
You can browse our menu before you visit. You can dine in, order takeaway at the restaurant, or place an order online for delivery or pickup. If it's your first time paying by PromptPay QR code in Thailand, our PromptPay guide for tourists walks through what the payment screen looks like and what to do if a code expires.