10 Vegetarian and Vegan Koh Tao Restaurants to Try

I revisited Koh Tao with absolutely no intention to create a vegan food guide for the blog. I was there to wrap up and try to come to terms with the remainder of a ten year relationship. Hell in paradise you could say. How ironic. But as a result of a broken heart, I ended up stuffing my face with all of the food and then some (mind you though – I ate mostly Oreo’s). So I thought I might as well put my hard work to use and write about the vegan Koh Tao food that I ingested.

Koh Tao has a lot to offer in terms of vegan food for such a small island. There is also a wonderful yoga scene and I owe a shout out to Cynthia and Gabrielle from Oceansound Dive and Yoga for helping me release and heal on the mat like I never had before. Yoga and healthy vegan food truly offered me solace in this rough time and today I’d like to present you with my 10 favourite vegan Koh Tao spots. As well as these restaurants, I am inclined to think that you will find at least one vegan option in any restaurant on the island.

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1. BABALOO

Babaloo was the most exciting discovery in Koh Tao for me and I wish more people visited them. They have a whole vegan menu and it’s one of the few places where you can enjoy a 100% vegan curry on the island. Pick any of their fake meat (the vegan fish is actually quite good!) to add to any item out of their expansive vegan menu. I loved the green curry with vegan fish and the spicy laarb salad. Beware that the service can be extremely slow, but you’re on an island, so, chill. Super friendly service.

Directions // Foursquare // Facebook

2. LA CAROTTE QUI RIT



French owned vegetarian and vegan Koh Tao restaurant on the Main Street of Mae Haad that oddly enough has the same menu as May Kaidee in Bangkok. Lots of vegan options including salads, curries, mock fish and tofu. Beware that, by default, everything is VERY mild (read: bland), so mention if you like spicy food. I was a little disappointed on my first few visits as the papaya and the green mango salads were on the soy saucy and sweet side and lacking the acidity of lime juice and chili kick of more traditional Thai food, but on my last visit I tried the (spicy) steamed noodle with curry and stir fried veggies and it was delicious – not actually spicy at all, but perfect for me. Great attentive service. A fabulous option in Mae Haad.

Directions // Foursquare // Facebook

3. YANG

Yang is located in Mae Haad, on the main road connecting Sairee and Chalok. The beauty of this restaurant is that whatever you order will come to you in about 45 seconds and be enough to feed a family of twenty nine. A cheery budget-friendly cafeteria style restaurant feeding hungry backpackers, expats and divers gigantic portions Thai-ish food and western fried things of all sorts where you’ll also find all the usual vegan stir fried options (morning glory, veggies, pineapple, tofu, etc), plus veggie burgers, pasta and salads. Good wifi.


Directions // Foursquare // Facebook

4. LIVING JUICES



A little health food gem with a nice outdoor seating area serving superfood, cold press green juices, smoothies, healthy snacks, detox programs, chia seeds, spirulina, goji berries, quinoa, etc. An occasional treat for the budget conscious.

Directions // Foursquare // Facebook

5. TUKTA



Tukta possibly has the best Thai food on the whole island. They are located in Chalok on the main road coming from Sairee. There aren’t a whole lot of vegan options available (Thai curries unfortunatley contain shrimp paste and fish sauce as a general rule of thumb), but they are very accommodating and will make you a delicious vegetable laarb, glass noodle or spicy vegetable salad if you ask. The service can be painfully slow or incredibly quick depending how busy they are. Spicy and fresh.

Directions // Foursquare

6. REEF BAR



Reef Bar is not a vegan or vegetarian friendly bar per se, but they do have one vegan friendly item on the menu worth a mention and a visit: the Veggie burger from Avalon Vegan Kitchen (a caterer I didn’t get to visit, but you should if you have a place to cook readymade vegan frozen meals!). Just ask for no cheese and mayo. It’s deep fried and perfect to nurse a heartbreak or a hangover. Or both.

Directions // Foursquare // Facebook // Website

7. CAPPUCCINO

The Chalok branch of Cappuccino quickly became my office and my hang out of choice. Nothing extremely exciting here except for the gigantic slabs of peanut butter toasts which kept me full for hours on end. You can have a few sandwiches made vegan also and their bread is always super fresh.

Directions // Foursquare // Facebook // Website

8. I LOVE SALAD





I Love Salad has two locations, in Mae Haad and Chalok, although I have only visited the one in Chalok. It’s a lovely little restaurant where I ate a lot, stuffing my face with delicious salads as if they were going out of fashion. 80 baht will get you a base salad of mixed lettuce, onion, tomato, carrot, cucumber and a dressing of your choice, to which you can add any of several top¬pings for various prices. My favorite com¬bi¬na¬tion was mango, broc¬coli, pump¬kin seeds and mixed herbs with the bal¬samic dress¬ing. The veg¬gie burger was also deli¬cious, but the raw vegan cheese¬cake wasn’t any¬thing excit¬ing.

Directions // Foursquare // Facebook

9. ZEST



Another great morning hang out with good coffee, fresh bread and peanut butter, but also a nice selection of salads and smoothies. This vegan Koh Tao cafe was my second office. I think there may be a second branch in Sairee.

Directions // Foursquare // Facebook

10. THE HACIENDA

Located in Koh Tao Leisure Park, The Hacienda is a little more on the high end side and not especially vegan or vegetarian friendly either. They also serve the Avalon burgers and possibly do a better job with preparing it than Reef. Make sure you ask for no cheese. There’s a nice hummus dish on the menu as well as a few other veggie options. And a mini golf, so, win!

Directions // Foursquare // Facebook

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So there you have it! Not an exhaustive list in any way, but a few nice pointers I hope for you. If you’ve found more delicious vegan Koh Tao foo joints, please leave a comment below!

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I also wanted to take a moment to announce the winner of the Indian kurta giveaway Congrats, Linda! And thanks to everyone who entered.

Win a Jaipur hand printed pais­ley jaal cot­ton kurta


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