Songkhla Thaialnd – Best Places to Eat and Dishes to Try

In Songkhla you’ll find your usual choice of street stalls, night markets and local restaurants spiced up with emerging trendy cafes which feature English menus and, of course, some great seafood.

Street food

Food stalls and street vendors appears every day in various part of the city offering all the Thai classic street food at cheap prices plus some more local specialties.

In the old town simply walk along Nang Ngam or the northern part of Nakhonnai and you’ll get plenty of options all day long.

If you’re up for a local breakfast search for a place (they are everywhere) serving bakudte, a Chinese pork ribs soup served with dumplings or dim sum; due to the big Chinese community living in town, their influence on the local cuisine is quite strong and you’ll find many Chinese dishes or Thai dishes modified to suit better to their taste.

Another example of this, which you might want to try for lunch, is kwai chap; one of the most popular Singaporean dishes coming from the Chinese tradition, it is a soup made with big flat noodles and a dark soy sauce, served with pork meat, but not necessary the best part of the pork; up to you if you feel like trying intestine and skin. This is quite harder to find, but a few shops in the old town will sell it for roughly THB50.

For a quick snack during your visit get one of those bags that look like big crispy chips; they’re shrimp cracker (khaogerip gung) and for few baht they will keep you occupied for a while.

Night markets

For a more organized night market head North on Chana road, close to the National Museum, where several stalls every day starting at around 5:00pm will offer you meat skewers, rice dishes, noodles, chicken barbecue and beef sausages for prices starting at THB30. On weekend’s night, the road is closed and it becomes a walking street with a lot more stalls and much more variety of food; a popular spot for local, it looks like everyone in town will be there at some point on Saturday night.

Cafes and coffee houses

A growing number of trendy cafes and restaurants with beautiful terraces overlooking the lake are opening on Nakhonnok Road in the old town. They usually have great locations, nice settings and decorations, English menus, young and friendly staff speaking at least a bit of English and a mix of Thai food and international cuisine.

In a town where it was almost impossible to find decent Western food (unless you’re a fan of KFC), it’s nowadays more than a possibility to taste a good pasta, pizza or a tasty burger with a great view. Expect everything to be a lit pricier than anywhere else in town.

One of the most popular places at the moment of writing is Blue Smile Café (254 Nakornnai Road), which is a block away from the lake, but offers spectacular views from the rooftop terrace. Pizza are great, but also the Thai food is worth of mention, especially the northern Thai sausages and the Isaan specialties. Finish your meal with an (almost) authentic Italian coffee.

For seafood lovers Songkhla offers plenty of options on Samila beach; more than ten different places with tables right on the beach will have large menus with squids, crabs, shrimps and all sort of fishes and they will cook it according to your preferences. There’s not a lot of difference in prices and menus among the places and everywhere the seafood is as fresh as it can get.

A few restaurants a bit farther away from the beach on Ratchadamnoen Road will have a better setting, an English menu and higher prices. The quality of the food is the same, so we would stick to the plastic tables on the beach; you save some money and the view is better.