Where to eat breakfast on Koh Samui

Whether you’re seeking a healthy breakfast on Koh Samui because: (A) your body is a temple, (B) 10 days of hotel-breakfast bacon will undo a year of Cody Rigsby's best work or (C) you want to try tropical healthy – get excited! Koh Samui’s healthy breakfast options will please anyone who’s casually hoping for a banana and will delight superfood devotees as well.

With great DIY options, plus breakfast and brunch spots galore, you can eat a different healthy breakfast every day of your stay.

DIY Koh Samui breakfast options

Basic groceries: Head to a Koh Samui supermarket to stock up on basics, including fruit, eggs, bread, milk, cereal, jam and other staples. If you’re planning to cook on Koh Samui and need gluten-free or other specifics, bring such ingredients from home.

‍Fresh Thai fruit: Find out where to buy fruit on Koh Samui – below – (and how to transport your brave durian purchase home).

‍Yoghurt: The best yoghurt you’ll have anywhere is waiting at Lucky Cow, just outside Makro. Amongst a great range of dairy options, you’ll find delicious pro-biotic yoghurt and kefir. This stuff is goooooood.

Where to buy fruit on Koh Samui?

We’ve wound you up about Thailand’s pineapple shakes and fresh, sticky tamarind – where can you get your hands on the good stuff? If fruit shakes (available at every restaurant on Koh Samui) won’t do it and you want to buy the raw materials – fresh fruit – yourself, here are 3 easy options:

‍Tops and Tesco-Lotus supermarkets: The island’s main supermarkets. Tesco has various locations (the ‘main’ one is conveniently on the ring road between Chaweng and Bophut) and both supermarkets offer great fruit variety, including various types of mangoes. Harder to handle fruits like pomelo and jackfruit are pre-cut and wrapped for you (packing a cleaver for Thailand would take some explaining). Bag up what you like, get it weighed by the friendly people at the weigh-station and pay at the check-out. Get acquainted with the array of Thai fruit and try to buy everything that’s new and unfamiliar – you’ll probably find a new favourite fruit.

Koh Samui fruit and produce markets: Wherever you’re staying on the island, there’ll be a market local to you (ones of notable size are outside Big Buddha and on Nathon’s main road, with another in Chaweng). These are popular on the point-and-stare tour bus circuit so if you’re a genuine customer in search of tasty vitamins, go early in the morning. If you dare to buy durian, plan to eat it out in the real world as it’s banned from most hotels and resorts.

Wherever you see fruit sold: I’m not being facetious – you’ll see in-season fruit and year-round bananas/coconuts for sale in some seriously random places. This variety of Thai banana (one of perhaps 100 different kinds) was for sale outside a furniture shop (and was delicious). You’ll just as likely spot Koh Samui fruit for sale beside a Lamai mechanic. Roadside dust and scooter fumes aside, you can expect home-grown stuff to be organic (likely not the case at Tesco).

Do you need to wash Koh Samui fruit very carefully?‍

Much of the fruit you’ll eat will be peeled (or, with coconuts, hollowed): bananas, mangosteens, longans, rambutans, pomelo, jackfruit, salak fruit, etc. With these guys, I just dig in. For fruit with skin (custard apples, rose apples, dragon fruit, sapodilla, etc.), I either peel it or wash it before eating (with bottled water and a drop of non-toxic travel soap like Dr Bronners). That’s not to say my way is best (or even required) – it’s just what I’m used to doing.

Healthy Koh Samui breakfast cafés and restaurants

Many of Koh Samui’s ‘healthy food’ options are attached to yoga facilities and/or spas. Part of the “glow inside and out” ethos, I presume.

Vikasa Life Café

Open for breakfast at 9 am. Menu options include raw, vegan and organic choices and freshly squeezed juice. Near Lamai, with great views and nice people.

Soma Restaurant at Kamalaya Spa

Open daily for breakfast. This is serious health and wellness territory – Kamalaya provides a breakfast vegetable buffet and daily breakfast salad bar, offering your daily dose of bee pollen, wheatgrass shots and all the seeds and nuts to stuff a squirrel. Nothing is microwaved, deep-fried, nor is MSG used. In Laem Set, near Na Muang (see where to stay nearby).

Tamarind Springs Café

Opens for breakfast at 9:30 am. A menu to make vegetarians happy, with plenty as well for anyone avoiding gluten, sugar, MSG or other additives. Seasonal options make the best of local produce. Near Lamai (see where to stay nearby).

Sweet Sisters Café

Open for a late breakfast or brunch at 11:00 am, 6 days a week (closed Wednesdays). Get your green smoothies! An incredible array of fresh and organic breakfast options – some Western, some Thai. One of the most endearing cafés on Samui, with a little shop of goodies if you’d like to take home an afternoon snack. In Bang Kao.

Koh Samui hotel breakfast options

Coconut ice cream for breakfast? You wouldn't be the first ...At most every Koh Samui hotel, you’ll find a wide range of breakfast options including eggs made to order, fruit salad, bananas galore, cereal, and usually muesli and yoghurt. As for fruit juice – it depends. Orange juice in Thailand tends to glow in the dark, whereas watermelon (when in season) is very likely to be actual fruit juice. Fruit shakes may or may not have sugar syrup added.

A dead-easy, default option? Koh Samui’s two best and healthiest breakfast ingredients were probably grown locally, and organically. You’ll always be able to find a fresh coconut to drink and a stack of local Samui bananas. Time to strut into the morning as smug as can be.