What to eat in Khao Yai
mountain cafés, farm steak, wineries & Pak Chong eats

If one thing defines Khao Yai's food scene, it's the cafés. All the way up Thanarat Road toward the park you'll find mountain-view cafés, vineyard cafés, and farm cafés with sheep and alpacas to photograph. Bangkokers drive out and sit for hours just for the cool-season air, the light mist, and a properly good cup of coffee. We've written about them in detail on our dedicated Khao Yai cafés page.

Farm Chokchai is the largest dairy farm in Asia, on Mittraphap Road near Pak Chong. Two things to eat here: the Chokchai Steakhouse, using beef from the farm, and the Umm!..Milk dairy ice cream that has kids and adults queueing. You can walk in and eat without booking a tour. If you want to see the milking, a cowboy show and animal feeding, there's a separate scheduled Farm Tour (busy at weekends — check times ahead).

Khao Yai is one of Thailand's well-known New Latitude wine regions, and GranMonte is the family estate making award-winning wine from grapes it grows itself — Durif, Verdelho, Cabernet Sauvignon, Syrah. Its VINCOTTO restaurant serves Italian-Californian-leaning food, with the vines filling the view. Booking a table is wise. And if you're tasting wine, remember — don't drink and drive; have a designated driver or join a tour.

The other big estate you can tour and dine at is PB Valley Khao Yai Winery, with tours of the vines and the cellar. Its restaurant, The Great Hornbill Grill, is a country-style place set in the valley, serving Western, Thai and fusion dishes paired with the winery's own bottles — Chenin Blanc, Shiraz, Tempranillo, Cabernet Sauvignon. The setting is open and relaxed, ideal for a long lunch. As at every estate — don't drink and drive.

Down in Pak Chong and Korat, the local dish to try is pad mee Korat — thin white rice noodles stir-fried in a balanced sour-sweet-salty sauce that's particular to the province, with bean sprouts and spring onion, sometimes pork or prawn. Korat people eat it as a set with som tam. It leans more sour than a typical pad thai and skips the heavy dried shrimp. A light, cheap plate that tells you a lot about Korat. Find it at shops in town and at the night market.

Pak Chong sits on the edge of Isan, so Isan food is the true local cooking — sharp pounded-to-order som tam, crisp-skinned grilled chicken, pork and beef laab, and sour Isan sausage, all eaten with hot sticky rice. Roadside shops and the night market do it well and far cheaper than the resort strip. It's honest, easy food that suits everyone. If you want real local food rather than view prices, come down and eat Isan in Pak Chong town.

Once Khao Yai cools off in the evening, moo kratha is what locals and visiting families go for — a charcoal dome in the middle of the table where you grill pork, beef, chicken, seafood and vegetables while broth simmers in the moat around it. It's an all-you-can-eat buffet at a gentle price, and the fun is in sitting around the grill talking for hours on a cool night. You'll find it at shops in Pak Chong town and along Thanarat Road. Great for a group or family.

The Pak Chong night market sets up in the centre of town near the railway station, from around 5pm into the evening. It's all the street food in one place — grilled chicken, sticky rice, pork skewers, Isan sausage, som tam, Thai sweets, boiled and roasted corn, seasonal fruit, and takeaway to bring back to your room. Prices are far gentler than the resort strip, which makes it ideal if you're staying in Pak Chong or stocking up before heading up the mountain. Honestly, this is the best-value eating of the whole trip. Bring cash — most stalls don't take cards.

Pak Chong and Korat are famous for custard apple (noi na) — the soil here grows fruit that's sweet, fragrant and meaty with few seeds, in both the pale-green and fleshier varieties. When it's in season (roughly mid-year into the late rains) you'll see stalls lined along the roads. Pick fruit with well-spaced segments that's just starting to give to the touch — that's ready to eat. Buy it fresh on the spot or take some home; it speaks of Pak Chong as much as pad mee Korat does.

Another local thing you'll see all over Pak Chong is sweet corn. There are plenty of corn farms here, so boiled and steamed corn is properly juicy and plump, sold by the cob at roadside stalls and markets. Many places also blend it into a sweet, creamy corn milk to drink on the road. It's a cheap snack to keep in the car while you café-hop or head up to the park, and another easy edible souvenir from Pak Chong.

Beyond coffee cafés, Khao Yai has plenty of bakery-led ones — croissants, cakes, pies, cookies and homemade bakes, much of it baked fresh that day, eaten over a garden or mountain view in the afternoon. Several use milk and eggs from the area's farms. It's a nice light afternoon stop between café visits. Honestly, dessert prices up here run higher than in town, but the setting and the view make it worth a stop.

Pak Chong–Khao Yai is one of Thailand's important dairy areas, so the genuinely Khao Yai thing to eat is dairy — rich pasteurised fresh milk, yoghurt, dairy ice cream, and cheese from some local farms. Farm Chokchai and local milk shops sell fresh milk and ice cream made from their own herds, fresher and richer than the carton kind. It's a snack and an edible souvenir that captures Khao Yai's dairy-country side. Look for it at the farms and at souvenir shops.