Pattaya Food Markets & Thai Street Food Walk
Eat through Pattaya's diverse food scene — beneath the international resort restaurant veneer, Pattaya has excellent Thai street food, fresh seafood markets, and the authentic Thai regional cooking that serves the city's large domestic Thai tourism market alongside its international visitors.
- 1
Naklua Market Fresh Seafood
Naklua Market at the northern end of the Pattaya resort strip is the city's most authentic working seafood market — the market where the fishing boats unload their catch each morning sells the fresh Gulf of Thailand seafood (the giant river prawns, the Pattaya blue crab, the various snapper and grouper varieties, the squid and cuttlefish) that supply both the restaurant industry and the domestic Thai shoppers who live in the Naklua residential area behind the beach hotels. The Naklua market's combination of the wet fish market with the food stalls preparing fresh seafood on the spot creates the most authentic food market experience accessible from Pattaya's main tourist area.
- 2
Thepprasit Night Market
The Thepprasit Night Market in South Pattaya is the most popular local food market in the city — the weekend night market (Friday to Sunday evenings) attracts predominantly Thai domestic visitors and the Thai-speaking expatriate community with its street food stalls serving the full range of Thai regional dishes (pad thai, som tum papaya salad, grilled chicken, the various noodle soups), fresh fruit vendors, and the clothing and household goods stalls that serve the practical shopping needs of the local community. The Thepprasit market is the best place in Pattaya to eat authentic Thai food at local prices.
- 3
Pattaya Floating Market Food
The food stalls at the Pattaya Floating Market (Four Regions) serve the most comprehensive collection of regional Thai cuisine accessible from a single tourist location in the city — the northern Thai khao soi (coconut curry noodle soup), the northeastern Thai larb (minced meat salad) and sticky rice, the central Thai pad kra pao (basil stir-fry), and the southern Thai massaman curry and freshly squeezed coconut milk dishes demonstrate the remarkable regional diversity of Thai food culture within a single nation. The floating market food court format, while tourist-oriented, provides an authentic introduction to regional Thai cooking that is genuinely useful for visitors who will subsequently travel to the regions where each cuisine originated.
- 4
Mike Shopping Mall Food Court
Mike Shopping Mall's food court in central Pattaya is one of the most popular budget dining options in the city for both tourists and the large expatriate community resident in Pattaya — the food court with its Thai, Chinese, Korean, Japanese, and international stalls serves fresh-cooked meals at prices significantly below the beachfront restaurant level. The food court culture of Pattaya's shopping malls, where air-conditioned comfort and the full range of Thai and international food options are available at low prices, is the dominant dining format for the city's long-stay visitor and expatriate community.
- 5
Pattaya Oyster Farm
The oyster farms in the mangrove areas north of Pattaya near Naklua produce the freshwater rock oysters that are one of the most distinctive local foods available in the Pattaya area — the freshwater oysters grown on the mangrove rocks in the tidal areas of Bang Lamung district are smaller than the oceanic oysters of the western world but have a distinctive mineral flavour that reflects the mangrove environment where they grow. The oyster restaurants in the Naklua area serve the local oysters grilled, steamed, or raw with the lime and chilli nam prik sauce that is the standard Thai accompaniment for fresh shellfish.
- 6
Pattaya Central Festival Food Hall
The food hall in Central Festival Pattaya Beach is the most upscale supermarket food shopping destination in Pattaya — the international food section with its imported cheeses, wines, and specialty ingredients serves the large expatriate community and the resort hotels, while the fresh Thai food section provides the highest-quality local produce available from any single shopping destination in the city. The food hall's fresh fruit section, with the tropical fruits of Thailand at their peak of ripeness (the mangosteens, the rambutans, the durian, and the extraordinary variety of seasonal tropical fruits) provides the most direct encounter with Thai fruit culture available from the Pattaya tourist area.