Special Krabi Restaurant
 

Hi There! My bf and I are headed to Krabi for a long weekend to rock climb (mostly him) and get massages and chill on the beach (mostly me.) While we're there, we'll be celebrating our anniversary. We're staying at Railay Bay and plan to eat most meals at cheap and cheerful type places, but we'd like a special dinner one night - Any recommendations? The Krua Phranang at Rayvadee looks nice online, but I'm not sure exactly how $$$ it will be. Is that the best place to splurge for a special meal or is there a better choice? Thanks!!

Ruen Mai restaurant on Maharat Road caters to the higher-end market and serves deliciously authentic food. The restaurant has both inside and outside seating areas and is landscaped to produce a ‘jungle’ effect. Although the prices are dearer than the local night markets, the food is still low-priced and of better quality than the tourist resort restaurants.
Rayavadee is nice but big $$$, not sure if the price is justified. A special dinner doesn't NEED to be the dearest.
Enjoy your anniversary.

Ruen Mai is in Ao Nang, so if you're staying in Railay you'll have the added hassle of getting back to Railay at night, since the boats from Ao Nang stop running at dusk.

Staying in Railay limits your choices to just a few places.

We celebrated a relative's 50th birthday at Rayavadee in April of 2006. Ambience and setting was excellent, but, food was very average and not really worth the money ...... pretty mediocre at best!

Infact, Krabi as a whole was a disappointment RE the food.

Thank you for your replies! I couldn't agree more about the best places not necessarily being the most expensive! Sounds like Rayvadee isn't really worth it-Ruen Mai sounds great but if we can't get home, that might defeat the loveliness of the evening! What might be our best bet and feasible as far as transport? Maybe we'll just get food at a standard type place and get a drink at Rayvadee for the atmosphere. Thanks again for the replies!

Having done the trip from Ruen Mai back to Railay more than once.....in fact many times.....and often late at night....no problem. The trip back might actually, be the BEST part of the evening.
As MichaelBKK says, you are limited for eateries by staying at Railay (though this limitation is far outweighed by the sheer beauty of the place), so, I don't think you can better Ruen Mai.

As far as the details go, to get from Ao Nang back to Railay at night, you have to take a taxi to Ao Nammao, then get a boat from there.

Having arrived at Railay at night myself, I would say it can be a rather lovely trip when the weather cooperates.

The booth where you prepay your longtail ticket quoted 60 baht per person before 6pm and 100 per person after 6pm on their sign . I would be surprised if they didn't run till late

Thank you! Ruen Mai it is! Is it going to be easy to find once we get off the boat? I tried to look for a good map of Ao Nang but couldn't find anything useful. Sounds like we can ask people how to get there. One more question - Anyone know about the weather? Online, it looks like it's raining every day, but is that true? I had heard this was the dry season. Thanks and Happy Thankgsigiving to those who are celebrating!

Just got last week. We had 4 days with a little rain (maybe 1 hour tops but mostly overcast) and then 3 full days of glorious sunshine. You will have a ball

You might like to look at this webcam and see for youself how the weather is. I think it only updates during daylight hours.

http://www.patricksenecal.com/webcams/w-english0509.php