Centrico Pai Mexican Restaurant

Pai runs on banana pancakes and pad thai, so a kitchen doing straight Mexican rather than a backpacker approximation of it is worth knowing about. That's the pitch here, and it's why the place stays busy. No fusion angle, no reinvention. Just the traditional preparations done properly, which lands well when you've had a week of the same three Thai dishes on repeat.

The room matches the town, casual, slow, nobody rushing you out. It sits on Chai Songkhram Road, the main drag, so you can fold it into an afternoon of wandering or make it the sit-down dinner before the night market and bars get going. My advice is to come early evening. Dinner service pulls a steady crowd and getting a table before 18:30 saves you standing about.

Kitchen hours are genuinely generous, which matters in a town where a lot of places shut when they feel like it. Late lunch, early dinner, proper late dinner, all covered.