langkawi selection

Kuah

"Location, location, location," the agents tell you it's the key whether you're buying or opening a restaurant. So what chance has a restaurant located miles from anywhere and deep in the middle mangrove swamp. Not the most convenient of spots, it is about 15 minutes out of Kuah but a bit hard to find if you try to cut across the main island. Not that that worries most of the visitors who are bussed in by the restaurant itself or the local hotels.

If you don't have an appetite when you reach the car park, you will by the time you sit down. A wooden walkway 450m long leads you to the restaurant and at times it seems that you are never getting there, there's plenty to look at en route.

The mangrove swamp below is teeming with life and even if most of it stays hidden, few guests make it to their table without seeing something to write home about. Monkeys, monitor lizards, flying foxes, mud skippers and all manner of birds from herons to hornbills have been seen along the way.

The walk is memorable enough and builds up a nice sense of anticipation, riot to mention appetite, by the time you reach the Kampung style establishment itself. And whatever high culinary hopes you may have had on the way, you're not going to be disappointed. The Thai food is superb as is the atmosphere with the high ceilings, curios on the walls, and variety on the menu. And for a place that really has you in its grasp, the prices are reasonable too. In Langkawi Barn Thai is THE place to eat.