Eat.Co attempts to be the most ‘Srithanu’ of all restaurants in the area. It is a vegan restaurant and store set up by a group of yoga teachers who take a holistic approach to dining. They are currently riding high in the Tripadvisor ratings, and the restaurant is a favoured hang-out for the spiritual set.
Reading the Eat.Co website you might be forgiven for not immediately realising it is a site promoting a restaurant. On the ‘about us’ page you are bombarded with life stories of aspiring yogis fleeing Western lives to embrace the calm and serenity of Koh Phangan. There is a liberal use of such words as ‘love’, ‘community’ and ‘mindfulness’. What it says about the food is a bit vague:
“There are a few dedicated “cooks” working together in the Eat.co “kitchen” to joyfully create and serve all the goodness this site has to offer.”
Are we to worry that the restaurants doesn’t have real chefs but rather cooks with inverted commas? And that food is prepared not in a kitchen but something different signified by “kitchen”. And that it is not what nature has to offer in terms of calories but their website that offers nourishment. Sometimes clichés lead you into absurdity.
However, once you look beyond the stuff about sharing love and life stories you are left with a small and friendly restaurant and store that serves tasty vegan food. You can see from the images below that the restaurant has an eclectic menu drawing on a variety of cooking traditions and the most in vogue vegan ingredients. There is meatless ‘teriyaki chicken’ using tempeh strips; there is a beetroot burger and a veggie kebab. If you prefer they can do vegan thali, scrambled tofu, vegan pho (Vietnamese soup) and black bean couscous and mango salad. This can be washed down by a number of spiritually edifying juices and smoothies called without any sense of irony such appellations as ‘guru juice’, ‘plant Shanka’ and ‘thirsty monk’.
You can’t get an alcoholic drink. The only sins to be found are sugar free cakes and coffee with actual caffeine. I suspect most people either love or hate Eat.co. Below are a few snippets from Tripadvisor.
Eat.co reinforces the stereotype of Srithanu and reminds me of the Srithanu song in a funny way. But putting aside any prejudice, restaurants offering lovingly made food in a convivial atmosphere with good service are always to be welcomed. Up to you to decide if Eat.co gives value for money as well as karma.
Eat.Co is on the main Srithanu road, between Crave and Green Gallery. It is open every day except Thursday. Breakfast is from 8am to 11am, lunch from 12pm to 4pm, and dinner from 6pm to 10pm.