PLEASE NOTE, UPDATED JAN 2023. Yamyen Aonang is now permanently closed, however, the restaurant has been refurbished and is now a standard Thai restaurant serving traditional foods.
Krabi province is giving Bangkok’s unique themed cafes a run for their money with the arrival of a new hospital-themed restaurant in Ao Nang, Thailand. With the capital’s unicorn and mermaid restaurants becoming a more regular tourist attraction, Thailand café hoppers are now looking for their next novelty foodie fix.
Yamyen Resto Park Ao Nang shuns the town’s usual beach restaurant format, swapping it for a medical-centre-style set-up – complete with bedpans, syringes and laboratory flasks.
An unusual restaurant in AoNang …
Arriving at Yamyen, you can a doctor’s jacket/nurse’s apron and grab yourself a wheelchair (seat). Surgical lighting lamps are fitted to ceilings above dining tables, and menus come attached to doctors’ clipboards.
This place isn’t to be confused with the sexier hospital-themed cafes you can find around other parts of Asia – far from it! If truth be told, I rolled about laughing the whole time I was there. The staff are dressed casually and the customer ‘costumes’ are intended to be worn over your own clothing in a playful fashion – so you needn’t worry about not being able to take the family.
The team were encouraged by our snap-happy enthusiasm, offering to take pictures and handing out syringe props and measuring tumblers to pose with.
A medical themed menu …
The restaurant’s quirky menu offerings include:
• Colourful Slushies in beakers
• Intervenes drip drinks (don’t worry, it’s just made to look like a drip!)
• Classic Thai dishes served in bed pans
Don’t fancy a rainbow drink from a drip, but keen for the gram? Never fear! The restaurant has dummy drips dotted around next to tables, ready to be wheeled around so you can pose to your hearts content.
How to get to the hospital café in Ao Nang
Getting to Yamyen hospital café from Ao Nang, Ao Nam Mao or Krabi is relatively easy. The restaurant sits in the middle of the main road between Ao Nang and Ao Nam Mao. It can be reached by tuk-tuk or (if you’re on a budget) by songthaew.
A songthaew is a passenger vehicle in Thailand, acting as a local bus or shared taxi. They are adapted from a pick-up or a larger truck. You can’t miss these convenient little vehicles in Ao Nang – drivers are keen to pick up tourists and often crawl along the kerb tooting their horn to get your attention.
From the outside, Yamyen cafe looks pretty normal. The complex is split up into 3 sections, with the hospital themed restaurant in the middle. It’ll be on the left-hand side if you are coming from Ao Nang, and on the right from Ao Nam Mao.
Looking for more cool things to do in Aonang?
Take a 4 Island Tour in Krabi. I recommend Krabi Sunset Tour – voted #5 of 66 Boat Tours & Water Sports in Ao Nang on Trip Advisor.
