Restaurant in Udon Thani, Thailand
Bib Gourmand breakfast. Go early, queue accepted.
Kao.Piak.Sen is Udon Thani's only back-to-back Michelin Bib Gourmand Vietnamese café, recognised in both 2024 and 2025. Come for the fragrant kao piak broth and chewy bánh bôt loc at ฿฿ pricing — and eat in the room to get the full value. Walk-ins only, arrive early to beat the queue.
If you are in Udon Thani for a morning meal and want something more considered than a street-corner bowl, Kao.Piak.Sen is the right call. This is a Vietnamese-inflected neighbourhood café that has earned back-to-back Michelin Bib Gourmand recognition in 2024 and 2025 — a rare signal in a provincial Thai city , and it rewards visitors who arrive early, take their time, and eat in the room rather than rushing out the door. First-timers should know upfront: the experience is built around the dine-in atmosphere. The food travels, but the room is half the reason to come.
The green-tiled facade is a reliable landmark on Srisuk Soi 4, and the interior follows through on that visual promise. Vintage wooden and rattan furnishings keep the energy relaxed without feeling tired. The noise level is low in the early hours , the kind of café where you can hold a conversation at a normal volume , but expect the atmosphere to shift noticeably during peak morning hours when queues form at the door. If you want the quieter, more composed version of this place, arrive when it opens. The laid-back mood is a genuine part of the offering here, which matters when you are deciding between eating in versus taking away. For a first visit, eat in.
The two dishes most worth your attention are flagged by Michelin directly. The signature kao piak , a rice noodle soup with a fragrant, soothing broth , is the anchor dish and the one that has driven the café's reputation. Alongside it, the bánh bôt loc, a lightly chewy rice roll filled with spicy shrimp and minced pork, gives you something with texture and heat to contrast the gentler broth. These are not dishes that benefit from sitting in a takeout container: the bánh bôt loc's texture softens, and the broth in the kao piak loses its aromatic edge when sealed and transported. If takeout is your only option, the kao piak holds reasonably well for a short journey, but the bánh bôt loc is leading eaten at the table.
Kao.Piak.Sen does offer takeout, and for locals picking up a quick breakfast on the way somewhere, the kao piak is a practical choice. For visitors evaluating whether to order delivery or carry out rather than dine in: it is not worth it on a first visit. The Bib Gourmand recognition here is for the full package , the food quality and the setting together. Vietnamese-style breakfast dishes like kao piak are by nature delicate, and the gap between eating the broth fresh in the room and eating it reheated at a desk is meaningful. Save the takeout option for a return trip when you already know what you like. For comparable Vietnamese café-style food that is built more explicitly for off-premise eating, [Tầm Vị in Hanoi](https://www.joinpearl.co/restaurants/tm-v-hanoi-restaurant) or [Camille in Orlando](https://www.joinpearl.co/restaurants/camille-orlando-restaurant) are worth checking as reference points for how the format adapts in different contexts.
The price range sits at ฿฿, which in Udon Thani terms means slightly above street-food pricing but nowhere near restaurant-tier spend. For a Bib Gourmand-recognised venue, the value equation is direct: you are getting food that Michelin's inspectors considered worth a special trip at a price that most visitors will spend without thinking twice. Compare that to [Samuay and Sons](https://www.joinpearl.co/restaurants/samuay-sons) , the city's other ฿฿ option in this peer set, focused on Isan cuisine , and Kao.Piak.Sen offers a different flavour profile and a lighter, more casual meal format. Neither is wrong; they answer different questions about what you want from a meal in this city.
Reservations: Walk-in. No booking appears to be required, but expect queues during peak morning hours , arriving early is the practical move. Booking difficulty: Easy. Dress: Casual. This is a neighbourhood café, not a dressed-up room. Budget: ฿฿ , budget for a light meal; this is breakfast and brunch territory. Getting there: The address is 20 Srisuk Soi 4, Mak Khaeng Sub-district, Mueang Udon Thani District. Accessible by taxi or ride-share from central Udon Thani. Hours: Not confirmed in available data , check locally before visiting. Google rating: 4.4 from 1,742 reviews, which for a café in a provincial Thai city is a meaningful volume of feedback.
See the comparison section below for how Kao.Piak.Sen stacks up against Udon Thani's broader dining options.
For context on what Michelin-recognised Thai cooking looks like at a higher tier, Sorn in Bangkok and PRU in Phuket are useful reference points. For regional Thai dining outside Udon Thani, Aeeen in Chiang Mai and AKKEE in Pak Kret offer a sense of how the Bib Gourmand tier performs across Thailand.
Explore more of the city with our full guides: Udon Thani restaurants, Udon Thani hotels, Udon Thani bars, Udon Thani wineries, and Udon Thani experiences.
| Venue | Cuisine | Price | Booking Difficulty |
|---|---|---|---|
| Kao.Piak.Sen | Vietnamese | ฿฿ | Easy |
| Khao Soi Thai Yai | Northern Thai | ฿ | Unknown |
| Krua Khun Nid | Isan | ฿ | Unknown |
| Majchapasuk | Thai | ฿ | Unknown |
| Peng Duck Noodles | Noodles | ฿ | Unknown |
| Samuay & Sons | Isan | ฿฿ | Unknown |
Side-by-side comparison to help you decide where to book.
Kao.Piak.Sen does not operate a tasting menu — this is a neighbourhood breakfast café, not a multi-course format. Come for the signature kao piak and bánh bôt loc, both flagged by Michelin directly. At ฿฿ pricing in Udon Thani, you are spending street-food-adjacent money for Bib Gourmand-recognised quality, which is a strong value proposition on its own terms.
Order the signature kao piak first — the rice noodle soup with fragrant broth is the dish that anchors the Michelin Bib Gourmand recognition. Follow it with the bánh bôt loc, a lightly chewy roll filled with spicy shrimp and minced pork. These two dishes are explicitly cited in the Michelin assessment, so they are the clearest starting point for a first visit.
Arrive early. Kao.Piak.Sen draws queues during peak morning hours, and this is a walk-in-only venue with no reservation system. The green-tiled facade on Srisuk Soi 4 in Mak Khaeng makes it easy to spot. It has earned Michelin Bib Gourmand in both 2024 and 2025, so expect a crowd that reflects that recognition.
You cannot book ahead — Kao.Piak.Sen is walk-in only. Queues form during peak morning hours, so arriving early is the practical move rather than attempting to time a reservation. If you have a tight schedule, factor in 15 to 30 minutes of potential wait time, particularly on weekends.
Not in the traditional sense. This is a casual neighbourhood breakfast café with vintage wooden and rattan furnishings — the atmosphere is relaxed and communal, not celebratory. For a Michelin-recognised meal that doubles as a low-key food moment worth remembering, it works well. For a formal occasion or a dinner setting, it is the wrong format entirely.
Yes, clearly. At ฿฿ pricing — above street food but nowhere near restaurant spend — Kao.Piak.Sen delivers two back-to-back Michelin Bib Gourmand recognitions (2024 and 2025). The Bib Gourmand designation specifically signals good food at a fair price, and in Udon Thani's dining context, this is one of the sharpest value propositions in the city.
Keep this venue in your Pearl passport, rate it after you visit, and track it alongside every other place you collect.
