Island View Bungalows in Choengmon

Our stay at the Island View Bungalows and Restaurant was generally pleasant, and we appreciated the friendly staff “Sugar” (think it’s her family business). We did notice a few areas that seemed a bit dated, particularly the bathroom fixtures, the sink faucet sprayed water at you when washing your hands. It’s wasn’t worth using since it was a wet bathroom except for brushing your teeth or washing your hands. The sink would also leak at the drain and run down towards our feet . The shower hand held hose was wrapped up high to prevent the hose from collapsing if you take it down or you would lose water pressure. Our TV had cracked screen which made it unviewable, the mini refrigerator was rusted and barely hanging on for dear life (it didn’t even cooled down the bottle water they give you) and it smelled bad. Also, the room needed new bedding, towels, pillows (pillows are super flat maybe if they had 4 pillows). Might consider adding more air fresheners in the room and bathroom to help with the smells that come from the plumbing for an older bungalow. With some modern updates, we believe the hotel could truly unlock its potential and offer an even more comfortable experience for future guests.
If you come by taxi 🚕 you don’t have to worry about parking. Parking is a pain if you have a car and you come early for check in. Anytime after 6-7 pm you will have parking, its fills up during the day with scooters 🛴 and cars 🚗 for day users using the beach.

About the Restaurant: It was not busy when we arrived and we decided to have a late lunch after we checked into our bungalow, it’s right on the beach with wonderful sea views! It’s our first time on Koh Samui.
Our waiter came over and tossed the menu in front of us and walked away, he didn’t even say hello after we said Hello (S̄wạs̄dī) to him. He came back to ask what we wanted and he seemed to have an attitude and was very short. I ordered 2 Fried Rice with pork (K̄ĥāw p̄hạd h̄mū). I said it in Thai and he replied what?? So I repeated myself and he looked confused so I replied in English and pointed to the menu of the item. He asked if we wanted it spicy? 🌶️ I said very little spicy on one and NO spicy on the other (P̄hĕd lĕk n̂xy). He seemed to understand my Thai then. When another waiter came to drop off the food it was not fried rice it was another dish (Thai Pork and Basil Stir Fry (Pad Kra Pao) I told that waiter we order fried rice with pork. Our waiter came back with the same dish. I said this isn’t what we ordered and he said yes, it’s rice and it’s not spicy and proceeded to put the plates down. When I explained it to him again, he seemed to have the notion that by explaining that it not being spicy was a good runaround for getting what we wanted even if it was the wrong order. I was so irritated 😠 and tried from our trip to the island that we just took it. The dish was so bland and dry that this was just terrible for a very popular Thai dish. Of course, we never saw him again after he drop the food off. There were only 3 tables maybe 6 guests in total so I’m not sure why there was such a lack of customer service! When we returned to our room I looked up the reviews of the restaurant and without a surprise most people talked about the same waiter as he either needs to be trained or not be in food service. If he’s a family member they might want him to work in the back where he doesn’t have to come in contact with guests. The restaurant kitchen also needs an over haul on the food prep, food cleaning and general cleaning, & hygiene management. After we left, I walked by the back of the kitchen area to one side they had their pot,pans and washed lettuce and tomatoes next to a cooler that was swarming with flies. They had clean pots and pans on the ground right across the public bathrooms less than 5 feet away. Right next to the men’s open & exposed urinal where they wash dishes, woks and vegetables yummy! Thank god we only ate there once.
Over all the bungalows are cheap at a good location but would never recommend eating at their restaurant.

Came with a 1yo baby, smiling, sat down. Nobody is serving.. came to that guy (with my 12kg) asked for a menu with a smile.. he’s respond “it’s over there” didn’t even look at us. I took the menu. He didn’t come I had to catch him again. I asked for a coconut and he interrupted me and said “are you gonna be outside or inside.” Gave me an angry look.. I asked whether everything is ok.. and decided not to have food there. This dude makes you think very unwelcome, probably killing this little business 👀😒