Pai has a better food scene than its size would suggest. The walking street provides cheap Thai standards every evening, but the permanent restaurants cater to a mixed crowd of Thai tourists, expat residents, and international travellers, creating an unusually varied offering for a town this remote.
Edible Pai is a long-running favourite for Thai food with more care and ingredient quality than the typical traveller restaurant — dishes like massaman curry and nam prik with fresh vegetables are done properly. Nong Beer Kitchen does reliable Thai-Chinese cooking that the local population actually eats. For something different, the Shan-influenced dishes available at a few smaller local restaurants — particularly the sai oua sausage and nam phrik num green chilli dip — reflect the cross-border culture of Mae Hong Son Province.