KOH SAMET, Thailand -- Dining choices on Koh Samet run the gamut from street cart vendors to posh, upscale resort restaurants, but our most unusual meal involved a short boat ride, sitting on the floor and dangling our feet over the sea.

One of our guidebooks lists the restaurant as Mook Samed, although it now goes by the name Unseen Samed Resort & Restaurant (www.unseensamedresort.com).

Located about 1/4 mile up the road -- the only road running northwest from the Na Dan Pier -- along the island's north coast near Ao Noi Na beach, there are few signs to mark Unseen Samed, a collection of buildings on stilts in the water about 100 yards offshore.

A steel cable runs from Unseen Samed through the air to a ramshackle building on shore. A bell mounted on a post must be rung to summon an employee at the restaurant.

After ringing the bell, we watched from shore as an employee made his way to a boat docked at the restaurant, then pulled himself and the boat toward us, hand over hand, using the guide wire. Diners and resort guests board the boat and are pulled out into the bay, gliding over the water toward the open-air restaurant.

Just don't expect to sit in a comfy chair while dining. Instead, diners sit on the floor on cushions (with backs), dangling their legs through holes cut in the floor beneath each glass-topped table.

It's an unusual arrangement, and visitors with small children (or vertigo) may not appreciate the setup with the floor no more than eight feet above the water's surface. Looking down, we could see schools of fish and a crab climbing one of the restaurant's support pylons.

Naturally, seafood was on the menu, with most meals priced at about $10 per person. And it was fresh -- so fresh I wondered if perhaps my supper had recently been swimming in the sea beneath my dangling feet.