Restaurants in Phuket Province
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Babylon Beach Club
Accessible by dirt road are the seaside, polished, whitewashed environs of the Babylon Beach Club. Under new Italian management, lunch is more casual 'beach fare' such as burgers and salads while dinner gets more lavish with mains such as prawn and asparagus risotto.
reviewed
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China Inn
The organics movement meets Phuket cuisine at this turn-of-the-century shophouse. There's red curry with crab, a host of veggie options, homemade yoghurt and fruit smoothies with organic honey. There's also a gallery here with textiles, carvings and clothes from Myanmar and Laos.
reviewed
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Savoey
On an island packed with weighed-to-order fish grills, this is one of the best. Its huge ice shelf is packed with lobsters, prawns, grouper, red snapper, sole, trevally and barracuda. It also has live lobsters. It has one menu and four dining rooms – two of them on the sand. The food is always great, and the prices are quite reasonable.
reviewed
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Uptown Restaurant
This classic, breezy Chinese-style cafe may not look fancy, but look around and you'll notice mounted photos of Thai celebrities who have stopped by to slurp the spectacular noodles.
reviewed
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M&M’s Pizzeria
Simply put, this is easily the best pizzeria on the island. The slightly sour crust is thin but with ample integrity, and its pastas and salads are tasty, too.
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Natural Restaurant
A Phuket City staple for 15 years, this is a good place for traditional Thai food. The eclectic ambiance is a treat.
reviewed
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Siam Indigo
A stylish, whitewashed, shabby-chic gem, nestled in an 80-year-old Sino-Portuguese relic that specialises in Royal Thai cuisine with a twist. There’s a fiery seared tuna larb (minced chicken, beef or pork salad mixed with chilli, mint and coriander), minced and spiced pork satay roasted on steamed lemongrass, grilled duck breast sliced and stewed in a massaman curry, as well as a few Phuketian dishes, including gaeng poo, a sweet and spicy crab-meat curry. Siam Indigo has style, soul (check out the work of local artists on the walls) and insane food, which makes it one of the best restaurants on the island, if not the best. Be sure not to miss it.
reviewed
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Som Tum Lanna
This place has three dishes worth mentioning: the salted, grilled red snapper; the grilled chicken; and the paint-peelingly spicy som tum (green papaya salad). Now, the fish is very good, but you can find its equal on Hat Rawai. The chicken on the other hand…well, heed the words of another blissed-out, greasy-mouthed customer: ‘This is some fucking killer fucking chicken!’ As for the som tum? Don’t be a hero. Order it mild. It will still bring some serious heat.
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Tatonka
This is the home of 'globetrotter cuisine', which owner-chef Harold Schwarz developed by taking fresh local products and combining them with Europe, Colorado and Hawaii cooking techniques. The eclectic, tapas-style selection includes creative vegetarian and seafood dishes and such delights as Peking duck pizza (220B). There's also a tasting menu (750B per person, minimum two people), which lets you try a little of everything. Call ahead during the high season.
reviewed
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Bang Rong Seafood
This fish-farm-turned-restaurant is set on a floating pier in the luscious mangroves. It has red and white snapper, crab and mussels, and it plucks your catch after you order, so you know it’s fresh. You can have it steamed, fried or grilled, but it’s a Muslim enterprise so you can’t have beer. Come at sunset, when fishermen chat on the dock, and the light plays on both the water and the mangroves. It’s a special scene.
reviewed
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Wilai
Wilai serves Phuket soul food. It does Phuketian pàt tai with some kick to it, and a fantastic mèe sua, noodles sautéed with egg, greens, prawns, chunks of sea bass, and squid. Wash it down with fresh chrysanthemum juice.
reviewed
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The Pad Thai Shop
On the busy main road behind Karon, just north of the tacky Ping Pong Bar, is this glorified local food stand that spills forth from the owners’ home. Here you’ll find rich and savoury chicken-noodle stew, beef-bone soup, spicy basil stir-fries and the best pàt tai on planet earth. Hot and sweet, packed with prawns, tofu, egg and peanuts, and wrapped in a fresh banana leaf to go. You will be grateful.
reviewed
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Ninth Floor
Come on up to the 9th floor of the Sky Inn Condotel building where you can watch the sea of lights spread through sliding floor-to-ceiling glass doors. This is the highest open-air restaurant on the island, but the perfectly prepared steaks and chops are what made it a Patong institution.
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Pad Thai Shop
On the busy main road behind Karon, just north of the tacky Ping Pong Bar, is this glorified food stand where you can find rich and savoury chicken stew (worthy of rave reviews in its own right), and the best pàt tai on planet earth: spicy and sweet, packed with prawns, tofu, egg and peanuts, and wrapped in a fresh banana leaf. You will be grateful. It closes at around 7pm.
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Rockfish
Perched above the river mouth and the bobbing long-tails, with beach, bay and mountain views, is Kamala's best dining room. It rolls out gems such as braised duck breast with kale, and prosciutto-wrapped scallops.
reviewed
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Chicken Rice Briley
The only diner in the Patong Food Park to offer sustenance when the sun shines. Steamed chicken breast is served on a bed of rice with a bowl of chicken broth with crumbled bits of meat and bone, and roast pork. Dip in the fantastic chilli sauce. There's a reason it's forever packed with locals.
reviewed
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Natalie’s Restaurant & Bar
Perennially popular, the less glamorous cousin of the swanky Mali on the Sugar Plum resort mall serves terrific, affordable Thai favourites and flaunts a tasty fish grill for dinner where you can pluck your prawns, snapper and calamari from the ice. There’s a homey feel here, and the bar’s flatscreen shows current Premier and Champions League football matches.
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Bo.lan
Bo and Dylan (Bo.lan, a play on words that also means ‘ancient’), former chefs at London’s Michelin-starred Nahm, have provided Bangkok with a compelling reason to reconsider upscale Thai cuisine. The couple’s scholarly approach to Thai cooking has resulted in diverse set meals featuring dishes such as green peppercorn relish and grilled-banana-blossom salad.
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Rawai Seafood Grills
More than a dozen grill huts line Rawai’s beach road, and it doesn’t much matter which one you choose. All the fish is fresh; the clams, mussels, prawns and lobster are not to be overlooked either. Make sure you try the spicy sauce, not that sweet and sour syrup. The prices are so good you will be stunned. And like the Governator, you will be back.
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Baan Rimlay
The Thai seafood house to the right of the pier steams clams, mussels and fish, and grills squid, prawns and lobster to perfection. It also makes terrific soups and salads if you’d rather eat light. The seafood is a bit pricier here than at the more humble seafood joints down the street, but the location is superb and the views exceptional.
reviewed
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Batik Seafood
This beautiful beach-garden restaurant, nestled on the southern end of Hat Nai Yang just after the road turns to dust, sports tables beneath thatched gazebos and is surrounded by orchids. Batik Seafood specialises in fresh grilled fish, which it chooses from the fish market that is held just north of the restaurant every afternoon.
reviewed
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Lotus Restaurant
An open-walled eatery 500m west of the entrance to Banyan Tree Phuket, this is the first in a row of beachside Thai and seafood restaurants that stretches to the south. It’s clean, breezy and friendly, and has an amazing assortment of live crab, lobster, shrimp, fish and other visual and culinary delights in well-tended tanks.
reviewed
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Soi Polo Fried Chicken
Your nose will lead you to what many claim is the best kài thâwt (fried chicken) in town; it certainly bitch-slaps KFC. It’s golden and crispy on the outside with lots of fried garlic bits. One half order will generously feed two. In order to eat like a local, order sticky rice and employ the spicy dipping sauces.
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Thai Kitchen
Good rule of thumb: if a humble, roadside cafe is packed with Thai people, you can be certain that the food will rock. Its green curry (warning: your nose will run) and glass-noodle dishes are superb. It's just down the road from, ahem, 'Pussy Bar'.
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Sabai Beach Restaurant
If you’d prefer your fresh grilled seafood served beachfront with a little less pretence and loads of smiles and flavour, try this family-owned dining patio. Sift through an ample selection of fresh snapper, mackerel, prawns, squid and crab, and munch deeply on a sweet stretch of Patong beach overlooking the turquoise bay.
reviewed