Thai restaurants in Phuket Province
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Babylon Beach Club
Accessible by dirt road are the polished, whitewashed tiki environs of the Babylon Beach Club. The food is nice, and all the Thai specialities are on offer, along with fresh grilled seafood and good burgers. Dishes are served on banana leaf liners, and four tables are set up with white tablecloths and umbrellas mere centimetres from the sea.
reviewed
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China Inn
The organic movement meets traditional Phuket cuisine at this renovated turn-of-the-century shophouse. As well as homemade yoghurt and fruit smoothies flavoured with organic honey, there are many vegie options, including a massaman curry (chicken, beef or pork stewed in potatoes and usually peanuts) with tofu, and a favourite Phuket dish, red curry with crab.
reviewed
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C
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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D
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.
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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E
Wilai
Local Phuket food is fried and steamed at this neighbourhood lunch counter. Its speciality is noodles. It does a Phuketian pàt tai (Thai fried noodles, usually with peanuts) that has some kick to it, and a fantastic seafood mee sua. Think: noodles sautéed with egg, greens, prawns, chunks of sea bass and incredibly tender squid. Wash it down with fresh chrysanthemum juice. We call it Phuket soul food.
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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Chicken Rice Briley
The only diner in Patong Food Park to offer sustenance when the sun shines. All it serves is a perfectly steamed and sliced chicken breast on a bed of steamed rice, bowls of chicken broth swimming with crumbled bits of meat and bone, and roast pork. The chicken is best when dipped in its fantastic chilli sauce. There’s a reason this dining room is 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.
reviewed
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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.
reviewed
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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.
reviewed
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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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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.
reviewed
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J
Thai Kitchen
Thai Kitchen serves up steaming bowls of curry, pungent soup and an array of daily specials. Its menu includes pumpkin and prawns, braised eggplant with prawns, and boiled eggs with coriander and tamarind sauce. There’s a brunch buffet – that’s when the locals flock here. From 2pm onward, you’ll have to order off the menu.
reviewed
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Lim’s
Half a kilometre uphill from the coast road to Hat Kamala is this modern, moulded concrete dining room serving upscale Thai cuisine. It serves papaya, pomelo and green mango salad; squid stir-fried with cashews; and roast duck in red curry sauce. When celebrities land in Phuket, most spend at least one evening here.
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Mengrai Seafood
Located down a sweaty, dark soi (lane or small street) off Th Bangla is a wonderful food court serving fresh, local food. The stalls towards the end serve daily curries that local expats swear by. This restaurant specialises in fresh fish, prawns and mussels. The fish and vegetables are clearly very fresh.
reviewed
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Red Onion
High on tasty food, low on atmosphere, this slap-shut eatery, housed in a garage, is a bona fide expat magnet. Cocktail selections complement the international meals – or an extra one to blur the bad music humming in the background. It’s about 300m east of the roundabout – look for the coloured lights.
reviewed
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Oyjoi Number 1 Thai Food
Don’t let humble roots fool you. This delightful garden cafe run out of the chef’s front yard serves some of the best Thai food in Phuket. The spicy panang curry, clotted with coconut cream, and the Tamarind prawns – sticky but not too sweet – are our favourites, but it’s all delicious.
reviewed
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Ma Ma Fati Ma
This beachfront snack shack is a real find. The family who owns and operates it could not be more welcoming. The tasty Thai food is exceptional and so are the fresh fruit shakes. And if you forget your wallet, they’ll still feed you and trust that you’ll pay later. Try that in the Western world.
reviewed
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Baan Rim Pa
Stunning, classic Thai food is served with a side order of spectacular views at this long-time institution hanging over the cliffs of Kalim beach. Standards are high, with prices to match, but romance is in the air, with candlelight and piano music. Book ahead and consider ironing your shirt.
reviewed
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Chote Chitr
Antique family-owned restaurants adorn this old section of town where middle-class Thais eat the way their parents and grandparents did before them. Chote Chitr is famous for mee krob, sweet-and-spicy crispy fried noodles, and yum hua plee (banana flower salad).
reviewed
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Roti House
If you like French toast or croissants in the morning, you’ll love roti, Thailand’s Muslim morning delicacy. You’ll receive a plate of savoury crepes and a bowl of sweet breakfast curry, then dunk, eat, repeat. This is a local hang-out and you will be welcomed with warm smiles.
reviewed
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Kalpapruek
This venerable Thai eatery has numerous branches and mall spin-offs around town, but we still fancy the quasi-concealed original branch. The diverse menu spans regional Thai specialities from just about every region, daily specials and, occasionally, seasonal treats as well.
reviewed
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Tawai Restaurant
Set in a lovely old house decorated with traditional art is this gem of a Thai kitchen serving classics like roast duck curry and pork larb (minced chicken, beef or pork salad mixed with chilli, mint and coriander), and steamed, grilled and fried seafood.
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