Local Restaurant

Find local restaurants in Phuket with guides to authentic Thai dining, noodle shops, and hidden gems. Explore places for affordable meals with sea views and local dishes.

Laem Sai Seafood

Laem Sai Seafood is a local restaurant hidden far away on the east coast of Phuket. The restaurant mostly consists of a vast wooden terrace over the sea or the mud, depending on the tide.

Rimpan Seafood Restaurant Phuket

Rimpan Seafood is a small but great Phuket local restaurant hidden in plain sight in the north of Phuket Island, near the bridge that connects the island to the mainland. Thousand people drive past Rimpan each day without realising such a great place sits right here.

Go Benz Phuket

Go Benz Phuket has been one of Phuket’s most popular local restaurants for over 15 years. Go Benz served a relatively small choice of noodle soups and rice porridge, and by keeping it focused, they became very good at preparing them.

Khun Jeed Yod Pak Restaurant in Phuket Town

Khun Jeed Yod Pak Restaurant is an institution in Phuket Town and one of the best local restaurants on the island. It is open as far as I can remember, which is more than 20 years now. It became famous for a dish Thai people love called radna.

Som Chit Hokkien Noodle Soup in Phuket Town

Som Chit Restaurant is famous for its delicious Hokkien Noodles Soup, and people from Bangkok who know about it would stop here for lunch when they visit Phuket Town.

Ko Yoon Restaurant

Ko Yoon Restaurant is a very small and discreet place serving amazing Hokkien Noodles. If you happen to visit Phuket Town, chances are you walked passed it without noticing it, it looks like any other anonymous local hole-in-the-wall restaurant. But Ko Yoon has prepared those delicious big yellow noodles for decades and locals know how good they are.

Kalim Rim Lay Restaurant in Kalim Beach

Kalim Rim Lay Restaurant is a little-known restaurant serving good honest Thai food and seafood at a good price. Best of all for some of you, it is located not far from Patong Beach, just past Kalim Beach. Rim Lay is a very relaxing spot to enjoy lunch or dinner with spectacular sunsets if you are lucky to get one as we did.

Tu Kab Khao Phuket

Tu Kab Khao is a popular Thai restaurant in Phuket Town that serves great southern Thai food. Give yourself a chance to try their selection of dishes that are typical of Phuket. Tu Kab Khao received a Michelin rating from the new Michelin Guide for Phuket, a sign of excellent food.

Aek Rawai Seafood Restaurant

Aek Rawai Seafood Restaurant is one of the few local seafood restaurants peppering the roadside of Rawai Beach. This small restaurant doesn’t have any particular sign and it doesn’t attract a mass of hungry tourists, but this is where we love to go for a real seafood lunch or dinner.

Lock Tien Food Court in Phuket Town

Lock Tien food court in Phuket Town is a place every person living in Phuket long enough knows. It doesn’t look like much but with 50 years old history, it’s probably the oldest food court on the island. What really matters is that Lock Tien serves some real Phuket specialities.

Peang Prai Restaurant

Peang Prai Restaurant (Krua Piang Prai) is an excellent local venue in a green nest next to Bang Pae waterfall. Mostly unknown to tourists because of its remote location, Peang Prai is one of the two great places to have lunch if you happen to be in the area.

The Pad Thai Shop in Karon

The Pad Thai Shop is a tiny restaurant on the side of the back road of Karon Beach. It’s so small and modest; you would drive past it without paying much attention if it wasn’t for its growing reputation and a large yellow signboard that says ‘The Pad Thai Shop’.

Kanom Jeen in Phuket

Kanom Jeen is a traditional Thai breakfast dish that’s particularly popular in Phuket and southern Thailand. It consists of fresh, thin white rice noodles served cold or at room temperature with a curry of your choice. Common options include fish curry (Nam Ya Pa), beef curry (Kang Nua), chicken curry (Kang Kai), or sweet prawn curry (Kang Nam Prik).

10 Best Phuket Street Food

Phuket street food is fun, cheap, and a great way to experience simple real Thai food. It definitely is more authentic than in tourist restaurants you find in Patong Beach. It’s fast and a lot cleaner than you might think.

Kruvit Raft – Phuket Floating Restaurant

Phuket floating restaurant ‘Kruvit Raft’ is one of the most original ways to enjoy dinner when you get tired of your ‘Same Same but Different’ Thai food restaurant. Try this unusual but popular place floating between Phuket Island’s east coast and Maphrao Island.

Mor Mu Dong Restaurant

Mor Mu Dong is quite an unusual restaurant in Phuket. If you enjoy eating off the beaten tracks where many locals go for a great lunch or dinner, Mor Mu Dong is your place.

Thanoon Seafood Restaurant Phuket

Thanoon Seafood Restaurant is perfect for spending a half-day in a unique location, a breezy place right on the beach of a stunning bay in the very north of Phuket Island. Thanoon Seafood has found itself a little golden spot no one had thought about before: next to the Sarasin Bridge connecting Phuket to the mainland. This small bay benefits from a gentle breeze with amazing views of both the open sea and the new bridge on the other side.

Nai Dam Restaurant in Kathu

Nai Dam Restaurant in Kathu looks just like any restaurant by the roadside of Phuket. It’s not fancy, there are no exterior signs of luxury and even the restaurant signboard is hardly visible.

Kin Dee Restaurant

Kin Dee Restaurant Phuket is not exactly what you would call a ‘local’ restaurant in the pure sense of it, but it’s not a touristic place either.

Kan Eang at Pier

Kan Eang at Pier is a trendy seafood restaurant in Chalong Bay on the way to Rawai Beach, in the south of Phuket. Popular since decades, Kan Eang is a relaxing place in the shade of huge trees with a beautiful sea breeze.

Kan Eang 2 Seafood Restaurant

Kan Eang 2 is not the most accessible place to find, but it’s one of Phuket’s best local seafood restaurants. Everyone here knows that there are 2 Kan Eang Seafood restaurants on the island.

Kaab Gluay Restaurant in Patong Beach

Kaab Gluay is one of the few authentic local Thai restaurants in Patong Beach. The food is delicious and well priced, and the staff is always amiable.

One Chun Restaurant Phuket

One Chun Restaurant is one of the best Thai restaurants in Phuket Town. Serving southern Thai and uniquely Phuket cuisine without compromise: great food, reasonable price and good location.

Bang Pae Seafood

Bang Pae Seafood is a great local restaurant, very hidden on the east coast of Phuket. It’s not so easy to find, and yet, it’s busy on weekends with a mix of Thai, expats and some tourists brought by local friends.

10 Hardcore Thai food, only for the brave!

We had ’10 Typical Phuket Dishes’ and ’10 Best Really Local Restaurants’, and even ’10 Fried Insects for Gourmets’ now we need to move on to serious business: ’10 Hardcore Thai Food, only for the Brave’… Will you dare?

14 Local Thai Food to Try in Phuket

Thai food in Phuket is delicious, varied and cheap. You can enjoy it by the street, on the beach, in surprisingly excellent local restaurants and even at fancy Michelin restaurants. Phuket also has many specialities you should try, but remember that some dishes can be seriously spicy!

15 Best Seafood Restaurants in Phuket

The best seafood in Phuket is mostly in local restaurants, which are sometimes away from tourist places, but also in some more upmarket restaurants around the island. Of course, the seafood you will find in Patong, Kata, Karon is good, but local restaurants have a little more.

Nam Yoi Restaurant Phuket

Nam Yoi Restaurant is a discreet local place tucked away on a remote street in Phuket Town. While it’s challenging to find, the effort is worth it for their excellent local and southern Thai cuisine. The setting is simple, prices are very affordable, and the food is exceptional.

Jun Phen Isan Restaurant

Like most of the great restaurants serving excellent good old-fashioned Thai food in Phuket, Jun Phen didn’t bother much with the design.

53 Best Local Thai Restaurants in Phuket

Our list of the best local Thai restaurants in Phuket keeps growing because local food in Phuket is great, especially if you step away from Patong Beach! We chose not to list any places and no trendy venues here; our blog is about local food and only local food!