Phuket restaurants serve all kinds of cuisine but finding real Thai food can be a little challenging. The large majority of the restaurants in the island’s tourist areas, such as Patong Beach, Kata or Karon, have been adjusting their tastes to accommodate first-timers. You probably would never see Thai people eating in those places, and it’s usually a sign. Real Thai food is often found in more modest areas of Phuket, and we list some great Local Thai Restaurants here. Phuket Seafood is also famous, and you should try the real thing without paying a fortune by checking out our Best Local Seafood Restaurants list.
B Cat Cafe Phuket is a fun place where every cat lover can sit and play with 15 to 17 furry and fluffy felines while enjoying a cake and a drink. The location on Thepkasattri Road, just next to the old historical street of Phuket Town, makes it very convenient.
Pomodoro is an excellent and authentic Italian restaurant in Kata Beach, a great place to come and relax with your friends or family after a long day on the beach.
Sea Salt Lounge and Grill is a beautiful restaurant and a seaside bar built on a prime seafront location in Patong Beach, part of the well-known Diamond Cliff Resort, on the way to Kalim Beach and Kamala Beach.
Ketho Coffee & Kitchen is a dim sum restaurant very popular with locals for their breakfast, mostly for their dim sums but also for their soups and rice porridge.
Kata Beach has many restaurants and places to eat, from modest street food to the most high-end dining experience in Phuket. You will be surprised by the level of cuisine and setting you can find in Kata Beach.
Noodle soup is everywhere in Phuket (‘Kuey Tiaow’ in Thai), and while it’s not precisely Thai food, it is entirely part of everyday life in Thailand. Small restaurants and carts will serve it on almost every street at any time of the day and night, not only for lunch, dinner and even breakfast.
Ma Doo Bua is a cafe and restaurant whose purpose is to provide a background to the new generation of selfie lovers. The main catch is an artificial lake covered with those unusual giant circular floating leaves.
Enjoying local Thai food in the old Phuket town after a day of exploration is an experience no one should miss. Fortunately, there are plenty of restaurants in Phuket Town to choose from; some are fancy, some are cheap, and some are in amazingly beautiful heritage houses.
Sunset bars in Phuket are a great way to end the day with a panoramic view, no matter the season. And people here know that the rainy season offers more dramatic sunsets than high because of the monsoon clouds. During the high season, skies are often dull and unattractive, and without clouds, photos are rather bland.
Chom Chan is an excellent Thai restaurant that serves a great selection of Phuket dishes and local specialities. It’s a cosy small house with a garden almost hidden on the outskirts of Phuket Town and can easily be missed when driving by.
Looking for the most romantic place in Phuket to propose or share an unforgettable dinner with your loved one? A romantic dinner on the beach at the Old Siam Thai Royalty Restaurant in Thavorn Beach Village is hard to beat.
Splash Beach Club is a new spot hidden in a tiny creek not far from Patong Beach, between the beautiful Tri Trang and Paradise beach.
Nom Jeen Phuket is a beautiful and relaxing new local restaurant serving kanom jeen on the outskirt of Phuket Town. There are quite a few kanom jeen shops around the island but this one feels very relaxed and trendy in a casual young fashion, and yet, it’s not expensive!
The list of the Best Restaurants in Phuket is growing fast, especially since the Michelin Guide has arrived on the island. Phuket’s culinary scene has evolved a lot in recent years, and the choice of restaurants has grown tremendously.
Mae Tan’s House is an excellent local Thai restaurant in Phuket Town. It is slightly away from the old streets of historical Phuket, where the tourist crowd always go for their selfies and therefore addresses more to a local clientele, and that is a good sign!
Krua Maikhao is one of the most underrated local Thai restaurants in Phuket. It’s not fancy, the menu is not long, and lunch at Boon only costs a few baht, but the taste is unique.
Su Va Na is Thailand’s only underwater restaurant, located on the B1 floor of Central Phuket Floresta inside Aquaria Phuket, the country’s largest aquarium. The restaurant opened during Christmas week in 2022 and has quickly established itself as one of Asia’s most distinctive dining destinations.
Mook Kata is an extremely popular and cheap buffet found in Phuket and all around Thailand. Here, you pick and cook yourself some raw ingredients displayed on a buffet-style at a low fixed price.
Acqua is a fantastic Italian restaurant run by the talented Chef Alessandro Frau. This exclusive dining has received many awards and accolades, including Michelin Guide.
Three Monkeys restaurant is set in the Jungle somewhere between Phuket Town and Chalong, part of the popular Hanuman World Zipline attraction.
Black Ginger is a fabulous Thai restaurant in a lovely setting inside the Slate hotel in Nai Yang Beach. The cuisine itself is worth the visit, but the design and enigmatic arrival make you feel exceptional, like being in a traditional Thai movie.
Having Michelin Restaurants in Phuket since 2019 proves that Phuket has reached a new level on the international culinary stage. The island is evolving fast and in many directions
Ta Khai Restaurant is a beautiful Thai restaurant nestled on the secluded beach of Tri Trang and part of the new luxurious Rosewood resort. Located just a couple of kilometres from Patong Beach.
Naughty Nuri’s in Patong Beach is famous for their Nuri’s signature ribs and piglets (Babi Guling a la Nuri’s). The restaurant is vast and welcoming, and the staff is known to be friendly and cheerful.
No 9 Restaurant is a modest Thai restaurant in Patong beach, quite far from the busy streets, yet it is much talked about. The restaurant is spotless with a good design sitting layout, serving Thai and European food.
Thailand is known worldwide for its amazing food, but it doesn’t stop here. There are also many Thai sweets and desserts to try during your stay in Phuket. Of course, everyone knows the delicious pancakes (or roti) and the mango sticky rice,
If you like delicious Hainanese Chicken Rice and you happen to be in Patong Beach, you need to visit Briley, one of the two famous chicken rice restaurants in Phuket, open for more than 20 years.
Ko Ang Seafood is a local restaurant serving excellent seafood on the east side of Phuket Town. Ko Ang has been around for a long time and started as a modest shop with no decoration and a zinc roof. But seafood lovers always find the right places (and maybe we recommended it a lot too), and Ko Ang Seafood is now a bright restaurant and even added Chinese decoration.
The Kee Sky Lounge rooftop bar at the Kee Resort in Patong Beach has been popular for years. The rooftop bar invites you to the sun deck of a luxury cruiser, one of the best places in Patong, to enjoy a sunset with a cocktail and great music.
The original Number 6 is very popular Thai restaurant in the middle of Patong Beach, and the queue in front of the shop is unusually long in Phuket.
Taking a Thai cooking class in Phuket is the best way to learn how to cook real Thai food while here, and it’s perfect for a rainy day or just as a fun thing to do on holiday with family or friends.
Kota Khao Mun Kai is an excellent and famous Chicken Rice restaurant in Phuket Town. Everyone in Phuket knows this place, expats of locals. It has been open for more than two decades and is still running strong without having changed a thing. That might be why it is still so popular; once you have a simple winning formula, don’t touch it. If you ask a friend if he feels like having chicken rice for lunch, he will probably picture this place.
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.
Bang Mud is one of the 3 floating restaurants on the east coast of Phuket island, just between Cape Laem Hin and Coconut island (Koh Maphrao). Floating restaurants are a fun and memorable way to enjoy a lunch with a view or a dinner with a sunset.
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 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.
Sabai Corner is a beautiful Thai restaurant hidden in Phuket, not far from Kata Noi Beach. Only a few dedicated travellers will find it or try to find it. The food is good without being exceptional, but you will discover the magnificent panoramic view of the nearby sea.
Mee Ton Poe (Mee Ton Poh) has served some of the best-known Hokkien noodles on Phuket island for many years, since 1946 to be precise. It used to be a tiny, modest restaurant at the clock circle 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 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.
Post Views: 11,714 Taokhun Seafood Restaurant Taokhun Seafood is a hidden restaurant on the east coast of Phuket located somewhere near Phuket International Airport. This… Read More »Taokhun Seafood Restaurant near Phuket Airport
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.
Eating on the beach at one of Phuket’s beach restaurants is a great way to make the best of your tropical holiday. Thai food is excellent and cheap; the weather is warm all year round, the sea offers a fantastic backdrop, and the sand is so soft under your feet.
Bangla Street Food is the latest opening in Bangla Road, the heart of Patong nightlife. Street food is a smart move in this part of town. Bangla Street Food opens late, and it’s really casual. So it’s actually the perfect place before AND after the party. This is something really fantastic about Patong: you can party until 3 or even 4 am and still enjoy some seafood.
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 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 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 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.
What can be better than eating right on the beach when on holiday on such a beautiful island as Phuket, but such restaurants have become hard to find? Actually, there used to be quite a lot of places where it was possible, but after ‘the big cleanup’ of 2015, most restaurants and beach clubs were found to be illegally built and therefore removed.
The Beach Bar Phuket is a local restaurant half-hidden on Panwa beach, away from most tourist crowds. Once a modest wooden shack, the restaurant grew in popularity and now displays a long row of tables and plastic chairs.
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.
Rawai View Cafe is a charming little restaurant and bar with a beautiful wooden terrace overlooking the bay of Rawai, in the very south of Phuket, a good place for lunch in the shade of trees or for a dinner by the sea.
