Rawai View Cafe
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.
Restaurant
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.
Baan Chom View Restaurant Phuket
Baan Chom View is one of the popular Thai restaurants hanging high above the beautiful beach of Kata Noi in the south of Phuket and serving a vast choice of Thai food and a few western dishes.
Rawai Seafood Market
Rawai Seafood Market started as a modest local fisherman village where you would buy some local catch to take home. Rawai beach, in the very south of Phuket, is also known as the Sea Gypsy Village
On The Rock Restaurant Phuket
On The Rock is a beautiful open-air seafood restaurant built on the rocks at the southern end of famous Karon Beach with a unique location and superb views of Karon Beach.
SILK Restaurant & Bar
SILK Restaurant & Bar at Andara Resort Phuket is an upscale and much-talked-about Thai restaurant set in a beautiful and elegant design that overlooks Kamala Beach. With polished wood, high ceilings, warm tones and an elegant design, Silk Restaurant is instantly pleasing to the eyes.
Kalido Restaurant
Kalido is a trendy seafront restaurant set at the southern end of Bang Tao Beach, open for lunch and dinner. Kalido is an excellent place for a relaxed dinner by the sea and a lounge venue in the evening.
Khao Rang Breeze Restaurant Phuket
Khao Rang Breeze is one of the three popular restaurants sitting at the top of the very scenic Rang Hill in Phuket Town.
Nikita’s Beach Restaurant
Nikita’s Beach Restaurant serves Thai and seafood for over 20 years. Hidden by the sea under large trees at the very end of Rawai beach, Nikita’s serves great seafood and Thai food.
Catch Beach Club Phuket
Catch Beach Club, by the famous Twinpalms Resort, is reborn on Bangtao Beach and is as popular as ever. This beach venue was the first to open on the island and the one that triggered the fashion.
Laem Hin Seafood
Laem Hin Seafood is one of the best-known local seafood restaurants in Phuket. Built mostly on an immense wooden terrace on the east coast of the island, Laem Hin is huge but it can get pretty full on weekdays dinner and even more on weekends.
Café Del Mar Phuket
Café Del Mar Phuket, located at the northern end of Kamala Beach next to Intercontinental Phuket and Novotel Kamala, is surprisingly discreet during the day but buzzing with people in the evening and even more on weekends.
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).
Sizzle Rooftop Bar
Sizzle Rooftop Bar and Restaurant is a romantic place at the top of the Avista Hideaway Phuket Patong in the south of Patong Beach. Just to set the tone, you need to know that this hotel is part of the MGallery by Sofitel, an award-winning luxury resort.
Heaven Rooftop Restaurant Phuket
Heaven Rooftop Restaurant is a little-known viewpoint terrace hidden below the famous Karon Viewpoint , with a relaxed style usually found on beach clubs and is a great place to end the day with a sunset.
EAT Bar & Grill Restaurant Karon
EAT Bar & Grill Phuket Restaurant is a tiny place on the second street of Karon Beach. Thankfully, many people talk about the restaurant.
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.
Number 6 Restaurant ‘Up The Hill’ in Patong Beach
Number 6 Restaurant ‘Up The Hill’ is one of the most popular places in Patong Beach, we all know that. But did you know that there are two Number 6?
Kopi de Phuket
Kopi de Phuket, a very small restaurant, has made its name in Phuket Town for a while. It looks strangely familiar and serves some really typical Phuket dishes in an eclectic decor, but what Kopi de Phuket does best is coffee in Phuket style.
Romsai Restaurant near Kamala Beach
Romsai is a little restaurant well hidden from view, with a beautiful view of the sea and a nearby beach. Serving local Thai food for lunch, definitely has a fun mood, feeling like being far from Phuket.
Karlsson’s Restaurant and Steakhouse
It might be strange to recommend a steakhouse to travellers coming a long way to Thailand, but there comes a time when we crave a good old fashioned steak.
Talung Thai Restaurant at Paresa Resort
Talung Thai at Paresa Resort stands out for its immense open clifftop terrace and sunset views over the Andaman Sea, not far from Kamala Beach. We’ve been back a few times, most recently after it earned a spot in the Michelin Guide for Phuket.
Raya Restaurant
Raya Restaurant is a unique restaurant combining all the right ingredients to make it a perfect local experience. They serve great food in a superb setting in an old Thai house kept just the way it has always been, with no excessive renovation but well maintained.
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.
Panwa House at Cape Panwa Hotel
Panwa House is a white Sino Portuguese restaurant surrounded by palm trees, right on the secluded beach of the Cape Panwa Hotel on the east coast of Phuket.
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.
Koku Yakiniku
If you stay in Phuket for a while or if, like us, you happen to live here, there comes a time when you feel like something different for dinner, something good and fun. This is usually the day we choose to go to a ‘Mookata’ or a ‘Yakiniku’ in Phuket Town.
Chaiyo Seafood Restaurant
Chaiyo Seafood is a simple little restaurant close to Phuket town if you feel like a nice seafood lunch by the mangrove, without getting far from the city. Nicely built in a comfortable setting, Chaiyo Seafood keeps its livestock directly in the mangrove stream.
25 Thai Fruits to Discover in Phuket
Exotic Thai fruits in Phuket range from the well-known pineapple or even watermelon to the most surprising ones like the weird-looking Dragon Fruit, the huge pungent Durian or the enormous Jackfruit.
Pan Yaah Seaview Restaurant
Pan Yaah Seaview Restaurant on Patong Beach is a little gem you should reward yourself with if you choose to spend your holidays in Patong Beach, in a romantic place with a sea view, good food, not overly touristic.
La Gritta Restaurant
La Gritta Phuket is an Italian restaurant at Amari Phuket Resort, ranking high on our Most Romantic Restaurants in Phuket. It has a unique view of the entire Patong bay and is a perfect place for a romantic evening with a view.
Eating Fried Insects in Phuket
Eating fried insects in Phuket and Thailand seems to be the ‘ultimate cultural challenge’ for most visitors. How many of you tried these crunchy snacks from street carts? A few. How many actually liked them?
Blue Elephant Phuket
Blue Elephant Phuket is a high-end Thai restaurant built in a renovated Thai house set in an immense garden in Old Phuket Town. Pracha Phra Pitak Chinpracha Mansion is a fantastic old mansion that used to be a governor’s house, but was abandoned for a long time.
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.
Tunk Ka Cafe in Phuket Town
Tunk Ka Cafe is one of our favourite restaurants in Phuket Town, a long-established hillside place beautifully built on top of Khao Rang Hill, with striking panoramic views of Phuket city. Tunk Ka Cafe is a romantic place, with three separate terraces framed with large trees, and a nice breeze flowing through always keeps the place cool.
Natural Restaurant Phuket (Tamachart Restaurant)
Natural Restaurant Phuket looks at first a bit confusing. Locally known as ‘Tamachart Restaurant’ it has been a long-time favourite for many Thai and expats.
Savoey Seafood Restaurant
Savoey Seafood Restaurant might not be the best seafood restaurant in Phuket, but if you don’t want to or can’t drive outside Patong beach and don’t feel like dining in a food court, it’s a good place for a seafood dinner.
10 Phuket Specialities and Local Dishes (and Where to Find Them)
What Phuket Phuket Specialities should you try, and where to find them? We already shared our Best Local Restaurants and Best Classic Thai Dishes, so here are 10 really local specialities dishes, or their popular Phuket variation.
Krua Thung Thong in Kathu (Big Chicken Restaurant)
Big Chicken Restaurant (Thung Thong Restaurant) is one of our three favourite venues in Kathu. If you drove past the Phuket Country Club in the past twenty years, you certainly saw that massive chicken statue on the side of the road.
Uptown Restaurant in Phuket Town
Phuket Uptown Restaurant is not exactly what we would call a ‘local restaurant’, it’s just a little too clean and too westernized to be considered so and a good third of the customers are usually farangs (foreigners). But the food is good, the prices are right and the staff is always friendly.
Tom Yum Goong Recipe Video
Tom Yum Goong is one of the pillars of Thai Food, probably the best-known Thai dish in the world around, and there are, of course, countless variations possible.
Lor Rong Market – Phuket Specialties
Had enough tourist food and want to try real Phuket specialities? When visiting Phuket Town, if you have a bit of time and are curious about Phuket’s real local food, you have to stop by Lor Rong Market.
Kopitiam by Wilai Restaurant in Phuket Town
Kopitiam by Wilai is a recently renovated restaurant serves classic Thai food in an old-style Chinese shop on the most popular street in Phuket Town. Thalang Road changed from just an old busy street to a full-scale tourist attraction, bars and restaurants have started to appear like flies on honey.
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.
The Boathouse Restaurant
The Boathouse restaurant on Kata Beach serves Southern Thai and Western cuisine, both for lunch and dinner, while enjoying the stunning backdrop of the Andaman Sea.
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.
Kampong Kata Hill Restaurant
Kampong Kata Hill is a bit touristy with mixed reviews, but if you travelled that far to discover Asia and you are looking for more than ‘just food’ while remaining within an acceptable budget.
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.