Explore Thai food in Phuket with guides to local restaurants, street food, and authentic dishes. Discover where to eat classic and regional Thai cuisine on the island.
Ska Bar is a small but iconic Reggae bar built in the shade of an immense tree, right on the beach in Kata. This unique setting makes it a perfect spot to end your day on the beach, even if you are not a Reggae fan.
Sriwara is a new trendy but casual restaurant located halfway between Phuket Town and Chalong, not far from the famous Wat Chalong, serving excellent Thai food and some Indian-inspired dishes.
Punte Phuket is a beautiful food court serving local street food, hidden in the old streets of Phuket town, tucked in a dead-end street off Yaowarat Road.
Sugar and Spice is very popular for serving excellent traditional Thai food at the right price in Kata Beach. If, for some odd reason, you’re not in the mood for Thai food.
Pa Mai Kanom Jeen (ขนมจีนป้ามัย) is a modest local Thai restaurant located at the intersection of Dibuk Road and Satun Road, just next to the famous Blue Elephant Restaurant in Old Phuket Town. Pa Mai has been a popular local place for decades.
Kaeng Liang Restaurant is a small place in a beautifully decorated old shophouse hidden on Krabi Road in old Phuket Town. The name Kaeng Liang is the name of a traditional spicy shrimp paste soup from central Thailand.
Inthanin Naithon is a tiny restaurant hidden on the soft sands of the beautiful Naithon Beach, near Phuket International Airport. The place is hard to find, but it is worth the effort.
Krua Pai Lin Restaurant (Sapphire) is a good and real local restaurant just before reaching the Kathu Waterfalls in Kathu
Located at Chivitr Hotel in Nai Harn, Samut is a trendy restaurant serving modern Thai cuisine focusing on local seafood prepared with local ingredients and spices.
Khao Tom Thanon Di Buk is a local restaurant famous for its morning rice porridge and noodle soup, located on Phang Nga Road in the back of Phuket Town, and only open from 6 in the morning to 12 pm. The restaurant has been listed three years in a row in the Michelin Guide for Thailand.
Maimorn Forest is a locally well-known Thai restaurant, hidden from view in Phuket Town, next to Bus Terminal 1. The place has been open for decades and was recently renovated. The new layout is beautiful, with a bit of a forest theme and an artificial waterfall. The place is immense and you can choose which part of the restaurant you want to sit in.
We Camping Phuket is a local restaurant in Kathu, with a fun camping decor and a vast outdoor sitting area. Despite the name, the place is not related to camping at all.
Somtam Puma 2 Kathu is another hidden local restaurant we always enjoy in Kathu. The food is excellent and truly local, the team is great, it’s cheap, and the surroundings are fun. You can sit at normal tables, or one of those ‘salas’ most tourists find rather uncomfortable.
Smile Bar is a very popular beachfront restaurant and bars with a great location on Kamala Beach, just across the beach and the sea. The place has been renovated and is brighter and more welcoming with a brighter white design and two lines of immense coconut trees in front, the perfect setting for your Instagram photos.
Loukthor Vegetarian Restaurant, located near Jui Tui Shrine in Phuket Town, is particularly popular during the famous Phuket Vegetarian Festival. There are a few vegan and vegetarian restaurants on that same Ranong Road, but this one is excellent. They offer cook-to-order dishes such as fried rice and stir-fried noodles.
Boat Bar and Restaurant is a long-established venue with a golden location, right by the beautiful beach of Kamala Beach.
Vegetarian House is a fantastic place to experience authentic vegetarian Thai food in Phuket, and it is conveniently located on the roadside of Chaofa Road, in Chalong. The large yellow banner and flags, indicating vegan and vegetarian restaurants in Thailand, are clearly visible from afar.
The Good View is a superb restaurant serving good Thai food on the beach of Nai Yang at a good price. A perfect place for a holiday lunch and to relax at the end of the day with a cold drink, waiting for the sunset! The team is friendly and always very welcoming, day or night.
Esan Bar, despite calling itself a bar, is an excellent and affordable Thai restaurant serving Isan food from the northeast of Thailand. The restaurant sits by the busy roadside on the outskirts of Phuket town,
O Cha Rot is an unassuming local restaurant, but it serves one of the best noodle soups in Phuket Town, so good that it made it to the Michelin Guide in Phuket. The restaurant has no decoration whatsoever, white wall, stainless cooking station and stainless tables.
Red Clam in Kathu, or Hoi Pai Daeng in Thai, is a local restaurant serving good and simple Thai food, perfect for sharing with your friends at the end of the day, the way Thai food is best enjoyed. The restaurant is modest, but the setting is fun, with a vast open-air garden with open tables and those typical bamboo huts so popular in Thai restaurants. In case of rain, there is also a large covered area in the back.
Tasak Seafood is a modest but excellent local restaurant serving inexpensive seafood in a beautiful seaside location in Paklok.
Wanlamun is the most popular Thai sweets and Thai desserts restaurant in Phuket Town. The restaurant has been open for decades and serves an astonishingly large choice of local sweets you probably didn’t even know existed.
Day & Night of Phuket on Dibuk Road has always stood out for its striking design and buzzing atmosphere, but on our most recent visit, it was the food that really impressed.
Krua Ohm is a small and modest local Thai restaurant in Kathu with a mention on the famous Michelin Guide for two consecutive years.
Suay Cherngtalay is a popular and excellent restaurant serving modern Thai cuisine with a creative touch by chef Noi Tammasak (Suay means beautiful in Thai). The restaurant is very inviting, divided into two areas.
Ta Tuay is a little-known local restaurant, hidden not far from the Sarasin Bridge in the very north of Phuket, near Sai Kaew Beach. Ta Tuay serves excellent local food and dishes from Phuket.
Jadjan is an excellent local Thai restaurant hidden on the outskirts of Phuket Town. Not many travellers know that a former chef from a 5-star hotel in Bangkok runs it.
Jongjit Kitchen in Kathu is proof that a restaurant doesn’t have to be fancy or expensive to be excellent, and even receive a Michelin Plate for fresh ingredients, carefully prepared. The restaurant is local and modest, the prices are low and the food served is excellent and truly local, making it a good culinary experience while in Phuket.
The Cove Phuket is a lovely little hideaway nestled in Ao Yon Beach near Panwa, a beautiful part of Phuket where very few tourists set foot. This small open-air restaurant and bungalow resort is blessed with a beautiful seaside view
Kin-Kub-Ei Restaurant is a hidden gem serving delicious southern dishes cooked by Khun Tubtim with her family recipes and served in a beautiful garden near the main road to Bangtao Beach.
The Charm Dining Gallery opened in a century-old Thai house in Phuket Town. The location on Dibuk Road is the perfect way to end your exploration if you spend a day wandering the old streets.
Kanom Jeen Saphan Hin is a long time favourite restaurant in Phuket Town where mostly locals come for a late breakfast, lunch or even dinner.
Hong Khao Tom Pla is a discreet and long-established restaurant in Phuket Town, named after its famous fish rice porridge speciality. Behind this modest appearance is a little gem, so good that the Michelin Guide awarded them a ‘Bib Gourmand’.
Baan 109 is a fun vintage looking restaurant as well as a casual bar on the popular Thalang Road, the historical street of Old Phuket Town where the famous Sunday Walking Street Market is held every weekend. The name ‘Baan’ means house and the number 109 is the street number.
Nak-Kerd Seaview Cafe is a small restaurant with a superb panoramic view of Karon Beach. The place is simple, partly made of thatched roofs and bamboo tables, which adds a lot of charm to a simple lunch or dinner after you visit the Big Buddha of Phuket. Nak-Kerd is the name of the immense hill where the Buddha is built.
Southern Thai food is a treat for those who love seafood and want to explore intense and spicy flavours.
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.
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.
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.
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!
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.
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.
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.
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.
Phuket’s full MICHELIN Guide 2026: PRU’s one star, all 18 Bib Gourmands, plus our honest notes on which ones are actually worth a visit.
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.
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,
