Kruvit Raft – Phuket Floating Restaurant

Phuket’s Michelin-Listed Floating Seafood Restaurant

Kruvit Raft (แพครูวิทย์) is a floating seafood restaurant anchored between Phuket’s east coast and Koh Maphrao (Coconut Island), reached by a short free longtail boat ride from Laem Hin Pier. Several large wooden rafts connected by thatched roofs sit directly on the water, with fish and shellfish kept alive in nets beneath your feet until you order them. Kruvit Raft is listed in the 2026 MICHELIN Guide Thailand as “Kruvit Raft (Ban Laem Hin)”. It is one of the most unusual dining experiences on the island, and still mostly visited by Thais rather than foreign tourists.

The area around Laem Hin Pier is known locally as “Kra Chang”, which translates roughly as “fishing basket”, and covers a cluster of three floating restaurants: Kruvit Raft, Kru Suwit Seafood, and Bang Mud Seafood. Kruvit is the biggest and the most famous, and the only one in the current Michelin Guide. If you only go to one floating restaurant in Phuket, this is the one.

What Makes Kruvit Raft Special

Apart from the obvious fact that the whole restaurant floats, the best part of Kruvit is how they keep the seafood alive until the moment you order. Walking around the raft, you will see fish, crabs, prawns, lobsters, and oysters in nets suspended between the wooden decking. Point at the grouper you want and it is on your plate within minutes. It is also great entertainment for kids.

You will likely also see a few curiosities that are there more for the show than the menu: a couple of leopard sharks circling in a net, a dozen moray eels, and the famous blowfish that the staff will gently scare so it inflates into a spiky balloon for a photo. If the blowfish is the kind known as Fugu, I would not recommend ordering it.

The raft setting also changes with the light. Lunch is relaxed, breezy, and good for families or long lazy meals. Sunset is the best time for a first visit, when the light hits the bay and the temperature drops. Dinner is great too, but arrive before dark so you see the approach.

What to Eat at Kruvit Raft

The menu is long and built around whatever is swimming in the nets that day. Prices are by weight for most seafood, so ask before ordering anything adventurous. The classics are all excellent, and the local specialities are worth trying if you have never had them.

Poo Ma (Blue Crabs)

Fresh blue crabs from the nets beneath the raft, steamed or stir-fried with curry powder or black pepper. Simple, clean, and the sweetness of the meat is the point. Order them whole and work through them slowly.

Pla Tom Towchiew (Sour Thai Fish Soup)

An old Thai soup featuring fish cooked in a clear broth with salted soybeans (towchiew), garlic, ginger, and fresh herbs. The flavour is mildly salty, sour, and subtly sweet all at once. The Michelin Guide specifically highlights the grouper version with Chinese soybean paste. A good alternative to Tom Yum if you want something more local.

Yum Kai Mang Da Talay (Horseshoe Crab Roe Salad)

A genuinely unusual Thai dish made with the eggs of the horseshoe crab (Mang Da Talay), mixed with green mango, red onions, chilli, lime, fish sauce, and cashew nuts. The flavour is spicy, sour, and nutty, with a strong sea taste. The crabs themselves look like prehistoric ammonites, and you only eat the eggs. Try it for the story as much as the taste.

Goong Phao (Grilled King Prawns)

Massive king prawns grilled over charcoal and split open down the middle, served with a simple sour-spicy seafood dipping sauce. Kruvit has some of the biggest prawns on the east coast. One prawn per person is plenty.

Hoi Nang Rom (Fresh Oysters)

Local Thai oysters here are huge, much bigger than the small oysters most people are used to. You cut them into two or four pieces, add fresh garlic, chopped chilli, local herbs, and a sour dipping sauce. Once you get past the size of them, they are very good.

Yum Pak Kood (Fern Salad with Squid)

A Southern Thai speciality that pairs tender fiddlehead ferns with fresh herbs, shallots, chilli, and squid, tossed in a lime and fish sauce dressing with crispy fried shallots on top. Fresh, light, and a good counterpoint to the richer grilled dishes.

Tom Yum Talay (Spicy Seafood Soup)

A seafood version of the classic Tom Yum, loaded with prawns, squid, fish, mushrooms, lemongrass, galangal, and kaffir lime leaves. Spicy, sour, and very fragrant. Good to share for a table of four.

Goong Mang Gorn (Mantis Shrimps)

Mantis shrimps are famous in Thailand for their punch (literally, they can knock out crabs with a single strike of their front claws) and their high price. Kruvit has them when they come in. Check the size and price before you commit because they can add up quickly. Grilled or stir-fried with black pepper and garlic is the usual preparation.

How to Get to Kruvit Raft

From Phuket Town, head north on the main airport road. Just before the road starts a series of curves, turn right onto the small side road leading to Laem Hin. Follow the signs to Laem Hin Pier. There is a car park at the pier, and you will see Laem Hin Seafood restaurant next to it (very good, but not floating).

At the pier, look for the Kruvit Raft sign and the longtail boats. A boatman is always standing by to take you across for free. The ride is about 5 minutes. It is nice to tip a small amount (20 to 50 baht) on the way back.

If you use Google Maps, search “Kruvit Raft” directly and it will send you to the pier. Not the raft itself: you cannot drive to the raft, only boat to it.

Insider Tips

Go for sunset. The drive to Laem Hin Pier is best done late afternoon, arriving around 5 to 6 pm. The boat ride, the golden light over Phang Nga Bay, and the temperature drop as you start dinner is the best version of this experience. Lunch is also good but the midday sun over an open raft can be strong.

Book for weekend evenings. Kruvit is popular with Thai families on weekends and the closest tables to the water fill up first. Weekday lunches are usually walk-in friendly.

Ask prices before ordering by weight. Most of the seafood is priced per 100g. Mantis shrimps and lobsters in particular can run high. Ask the staff to weigh and quote before they cook, so there are no surprises on the bill.

Order one or two local specialities you have not had before. The whole point of Kruvit is that it serves things you will not find at a regular Thai restaurant. Horseshoe crab roe salad, Pla Tom Towchiew, or the big Thai oysters are the obvious starting points.

Bring cash. Card payments sometimes work and sometimes do not depending on the connection out on the raft. Cash also makes it easier to tip the boatman on the way back.

Combine with a visit to Koh Maphrao. A half-day trip to Coconut Island in the afternoon followed by dinner at Kruvit on the way back works very well. The boats from Laem Hin also serve the island, so you can plan one round-trip covering both.

The other two floating restaurants next door, Kru Suwit Seafood and Bang Mud Seafood, are also worth knowing about. If Kruvit is fully booked or you have been before and want to try something different, they are both good alternatives with the same floating setup.

Kruvit Raft Through the Years

The floating restaurants at Laem Hin started as simple wooden rafts used by local fishermen for cooking their own catch, later opened up to friends and family, and eventually to anyone who could find the pier. The cluster of three rafts grew slowly over several decades, long before tourism had discovered the east coast of Phuket. For most of its history, Kruvit was a Thai secret, known mainly to Phuket locals and Thai visitors from Bangkok.

The wider world started noticing in the 2010s, helped by Thai foodie forums like Pantip where Kruvit was regularly voted one of the best seafood restaurants in Phuket. In 2019, when the Michelin Guide Thailand expanded to cover Phuket, the Laem Hin floating cluster was on the inspectors’ radar. Kru Suwit Seafood Raft picked up a Michelin listing in 2021, and Kruvit Raft itself was added to the guide more recently, appearing in the current 2026 edition as “Kruvit Raft (Ban Laem Hin)”. Both listings are Selected restaurants rather than Bib Gourmand or starred, which means Michelin inspectors recommend them as quality places to visit.

What has not changed much is the restaurant itself. It is still a cluster of wooden rafts. The fish are still in nets under your feet. The boatmen still work for tips and a fare shared with the restaurant. The food is still cooked simply and served quickly. Tourism has grown over the past few years and the tables are busier on weekends, but the basic setup is the same one Phuket fishermen started decades ago.

Kruvit Raft Photos

FAQs About Kruvit Raft

Local Thai Restaurants in Phuket