Laem Hin Seafood

A seafood restaurant popular with locals

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 weekday dinners and even more on weekends. The setting above the water is charming, but it’s not what you would call a romantic restaurant; it’s a little too busy for that. In addition, the low tide reveals mostly a muddy landscape with crabs and mudskippers walking fish.

However, if you can arrive at 6 pm, you will find the place pleasantly quiet and breezy. The restaurant doesn’t offer a sunset view, but the sky often turns red, orange and pink at dinner time, creating a very relaxing atmosphere, especially if you can secure a table on the pier.

The success of Laem Hin comes from its excellent and very fresh seafood, plus a vast range of other southern Thai dishes. Once you start learning what good Thai food tastes like, it will be hard for you to go back to those tourist restaurants in Patong.

Fish, crabs, prawns and shells are delivered directly by local fishermen and kept alive in large tanks you can see in the kitchen area. The menu is extensive and will please both new visitors to Phuket and those who are already familiar with real Phuket seafood.

There is ample parking so you can park your car quite easily. To go there from Patong by Tuk Tuk will be a bit of a challenge since it is quite far (21 km or 35 minutes), and the ride will probably cost you more than the meal.

If you want to try something even more memorable, get a long-tail boat ride from the Laem Hin jetty to one of the floating restaurants you see in the far. It’s only a 5-minute ride, but the atmosphere is fantastic.

What to order at Laem Hin Seafood?

Most seafood, crabs, prawns, and fish are charged per 100 grams, so they usually ask how big you want your fish. However, overall, it’s not very easy to guess how much food you get. The fish grilled in a salt crust is particularly delicious, moist and tender and served with a nice seafood sauce. A must-try (360 baht).

Blue Crab

We usually order a couple of blue crabs, which have delicious sweet meat and are easy to open, unlike the hard-to-eat (but also excellent) mud crab. Of course, the crab is blue before cooking and turns bright orange once steamed, boiled or grilled, but everybody knows that. The two blue crabs you see in the photo below were in total 600 grams and cost 420 baht.

Thai oysters are also fun to try and are good once you get used to the different dressings. Here, oysters don’t come with wine vinegar, but with garlic, chillies, lime, fried shallots and some leaves we don’t remember the name of. They look like overgrown Fines de Claire, maybe 4 to 6 times bigger than the classic oysters, so big, you will need to cut them in 4 pieces to eat them!

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Grilled tiger prawns

Grilled tiger prawns are served with a spicy dipping sauce, a popular seafood delicacy in Thai cuisine. Let me know if you need more details!

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Hor Mok Talay (Thai steamed seafood curry)

Hor Mok Talay is a Thai steamed seafood curry served in banana leaf cups, featuring a rich, creamy texture with aromatic herbs and coconut milk.

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Goong Pao (grilled prawns)

Goong Pao are grilled prawns served with a spicy seafood dipping sauce. The prawns are typically charcoal-grilled to enhance their natural sweetness and paired with a tangy, garlicky chilli-lime sauce.

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Buaa Tod

Buaa Tod is a traditional Thai dish made by deep-frying a mixture of wild herbs, vegetables, and sometimes shrimp or other seafood in a light batter. The dish is crispy and often served with a spicy dipping sauce to complement the flavours of the herbs.

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Gaeng Som Pla (Southern Thai spicy and sour curry)

Gaeng Som Pla is a Southern Thai spicy and sour curry made with fish and often pineapple or other vegetables. Its vibrant orange broth is flavoured with turmeric, chilli paste, and tamarind, delivering a bold, tangy, and fiery taste. A staple in Southern Thai cuisine.

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Yum Pak Kood Talay (Thai fern salad with seafood)

Yum Pak Kood Talay is a Thai fern salad with mixed seafood, fiddlehead ferns, prawns, squid, and fresh herbs in a tangy and spicy dressing made from lime juice, fish sauce, and chillies.

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Tom Yum Talay (spicy and sour Thai seafood soup)

Tom Yum Talay is a spicy and sour Thai seafood soup with shrimp, squid, and other seafood, along with herbs like lemongrass, galangal, kaffir lime leaves, and chilli. Known for its bold, aromatic flavours, it is a favourite dish in Thai cuisine.

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Hoi Chak Teen (grilled wing shells)

Hoi Chak Teen, or grilled wing shells, are boiled or grilled, and the tender meat inside is eaten by pulling it out with a toothpick. It is typically served with a spicy seafood dipping sauce, adding a tangy and zesty flavour.

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Khao Pad (fried rice)

Khao Pad (fried rice) stir-fried rice with egg, garlic, onion, and often green onions, seasoned with soy sauce or fish sauce. It’s typically served with fresh cucumber slices, spring onions, and lime for garnish.

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Laem Hin Seafood Photos

Local Thai Restaurants in Phuket