Samut Restaurant Phuket

A modern Thai restaurant in Nai Harn

Samut is a trendy restaurant that just opened in Nai Harn, serving modern Thai cuisine focusing on local seafood prepared with local ingredients and spices. ‘Samut’, meaning ‘Ocean’ in Thai, is perfect for a special occasion and while it appears like a high-end restaurant, it brings a new fresh and unique touch to Phuket island.

Chef Chatchawan ‘Banky’ Varahajeerakul brings a new dining experience to Phuket, and Samut Restaurant combines all the ingredients to become a contender in the next Phuket Michelin Guide. It’s a superb restaurant run by a great team where food lovers can enjoy a refined culinary journey in a relaxed ambience. We appreciated that while the place is elegant, the service is never pretentious as it can sometimes be in high-level restaurants.

Chef Banky presents an eight courses dinner with 16 delicately crafted dishes. Each course is briefly described with the names and origin of the ingredients, which helps visualize and appreciate the complexity and the passion the chef placed into his craft. Dishes are just one bite-size or two, and all are beautifully presented, a pleasure for your eyes before revealing a wonderful taste and texture on your palate. You will get to experience the freshest local catches: razor clams, Phuket lobsters, red snappers, tiger prawns, and many more, each prepared with a southern touch, which is a spicy and little bold in taste. You could ask for ‘not spicy’ but as the chef mentioned, the food would lose most of its identity.

At first, we were worried that eight courses would be too much, but it was just right because it is all seafood and each portion was of a reasonable size. Dinner was served accompanied by an excellent Bordeau Blanc white wine. The local Phuket dessert called ‘Tu Bo’ was the perfect ending to a dinner that surpassed all our expectations.

The Restaurant

The restaurant is beautifully decorated with wooden floors and warm tones and only accommodates five tables indoors and a few tables on the front balcony, where visitors can enjoy a cocktail before dinner. The dining room has a soft Chinese atmosphere, and with only five tables, advanced reservations are required.

The Hotel

The Chivitr is a hotel built just a few years ago in a surprising ancient Chinese village design. If you arrive a little before dinner, take the time to walk around to take some photos, it is quite a surprising hotel. It is obvious that a lot was invested in creating an old Chinese village atmosphere with a lot of details. It really is a place for Instagrammers.

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NAI HARN BEACH ⛱️