So much great food: fresh seafood grilled, coconut-based curries, spicy dishes, unusual things, regional cusine from the Northeast, Chiang Mai dips, oysters and crabs. it goes on and on in Thailand, but Phuket is the home of seafood. Don't come to Thailand hoping or expecting to lose weight Eating on Phuket Island can be one of the memorable pleasures of a holiday here. Thailand is already famed for its creative cuisine and its cheap seafood. With the tourism and hotel boom have come scores of new restaurants, many bringing cuisine from every corner of the country and of the globe. And the standards are high, the prices low. Just to survive more than a year in the highly competitive restaurant business in a food-loving country like Thailand is proof enough of quality.

Seafood is at the top of the list for most foreign visitors, and Phuket is heaven for lovers of the fruits of the ocean. Being a major fishing centre, Phuket gets first pick of fresh seafood coming ashore in both local ‘longtail’ boats and trawlers of the high seas. The village-based ‘longtails’ fish for hours each day or night, before returning, so their catch is readily available and prized for freshness.

Seafood caught locally includes a wide variety of fish, prawns, crabs, squid, shark, lobsters and several varieties of shellfish. The Thais are masters in the preparation of all of these, and so Thai-seafood restaurants in Phuket do a booming business. Virtually all of the restaurants relying on tourists also serve seafood, be it Italian-style, German or Vietnamese.

Patong’s restaurants
In Patong, Phuket’s throbbing centre of food shopping and entertainment, the beachfront road is lined by a series of outdoor restaurants specialising in fresh seafood. All have Thai menus, giving the opportunity to choose your fish or crabs or prawns from a boat of ice at the front then ordering it cooked in a variety of Thai styles. Prices in tourist centres like this are naturally higher than in restaurants on other parts of the island where the clientele is largely Thai. If you want to try things truly 100% Thai-style – and that included a lot of chilli – you will need your own transportation and our restaurant list on Chalong and Rawai.

On every beach a feast
But every beach on Phuket has a great choice in restaurants. The hygiene standards are quite high. Those with good ambience – mostly overlooking the ocean – will be the most crowded. 

• Thung Kha Cafe :: Khao Rang
• Nan :: 16 Wichit Songkhram Road (Thai -Chinese -Japanese)
• Phuket Sea Food :: 66/2 Phuket Road
• New Lucky :: 74/162 Phun Phon Night Plaza, Phun Phon Road
• Metropole Cafe ::Metropole Hotel Montri Road (Thai, Chinese, Western)
• Mae Phon :: Phangnga Road (Thai, Chinese, Western)
• Laem Thong :: 31-39 Opposite Thawon Grand Plaza (Chinese, Seafood)
• Lai An Lao :: 58 Ratsada Road (Thai, Chinese, Western)
• Forturna Pavilion :: Montri Road (Chinese)
• Euro Food :: 15-7 Thalang Road (Western)
• Ban Saeng Duan :: 27 Chana Charoen (Muslim)

• Al Dente :: 35/7-8 Patak Road (Italian)
• Hayashi :: Raya Pacific Resort, 137/2 Mu 2 Patak Road (Japanese)
• Islander :: 6/3 Patak Road (Thai, Chinese, Western, Seafood)
• Karon Caf? :: 33/76 Patak Road, Karon Beach (Western)
• The Little Mermaid :: 36/10 Patak Road(Western)
• The Terrace :: Karon Beach (Thai-Western)

Chalong Bay-Surin Beach-Rawai Beach

• Sun Down Cafe :: 7 Surin Beach
• Seven Sea Seafood :: 28/8 Chao Fa Road
• Phromthep :: Laem Phromthep 94/6 Mu 6, Tambon Rawai (Thai)
• Le Croissant :: 18/136-140 Chao Fa Nok Road (Bakery)
• Kan Eng 2 :: 9/3 Chao Fa Road (Seafood)
• Kan Eng 1 :: Chalong Junction, Wiset Road (Seafood)
• Chom View :: Siam Phuket Resort 24/24 Rawai Plaza (Thai)

• Le Jadin Patong Hill :: Soi Na Nai
• La Spaghettiria :: 70/68 Rat-uthit Road, Paradise Complex (Italian)
• La Mousson :: 89/3 Sawatdirak (French)
• Lai Mai :: 68 Thawiwong Road (European, Thai)
• The Islander :: 94/27 Soi Patong Resort Tel: 0-7634-2685 (Thai, Western)
• Hungry Tiger :: 93/35 Rat uthit (Thai, Western)
• Hideaway :: 47/4 Na Nai (Thai, Western)
• Grillhuntte :: 83/54 Thawiwong Road(Austrarian, German)
• Ban Rim Pha :: 100/7 Kalim Beach (Thai)
• Baitong :: Patong Beach Hotel 124 Thawiwong Road (Seafood)
• Buffalo Steak House :: 94/25-26 Soi Baitong Resort (Western)
• Casanova :: 97/32 Thawiwong Road, Patong Resort Arcade (Italian )

• Bang Thong Ruan Phae :: Soi Sai Thong, Tambon Bangthong, Krathu District (Thai, Western)
• Paul’s Place :: Kamala Beach
• Suan Sawan :: Between Kalim and Kamala Beaches
• Yam Yen Seafood :: Phanwa Cape, Sakdidet Road