8 Best Local Thai Restaurants in Phuket Town
Where to Find Phuket’s Best Local Food?
The best Thai restaurants in Phuket Town are also some of the best on the island. The provincial capital is a gastronomic delight, with top-notch eateries serving a variety of cuisines. Thai restaurants are particularly common, with atmospheric shophouses on practically every street. If you’re looking for the very best local dishes, you’ll almost certainly find them here, usually at exceptionally low prices.
All of Phuket Town’s eateries vie for visitor attention but some seduce more than others thanks to their beautiful interiors and palm-shaded patios (which sometimes face the ocean). Below, you’ll find a quality selection of restaurants that serve delicious homemade food, greenlit by our team of well-travelled foodies.
What are the best local Thai restaurants in Phuket Town?
1. One Chun Café & Restaurant
Classic cuisine served in a Colonial-style building
Good for: Couples, Food, Nightlife
One Chun Café & Restaurant, on Thepkasattri Road, is one of the best Thai restaurants in Phuket. That’s a boast made all the more remarkable when you consider how affordable the prices are. The 13-page menu of this relaxed, vintage-style restaurant contains only genuine Sino-Thai and southern Thai dishes, most of which are seafood-based.
Among the most popular choices at One Chun is the crabmeat curry in coconut milk (it’s fragrant and delicious). The restaurant is very busy most days, with the majority of the customers being local Thais. Walk-in basis only. No table bookings.
Location: 48/1 Thepkasattri Road, Talat Yai, Muang, Phuket 83000, Thailand
Open: Daily from 10am to 10pm
Phone: +66 76 355 909
One Chun Café & Restaurant
2. Kopitiam by Wilai
Traditional Thai food in an old-world Chinese shop
Good for: Food
Kopitiam by Wilai offers a taste of Phuket Old Town. It showcases a casual but traditional interior and tantalizing homemade food, with a strong focus on classic Thai dishes and Peranakan Chinese specialities. It’s a very small venue, with only 25 seats. The day’s specials are written on a blackboard in Thai, but the menu is in both Thai and English.
Top choices include pad prick Thai dam (black pepper chicken with mushrooms) and pad krapow gai (fried chicken with basil leaves), among other common dishes. Don’t miss the aromatic coffee either. It’s unbelievably delicious.
Location: 18 Thalang Rd, Tambon Talat Yai, Mueang Phuket District, Phuket 83000, Thailand
Open: Monday–Saturday from 11 am to 8 pm (closed on Sundays)
Phone: +66 81 895 4278
Kopitiam by Wilai
3. Raya Restaurant
Tasty Thai Sino dishes in a renovated mansion
Good for: Food, History
Raya Restaurant occupies a renovated Sino-Portuguese mansion on Dibuk Road. The sister-venue of One Chun Café & Restaurant, it takes guests back to the turn of the 20th century with very high quality Thai cuisine and a vintage dining area.
Signature dishes include caramelized braised pork belly, spicy Phuket prawns, and tender crabmeat curry, all of which are bursting with flavor. Even though Raya Restaurant is the choice of important dignitaries and celebrities, the prices are affordable enough for it to be regularly filled by locals. Read more
Location: 48/1 Dibuk Rd, Talat Yai, Mueang Phuket District, Phuket 83000, Thailand
Open: Daily from 10 am to 10 pm
Phone: +66 76 218 155
Raya Restaurant
4. Natural Restaurant
Rustic-chic restaurant with a plant-filled patio
Good for: Food, Unusual
Natural Restaurant (or Tamachart Restaurant) is a rustic two-storey venue that certainly lives up to its name. It boasts a lovely thatched roof and lots of plants both inside and outside the dining room. Its random bric-a-brac (including old valve radios, fish tanks made out of retro TVs and computer monitors, and a fully-functional electric train set) just adds to the charm.
Natural Restaurant features a huge menu of over 200 affordable Thai dishes, including a particularly fine oyster platter, steamed seabass in lemon sauce, and stir-fried tiger prawns with garlic and pepper.
Location: 62/5 Phuthon, Bangkok Rd, Talat Nuea, Phuket 83000, Thailand
Open: Daily from 10.30 am to 10 pm
Phone: +66 76 214 037
Natural Restaurant
5. VT Namnueng Phuket Restaurant
Wonderful variety of Vietnamese and Thai dishes
Good for: Budget, Food
VT Namneung is an extremely popular chain restaurant and their Phuket Town venue, in the lively Mueang district, is astonishingly good. The food is such excellent value for money that its 200-seats are regularly filled, mostly with local Thais.
Favorites from the menu include prawns in tamarind sauce, chicken with cashew nuts, and a full spectrum of green, red and yellow curries, with dishes priced between 100 and 200 baht each. The portions are generous, so do come hungry. The staff are super-friendly too which only adds to the hospitable atmosphere.
Location: 52/18-19 Wichit, Mueang Phuket District, Phuket 83000, Thailand
Open: Tuesday–Sunday from 10.30 am to 9 pm (closed on Mondays)
Phone: +66 82 823 9328
VT Namnueng Phuket Restaurant
6. Mee Ton Poe
Serving the best Hokkien noodles since 1946
Good for: Budget, Food, History
An easy way to get a typical taste of Phuket is by going to Mee Ton Poe, a noodle institution located by the Surin traffic circle in Phuket Town. The shop is famous for its signature dish: stir-fried Hokkien mee or Hokkien noodles, which have been eaten by local folk since the mid-1940’s.
These thick yellow fried noodles with seafood, pork, and vegetable toppings are best served with a half-cooked egg on top and accompanied by iced tea or a sweet Thai coconut drink. The restaurant can be very busy at midday and you may have to share a table with strangers. That said, it’s a good chance to converse and feel part of the community. Read more
Location: 214, 7-8 Phuket Rd, Tambon Talat Yai, Muang, Phuket 83000, Thailand
Open: Daily from 9.30 am to 6.30pm
Phone: +66 76 216 293
Mee Ton Poe
7. Cha Kang Raw
For all-things noodle!
Good for: Budget, Food
Deceptively modest from the outside, Cha Kang Raw is actually rather smart on the inside. It’s well-lit and features plenty of nice wooden furniture and walls that are used as blackboards, showing off impressive drawings and names of dishes in Thai.
There’s also an English menu, which highlights the restaurant’s specialty: Thai noodle soup. Ordering dishes is a step-by-step DIY process, allowing you to choose your own combination of noodles and flavors. Cha Kang Raw offers free Wi-Fi as well. It’s popular amongst locals, especially students.
Location: 94/4 Patiphat Rd, Tambon Talat Nuea, Mueang Phuket District, Phuket 83000, Thailand
Open: Daily from 11 am to 9.30 am
Phone: +66 86 909 1829
Cha Kang Raw
8. Pae Teaw Noodle
No-fuss shophouse restaurant with a 60 year history
Good for: Budget, Food, History
Pae Teaw Noodle is essentially a simple shophouse restaurant, albeit larger and more open than most. It occupies a rather weather-beaten building at the edge of Old Phuket Town, but the interior is squeaky clean.
The main dishes are noodle-based, including egg noodles in tom yum and egg noodles with wontons. In fact, most of the menu is just noodle combinations with varying ingredients. It may be simple, but it’s cheap and very popular, particularly with youngsters.
Location: Hongyokutis Road, Talat Yai, Muang, Phuket 83000, Thailand
Open: Daily from 10 am to 7 pm
Phone: +66 7 621 9046
Pae Teaw Noodle
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