Пхукет Restaurants

Eating in Phuket splits along fairly clear lines. The west-coast resort strips at Patong, Karon and Kata carry the international trade: seafood grills on the beach road, Italian and Indian kitchens, steakhouses and hotel restaurants, with mains generally running three hundred to nine hundred baht. Phuket Town is cheaper and more local, and it is where the island's own cooking is easiest to find.

Phuket has a distinct Hokkien-influenced Peranakan cuisine that does not appear elsewhere in Thailand in the same form. Mee hokkien, o-tao, moo hong, loba and kanom jeen Phuket are the dishes to look for, and the Old Town shophouse kitchens along Thalang, Dibuk and Yaowarat roads are where they are best represented. Several of these rooms have been running for decades and appear in the island's Michelin listings.

Seafood is the other constant. The Rawai seafood market lets you buy fish, prawns and shellfish from the stalls and have a neighbouring restaurant cook them by weight. Chalong, Nai Yang and Ao Yon all have their own beachfront seafood clusters. Night markets, notably the Chillva and Naka weekend markets and the Sunday Walking Street on Thalang Road, cover the low-cost end. High season from November to April is busiest, and booking is worth doing at the better-known rooms.