Phuket: Where to Eat and What to Try

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Phuket’s food has real Peranakan, Hokkien, and Malay influences layered into it: dishes you will not find in Bangkok. Look for mee Hokkien (Hokkien fried noodles), moo hong (soy and pepper braised pork belly), o-aew (a Phuket-only shaved ice and herb jelly dessert), roti, loba (a Baba offal dish), and the fierce southern curries gaeng tai pla and gaeng som. Southern Thai food runs spicy; say “mai phet” if you want it toned down. One trap worth naming: khao soi is a northern dish from Chiang Mai, not a Phuket one, no matter what a menu near the beach claims.

Verified restaurants

  1. Raya, a century-old Sino-Portuguese mansion in Old Town, is the island’s most famous kitchen. The crab meat curry is the dish to order.
  2. One Chun, also in Old Town, serves genuine Phuket home cooking at prices well below the tourist strip.
  3. Torry’s, the reliable name for ice cream, a good way to close out an Old Town food walk.

Beyond these three, treat other specific restaurant recommendations you see online with some skepticism; ask your hotel for a current local favorite rather than assuming an old blog post is still accurate.

5 markets worth building a meal around

  1. Lard Yai, the Sunday night walking street market in Old Town along Thalang Road, 4 to 10pm, genuinely local rather than staged for tourists.
  2. Banzaan Market, Patong, for fresh seafood you pick yourself and have cooked to order. Agree the price before it goes in the wok; overcharging here is well documented.
  3. Malin Plaza, also in Patong, for cheap night-stall eating away from Bangla Road prices.
  4. Chillva Market, Phuket Town, a container-market setup with a more modern, mixed Thai and international lineup.
  5. Rawai Seafood Market, on the south coast, works the same pick-and-cook system as Banzaan with a quieter, more local crowd. Agree the price here too.

Phuket-style dim sum is a genuine breakfast institution in Old Town, worth an early start rather than a late one. If your trip lands in October, the Phuket Vegetarian Festival (2026 dates run roughly October 9 to 18) turns Old Town into an all-vegetarian food event alongside its firewalking and piercing processions; the dates shift yearly since they follow the lunar calendar, and the rituals are genuine religious devotion rather than a show, so keep a respectful distance if you watch.

Book a Phuket food tour on GetYourGuide , or browse Old Town cooking classes on Viator .

Read more: things to do , where to stay , and festivals and events .