Top Restaurants in Rawai

Phuket Town's Old Town district has emerged as the island's most interesting dining destination — a dense concentration of heritage shophouses converted into restaurants, cafes, and street food stalls serving authentic Southern Thai cuisine at very local prices. Patong has the greatest quantity of restaurants (covering everything from cheap Thai to international fast food to fine dining), though quality is uneven and the strip-facing restaurants cater heavily to tourists. Surin and Bang Tao have a growing cluster of upscale resort-adjacent restaurants and beach clubs. Rawai's seafood market area, where boats land fresh catch daily, has excellent casual seafood restaurants popular with expats.

Phuket's Chinese-Malay-Thai fusion cuisine is distinctive from mainland Thai food. Must-try dishes include: Mee Hokkien (Phuket-style yellow noodles stir-fried with prawns and pork), oh tao (oyster pancake), kanom jeen (rice noodles in rich Southern Thai curries), pad see ew with wide rice noodles, and the famous Phuket lobster at Rawai's seafood market. For street food, the Sunday Walking Street in Phuket Town Old Town is one of the best street food markets in Thailand. The annual Phuket Vegetarian Festival in October transforms the Old Town with vegetarian street food stalls serving unique dishes from the Chinese-Buddhist tradition.

Yes — Kata and Karon have a diverse restaurant scene covering all budgets, and both are considered more family-friendly than Patong. Kata's small village area has a cluster of Thai restaurants, pizza places, and Western-style cafes along the main road. Karon has a broader strip of tourist-oriented restaurants including Thai, Chinese, Indian, and international cuisine. Both areas have cheaper local food options than Patong with fewer of the aggressive touts. For the very best local Thai food, the markets and small restaurants just inland from the main tourist strip in both areas offer authentic Southern Thai food at 40–60% of beachfront restaurant prices.