Most travelers come to Phuket for turquoise water and white sand. Fair enough — the Andaman Sea delivers. But I came back for the third time because of a 60-baht bowl of kanom jeen at a morning market in Phuket Town, and I'm not ashamed to admit it.
Phuket has a food identity that's entirely its own. It's not food transported to a beach. It's Hokkien Chinese meets Malay meets Thai Southern meets Peranakan, filtered through centuries of tin mining immigration and trading port culture. The result is a cuisine you can't get anywhere else in Thailand.
Phuket was a major tin mining center for hundreds of years, attracting waves of Chinese immigrants — primarily Hokkien from Fujian province. They married local Thai and Malay women, creating the Baba-Yaya (Peranakan) culture that still defines Phuket Town's Old Quarter.
This mixed heritage shows up on every plate. You get thick Hokkien noodles in Thai curry broth. Chinese dim sum with chili dipping sauces. Malay-influenced curries using Southern Thai spices. It's a culinary Venn diagram that only exists on this island.
The Essential Phuket Dishes
Mee Hokkien (Phuket Hokkien Noodles)
This is Phuket's signature dish, and I'll argue it's better than any noodle soup in Bangkok. Thick yellow wheat noodles swim in a rich, smoky pork-and-seafood broth, topped with crispy pork, wontons, hard-boiled egg, and a spoonful of nam phrik (chili paste) that transforms the entire bowl.
Where to eat it: Mee Ton Poe on Phuket Road in Old Town. Been open since the 1940s. A bowl costs 50-70 THB (~$1.50-2). The broth takes 12 hours to make. You can taste every one of those hours.
Kanom Jeen
Rice noodles served at room temperature with your choice of curry ladled over them. The curries range from mild coconut-based versions to the Southern Thai nam ya (fish curry with galangal, turmeric, and lemongrass) that'll make your eyes water.
Where to eat it: Any morning market before 9AM. The stalls near Ranong Road in Phuket Town do it best. 30-40 THB per plate. Most locals eat it for breakfast. You should too.
O-Tao (Crispy Oyster Pancake)
A Hokkien-origin dish: small oysters folded into an egg-and-rice-flour batter, fried until crispy on the bottom, soft on top, served with chili vinegar sauce. The ones at Chillva Market (Thursday-Saturday nights, 60-80 THB) are exceptional — the batter is thin and shatters when you bite through it.
Loba (Five-Spice Pork Roll)
Ground pork seasoned with five-spice powder, wrapped in bean curd skin, deep-fried until shattering-crispy. It's dim sum adjacent but distinctly Phuket. You'll find it at Old Town morning markets and dim sum restaurants for 20-30 THB per piece.
Phuket-Style Satay
Forget Bangkok satay. Phuket satay uses a turmeric-heavy marinade that turns the chicken bright orange-yellow, and serves it with a thinner, more peanut-forward sauce and ajad (cucumber relish). The stalls at Chillva Market sell sticks for 10 THB each. Minimum order: ten. I dare you to stop at ten.
The Food Markets
Chillva Market
Open Thursday through Saturday evenings. This is where Phuket residents actually eat. No tourist markup. Full meals under 100 THB. The satay stall at the east entrance, the pad thai wrapped in egg (60 THB), and the coconut ice cream cart (40 THB) are my anchors. It's also great for vintage shopping and live music.
Sunday Walking Street Market (Thalang Road)
4PM-10PM every Sunday. More touristy than Chillva but still excellent. Grilled seafood skewers (30-50 THB), mango sticky rice (60 THB), and freshly made khanom buang (Thai crepes, 20 THB each) eaten while walking past Sino-Portuguese shophouses.
Banzaan Fresh Market
In Patong, near the Jungceylon mall. Downstairs is a wet market where you can buy fresh seafood — prawns, squid, crabs, lobster — and take it upstairs to the food court where they'll cook it for a fee (100-200 THB). Total cost for a seafood dinner for two: 800-1,200 THB. This is the Patong hack that most visitors miss.
The Restaurant Deep Cuts
Raya Restaurant (Phuket Old Town) — Set in a gorgeous Sino-Portuguese mansion on Dibuk Road. The crab curry and stink beans (stir-fried with shrimp paste) are legendary. A full meal runs 300-600 THB per person. Reservations recommended for dinner.
One Chun (Thep Krasattri Road) — Another Old Town classic in a restored shophouse. The stewed pork belly and Phuket-style yellow curry are the reasons to visit. Budget 200-400 THB per person.
Suay Restaurant (Cherng Talay) — The most interesting modern-Thai restaurant on the island. Chef Tammasak takes Phuket heritage recipes and presents them with technique but without pretension. Tasting menu around 1,500 THB.
For budget eating, I go to the restaurants on the side streets behind Rawai Beach, where the local fishing families eat. Grilled whole fish (150-250 THB), som tam (40-60 THB), and sticky rice (10 THB). No English menu. Point and smile.
The Seafood Situation
Beachfront seafood restaurants in tourist areas charge 400-800 THB for a dish that costs 150-250 THB at a local spot. The markup is extreme. Here's the strategy:
For our practical travel tips, read our complete Phuket guide. For the tourist experience: Go to Rawai Seafood Market (also called Rawai Beach Seafood Hub) where you buy from the fishermen and pay to cook. It's fun and fair.
For the local experience: Find restaurants on the eastern side of the island near Saphan Hin or Rassada Pier. Zero tourists. Fresh catch cooked to order. A feast for two under 600 THB.
Skip entirely: The "seafood BBQ" restaurants that touts try to drag you into on Bangla Road. Overpriced, mediocre, and aggressively marketed.
The Thai Coffee and Cafe Scene
Old Town Phuket has a cafe culture that rivals Chiang Mai. The shophouse-cafes on Thalang Road and Soi Romanee serve excellent espresso and traditional Thai coffee.
Bookhemian — Bookshop-cafe in a converted shophouse. Iced black coffee 60 THB. Will become your office for the day.
Gallery Cafe by Pinky — Art gallery meets coffee shop on Yaowarat Road. Single-origin Thai beans. Flat white 90 THB.
For traditional Thai coffee (oliang), the street stalls in Phuket Town morning market serve it in small plastic bags with a straw for 15-20 THB. It's thick, sweet, and strong enough to fuel a full day of temple visits.
Food Budget Reality
If you eat exclusively at tourist-area restaurants: 600-1,500 THB/day.
If you eat at local spots and markets: 200-400 THB/day.
If you mix both: 400-800 THB/day.
The difference between a $5/day food budget and a $40/day food budget isn't quality — it's location. Walk one block off the main tourist streets. That's it. That's the entire secret.
The Contrarian Take
Skip the beachfront restaurants. All of them. The food is mediocre, overpriced, and designed for people who won't come back. Phuket's actual food culture lives in Old Town morning markets. For a broader Thailand food experience, Chiang Mai offers its own extraordinary culinary scene, Chillva night market, and the side-street restaurants where the menu is in Thai only. Use Google Translate on the menu. Point at what the table next to you is eating. Eat at the places where the staff seems confused that a foreigner walked in.
That's where Phuket's food story lives. And it's a story worth traveling for.
