Phuket, Thailand Has a Fine-Dining Scene That Rivals the Beach

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The Restaurants That Make Phuket, Thailand, a Fine-Dining Destination

Located on the Andaman Sea at the entrance to the Strait of Malacca, the tropical island of Phuket, Thailand, has long been known for its splashy beach resorts. But lately, its food scene has become just as much of a draw. It was named a UNESCO City of Gastronomy in 2015 and has evolved over the past decade with a set of fine-dining destinations. The most recent addition is Terra, a modern Italian restaurant in a renovated 1898 Sino-Portuguese mansion built during the island’s tin-mining boom. It opened in January with two tasting menus featuring dishes like langoustine and shellfish emulsion with chestnut quenelles, and sole and sea urchin in an Amalfi lemon beurre blanc. It joins Royd, which in 2022 began welcoming visitors to a 12-seat table in a stylish 1970s shop house, where the Phuket-born chef Suwijak Kunghae riffs on traditional southern Thai cooking with dishes like tofu skin tart with smoked pig’s head and tamarind sauce, and squid with Phuket pineapple and southern Thai sour curry. At Pru, founded in 2016, the Dutch chef Jimmy Ophorst cooks dishes like durian and caviar, roasting the notoriously odoriferous Southeast Asian fruit, then turning it into a mousse that he garnishes with local roe. When you’ve had enough courses, try one of Phuket’s many small, inexpensive restaurants specializing in just one or two dishes. Krua Baan Platong uses local ingredients to produce Phuket comfort food like steamed pork belly with a southern Thai budu dipping sauce made with fermented anchovies; and Niyom Salt Grilled Duck is a simple roadside place serving juicy charcoal-roasted duck with a choice of spicy sour or tamarind dipping sauce.

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