Photo: Jampa, Samut
Phuket may be better known for its beach resorts and nightlife, but it is increasingly becoming a noteworthy dining destination. It is especially gaining fame for embracing sustainability.
Earlier this year, all three of Thailand’s Michelin green stars, awarded for sustainability achievements, were in Phuket when Michelin-starred Haoma from Bangkok was doing a month-long residency at the Avista Hideaway Phuket Patong. While Haoma has returned to its newly refurbished home in capital, the other two green stars remain: Pru, the fine dining hotspot at Trisara Phuket, which remains the island’s only recipient of a Michelin red star; and Jampa, its sister restaurant at Tri Vananda. Both restaurants benefit from the freshest of produce grown at their own local farm.
Chef Deepanker Khosla of Haoma says it is Phuket’s proximity to excellent produce from land and sea that helps make it such an attractive culinary destination.
“Across Thailand, most of the top fine dining restaurants have seafood-inclined menus and so it should be with the country’s long coastlines,” he says. “Phuket, Phang Nga province, and nearby areas have pristine waters with the best produce. Also, the availability of large amounts of land allows chefs to work with their own farm.”
Phuket remains a holiday destination but it is also home to long-term visitors and digital nomads, ensuring that there is a market for elevated restaurants throughout the year.
Here are four restaurants that should be on any Phuket-bound gourmand’s list.
1. Samut, Nai Harn Beach
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Samut, which translates as “ocean”, is by celebrity chef Thithid Tassanakajohn, better known as Chef Ton, who helms Bangkok-based Le Du, now Asia’s Best Restaurant. He also owns Nusara, which came in third position in the Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants 2023 awards, which were held here in Singapore in March.
Samut, housed in a traditional Thai-Chinese building with dark wood and carved screens, is his first foray into Phuket. He opened the restaurant last year to balance out what he sees as a Western-centric fine dining scene on the island.
“Phuket needs Thai fine dining. We’re overcrowded with European restaurants, and we needed somewhere to showcase Thai cuisine,” he says. “We use only local seafood from the coastal waters of Thailand, and our cuisine has its roots in Phuket and southern Thai flavours.”
The multi-course set menu offers fish and seafood caught sustainably by small-scale fishermen who “respect and love our sea”. Dishes are contemporary reimaginings of traditional dishes plated for the fine dining context.
Take the Khao Yum: the classic Southern Thai rice salad here combines fermented fish, dried fish, local leaves and crispy curry rice and is presented as a bite-sized morsel draped in a gleaming disc of paper-thin pink torch ginger jelly. It is a beautifully balanced punch of flavours and is spectacular to look at.
2. PRU, Trisara, Nai Thon Beach
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The brand new fine dining restaurant by Portuguese chef Ricardo Nunes specialises in fermentation. Nunes, who has done stints at Dinner by Heston Blumenthal in London, Belcanto in Lisbon, and at Bangkok hotspots Potong and Gaggan, works with Mateo Polanco, the resident zymologist (zymology, or zymurgy, is the study of the biochemical process of fermentation). They apply ancient fermentation techniques on ingredients local to Phuket with the aim of maximising flavours.
Hom, which opened in April, offers a tasting menu that ranges from 10 to 15 courses, featuring dishes such as ruby pomelo brined in lacto koji water and fermented Thai dill. The present main course is Phuket goat brined in shio koji and served with a fermented barley and coffee mole, and fermented black durian and jackfruit. The team will soon be launching an extensive kombucha and kefir beverage menu.
Housed in the breathtaking Sawan Pavillion of the InterContinental Phuket, a fairytale of white spires and marble interiors, Hom is one of the hottest new openings on the island.
4. Jampa, Tri Vananda, Thep Krasatti
Credit: Photo: Tri Vananda
Deep in the forested interior of Phuket, Jampa offers a very different experience from what most visitors to Phuket get to experience. Instead of a beach view, it is a sea of emerald green on show from the restaurant’s terrace or through the dining room’s tall windows.
Around 40 percent of the fresh produce, including chicken and duck eggs, served at Jampa is from the farm a short buggy drive away. Dutch chef Rick Dingen works with local experts to grow a huge variety of produce, including vegetables, fruits, herbs, mushrooms and flowers – no easy feat in Phuket’s soils, which are largely sand or red stone clay, both of which require a lot of coconut fibre and compost to make them fertile. He sources the rest of the produce from small farmers and fishermen near the restaurant.
“Our core belief is that everything starts with the ingredients, which means you have to go to the source,” says Dingen. “Because we have our own farm, we can pay a lot of attention to the details of how something is cultivated and grown.”
The menu is contemporary European, with playful twists and Thai inspiration. The starter is a riff on the classic Thai dish of watermelon with flaked fish, for example, but here is served as sphere with dhala flower and avocado, encased by a membrane of watermelon, studded with tiny white flowers.
Wood-fired baby corn is organic and cooked in its husk over embers, the marinaded in an umami sambal and seasoned with powder from burned corn husk – something that is usually thrown away but here used to add an earthy flavour and support the restaurant’s zero-waste ethos.
