Phuket's cooking is Hokkien Chinese by ancestry and Andaman by ingredient: tin-miner recipes like moo hong and mee hokkien still simmer in Old Town shophouses, while Rawai's tanks and Patong's wet market sell the day's catch by the kilo.
Patong's two-storey municipal market: the ground floor is a wet market of Andaman prawns, mantis shrimp and rock lobster sold by the kilo, while upstairs cooks grill whatever you pick for 100–200 THB. Open 06:00–22:00.
A 1940s open-fronted food court on the Dibuk–Yaowarat corner where six family stalls share one set of tables. Order Hokkien loba (fried offal with sweet sauce), o-aew shaved ice and popiah spring rolls. Cash only.
Homemade ice cream in Old Town flavours inside a restored shophouse on pastel Soi Romanee: salted egg, Thai tea, coconut with young flesh and Chumphon durian. Scoops 65–90 THB, waffle sets 150 THB, open 10:00–20:00.
Container-stall night market built for Phuket students rather than tour groups: grilled squid, khanom bueang, Isaan som tam and craft-beer trucks arranged around a live-music stage. Wednesday–Sunday 16:00–23:00.
A century-old Sino-Portuguese mansion with terrazzo floors and marble-top tables. The house dish is crab meat in yellow curry served with kanom jeen rice noodles; also order moo hong. Mains 250–600 THB, open 10:00–22:00.
Shophouse kitchen cooking strictly Phuket recipes: mee hokkien fried in pork broth, moo hong (pork belly braised with black pepper and garlic) and o-aew jelly with syrup. Mains 90–180 THB, Monday–Saturday, closed Sunday.
A beachfront row of live tanks at Rawai pier. Pick tiger prawns, blue crab, grouper or spiny lobster by weight, then carry the bag across the road to a cook shop that grills or curries it for roughly 100–200 THB per kilo.
Royal Thai cooking in a teak house cantilevered over the rocks at the north end of Patong Bay, open since 1987. The massaman, miang kham and southern curries are cooked to old palace recipes rather than tourist heat levels.
Phuket Town's morning dim sum institution: steamer baskets stack from 06:00 and the popular ones are gone by 11:00. Pork-and-shrimp kanom jeeb, salapao buns and chicken feet at 15–25 THB a basket, ordered from the trolley.
Named after the owner's Mercedes parked out front, this stall does one thing well: khao moo hong, five-spice braised pork belly over rice with a boiled egg, plus rice congee. Bowls 60–120 THB, open 06:00–14:00 and 17:00–23:00.
Chef Noi's class behind the Suay restaurant garden starts with a walk through the neighbourhood market for galangal, turmeric root and shrimp paste, then four southern Thai dishes pounded and cooked at individual stations.
Every Sunday from 16:00 to 22:00 Thalang Road closes to traffic and around 200 stalls fill it: pork satay over coconut charcoal, o-tao (oyster and taro fried in batter), moo ping and roselle juice, most plates 20–60 THB.