10 Best Seafood Restaurants in Phuket

Kan Eang @Pier is perhaps one of Phuket’s most loved seafood restaurants. It's been going for decades and is a must-try for most visitors for its seaside location, atmospheric grounds and a wide-ranging menu that covers all the nautical bases. There’s also an onsite wine shop. You can easily find the restaurant next to Chalong Pier.

Phuket’s floating seafood restaurants are known as krachang by Thai locals and are a novel way to dine out on the island. You can easily find them along the east coast of Phuket. The trip often involves a brief but fun long-tail boat ride from Laem Hin Pier towards the restaurants. Besides the dining experience, it can be a great day out all year round, come rain or shine.

Mor Mu Dong Seafood Restaurant in east Phuket would definitely win if there were an island-wide competition for rustic, unusual and out-of-the-way restaurants. Essentially a seafood outlet, Mor Mu Dong also serves a full raft of chicken dishes and a delicious pork dish with kruang nam prik – a fiery chilli sauce.

Bangpae is one of Phuket’s all-time seafood dining favorites and is located not far from Bangpae Waterfall, near Thalang. Try their tom yum talay (hot-and-sour Thai seafood soup), steamed blue crab, deep-fried tempura shrimp, stir-fried vegetables with cashew nuts, and fresh oysters with local herbs.

This seaside restaurant has a lovely backdrop of mangroves. To get there, it’s about 9 km from the Heroines’ Monument towards Ao Por Pier and only a few hundred meters further down the road from Bangpae Waterfall and the Gibbon Rehabilitation Project. The restaurant is on the right-hand side of the road.

Thanoon Seafood is just off Phuket Island, right by the Sarasin Bridge connecting Phuket to the mainland. Thanoon is a popular seafood restaurant that serves a wide selection of fish, lobsters, crabs, and all manner of seafood – it has a live tank from which you can choose your fresh meal.

Pak Nam is a bustling seafood place recommended to those who like a bit of animation along with a good meal. It's extremely popular with local diners who make sure that this is a popping spot most evenings. Pak Nam is a great seafood experience in the best of Phuket’s traditions.

Kan eang translates as ‘relaxed’ in English and this is definitely an apt name for this large beachside restaurant just north of Chalong, on Phuket’s east coast. The menu is wide-ranging and all manner of fish and seafood feature on it alongside a selection of favorite Thai dishes. This is the second restaurant of the original Kan Eang, next to Chalong Pier.

Set by a canal near Chalong on the island’s east coast, Chaiyo (meaning ‘hurrah!’) consists of wooden salas and a little-used air-conditioned room. The restaurant’s seafood is kept fresh in underwater cages to the side so there are no worries about quality. You’ll find the restaurant on Kao Kad Road, halfway between Chalong and Phuket Town.

Pa Lai Seafood Restaurant is where you should be prepared for a rough and tumble, totally Thai experience. All the old favorites feature at the seafood restaurant: from tom yam pla (spicy seafood soup) and steamed lemon seabass to seafood salad served with fresh squid. Without being world-class, their servings are good, fresh, and hearty.

The Sea Gypsies Fish Market in Rawai Beach offers the freshest of seafood and the guarantee that your purchase is going to benefit the local community and family-run businesses. Featuring a broad selection of often live fish and shellfish, you need only carry your still-wriggling purchases across the road, where you can find a choice of restaurants to cook them for you there and then. The market is along the dirt road to the left of Rawai Pier, after the stalls selling seashells by the seashore.