We are always hunting for good local food in interesting locations. We live near Phuket Town and I prefer real local food rather than made-for-tourist restaurants with prices to match.
Bang Pae Seafood has remained a favourite of mine, and a couple of weeks ago I realised that we’d not been for ages.
The restaurant is on the north-east coast of Phuket. Head up the main road to the airport and turn right at the Heroines Monument, and follow the road. After about 8km on this road there’s a left turn to the Bang Pae Waterfall and Gibbon Rehabilitation Center. And less than 1km after this, a right turn to Bang Pae Seafood. If memory serves, the sign is only in Thai (so it says บางแปซีฟู้ด).
The restaurant is about 1.5km down this road, passing shrimp farms on the way. When the road ends, that’s the restaurant. It’s pretty popular with locals. When we arrived quite a few cars were parked.
There are a dozen or so tables, and the location is right by the sea, though the water here is very shallow. We arrived at low tide with the sand stretching out a few hundred metres. Mangroves and other “sea trees” grow here. It’s very quiet. I do like a peaceful place to eat with a nice view.
I decided to blog about Bang Pae Seafood again since the restaurant is still a favourite and really has not changed in five years, plus I have a better camera now, and wanted to take more photos.
I have my favourite dishes. A real Phuket specialty is Yam Gung Siap, a kind of salad made with smoked dried shrimps plus mango and cashew nuts, tomato, onion and some chilli of course! You can’t find this in normal tourist restaurants, it’s a real local dish.
And another local specialty, actually quite common throughout the south of Thailand, is hor mok – a fish curry cooked in a banana leaf. We normally order a few of these as side dishes – and it normally only costs about B15 or B20 each.
Tasty stuff, well worth a try, but again not the kind of thing that is sold in tourist restaurants. Of course, my wife swears the hor mok in her home town of Chumphon is the best!
Bang Pae Seafood is certainly popular with locals – a good indicator of good food at a good price. Our total bill for a family of four on that day was about B500.We did not have lobster or crab or whole fish dishes – that would cost more, but anyway, it’s good value.
Jamie Monk works at liveaboard dive specialists Sunrise Divers. For more information call: 084 626 4646 or visit: sunrise-divers.com
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