Ta Khai Restaurant Phuket Classy Thai Restaurant near Patong
Ta Khai Restaurant Phuket combines an outstanding setting with a remarkable team of chefs to create a unique, Thai dining experience. Located close to Patong, along the road towards Paradise Beach, it offers five-star quality cuisine, but with an easy-going atmosphere and an affordable price range. While it is technically the dining outlet of the prestigious Rosewood Phuket resort, Ta Khai is kept intentionally separate. You don’t need to walk through the hotel lobby to get to the restaurant as it has its own independent entrance, just before the start of the steep hill road leading to Paradise Beach. It has the same great service of the Rosewood brand, but the restaurant itself has a feel of its own, which is partially thanks to the outstanding chefs.
The culinary team at Ta Khai Restaurant Phuket is led by an old Thai couple with well over 30 years of cooking experience, though not in hotel restaurants. Known as Uncle Nun and Aunt Yai, the couple met in Yai’s hometown of Trang, where Nun wooed her with his seafood fried rice. Their shared passion for food has since seen them running food stalls and local restaurants right around the country. Now they are bringing this intimate local knowledge and experience to Phuket. Sadly, we didn’t get the chance to try Khun Nun’s romantic rice dish. Instead, we had the premium set menu (1,500 baht per person), which gave us two starters, a soup, four main courses and a dessert. There is a smaller set menu for 950 baht per person and the chef’s special menu for 2,200 baht. Naturally, there is also an extensive ala carte menu, packed with tasty traditional Thai treats for around 290-580 baht each.
With the name “Ta Khai” meaning ‘fishing net’ in Thai, the menu prominently features fresh seafood (so fresh, in fact, that you are invited to fish it out of the big pond by the open kitchen yourself!). We started with fresh prawn spring rolls and fried shrimp cakes, both of which had the luscious softness and flavour of absolute freshness. The main courses of the set menu include moo hong (soy-braised pork belly), gaeng poo bai chaplu (crab curry with betel leaves) and pla samlee thod yum mamuang (deep-fried cotton fish with green mango salad). Served with brown or jasmine rice and stir-fried morning glory, each boasts robust and remarkable flavours, with the crab curry especially having just the right amount of spice to bring out the taste of the fresh crab without melting your tongue in the process. The tom kha gai (chicken in coconut soup) was similarly flavourful and moreish, and you can never go wrong with a mango sticky rice dessert.
Alongside the food, the setting of Ta Khai Restaurant Phuket is something unique and worthy of note. It was built around a collection of ancient trees, right by the edge of Patong Bay, using materials either naturally or artificially weathered. In fact, the rusted metal roofing materials came from a dilapidated barn from somewhere in the Thai countryside. The owners of Rosewood Phuket not only bought the shed, but also provided a brand new replacement structure. It all combines to create a rustic chic look and the impression that the restaurant has been hidden away there for decades, waiting for you to discover it. With the addition of creative custom cocktails (450 baht each, with the Green Papaya Gimlet being worth a try) and various different seating options, each more relaxed than the last, Ta Khai is a five-star dining outlet with a difference. Unlike its peers, it’s a place you can take it easy and enjoy fine food and a beautiful setting without feeling like you need to dust off your glad-rags or re-mortgage the house to be able to pay the bill.
Source: http://www.phuket.com/phuket-magazine/ta-khai-restaurant.htm