Laundry Patong
Some of the best food in Patong costs less than a coffee and is cooked on a cart on the pavement. Here is where to look, what to order, and how to eat street food without spending your holiday in the bathroom.
Where to go
The market behind Jungceylon
Banzaan fresh market, just behind the shopping centre, is the easiest introduction. Fresh produce downstairs, cooked food and seafood you can choose and have grilled upstairs and around the building in the evening. Busy, cheap, and used by locals as well as visitors.
Rat-U-Thit 200 Pee Road
The long road running parallel to the beach is lined with carts from late afternoon: grilled pork skewers, papaya salad, noodle soups, roti. Walk away from the Bangla Road end and prices drop while quality goes up.
The small sois behind the main streets
The shophouse kitchens where Thai staff eat are one street back from the tourist strips. No English menu, a plastic table, one or two dishes done well. If there is a queue of locals at 7 PM, join it.
Worth the trip: Phuket Town
Thirty to forty minutes away, Phuket Town has the island’s best food scene, including the Sunday walking street in the old town. If you have one evening to spare, spend it there.
What to order
- Moo ping — grilled pork skewers with sticky rice. The perfect walking snack.
- Pad thai — cooked in front of you, always better from a cart than from a restaurant menu.
- Som tam — green papaya salad. Say « mai phet » for not spicy, and mean it.
- Khao man gai — poached chicken and rice, the gentlest dish on any street menu.
- Roti — fried pancake with banana and condensed milk, a Phuket institution.
- Mango sticky rice — in season, nothing beats it.
Eating safely
- Choose stalls with a queue and high turnover — the food has not been sitting out.
- Prefer things cooked to order in front of you over pre-cooked trays kept warm for hours.
- Bottled water only, and be careful with ice from an unclear source (proper cylindrical ice with a hole through it is factory made and fine).
- Wash your hands or carry gel: most stalls have no sink for customers.
One warning about your clothes
Street food and white shirts do not mix. Curry, chilli oil and satay sauce are among the hardest stains to remove, and they set fast in the heat. Blot the mark, do not rub, and rinse it with cold water as soon as you can.
If the damage is done, tell us where the stain is when you book a pick-up and we treat it by hand before washing. Message us on WhatsApp.
