Phuket Eats: The Pad Thai Shop

You guys, I totally messed up. I forgot to post about my absolute favorite meal in Thailand. But you'll forgive me if I tell you now, right? RIGHT?!?!?

Now that the groveling has been settled, let's get back to The Pad Thai Shop. Not only was the food at this road side stop ridiculously good, the bowls of pad thai were only a mere 50 baht each. That's $1.52 USD. We stuffed ourselves silly and spent under $8 for four people.

I'll be honest with you, this is not a fine dining establishment. It's a cheap, local dive that serves up authentic fare for low prices. There are no waiters or cloth napkins, just a friendly staff and self serve sodas in the coolers near the entrance.

The staff at the counter speak English and have an English menu available. Simply order at the counter and then pick up your food when it's ready. You pay at the end of your meal.

We sampled the pad thai and promptly ordered seconds. We also had the pad kee mao. While good, the shop's namesake dish is what stands out (I'd also ask for the flat noodles in this dish next time).

Finding The Pad Thai Shop can be a little tricky. It's located on Patak Road, just before the Baan Karon Resort on the way from Karon to Kata. Look for the hoardes of people if you happen to head there around lunch.

Phuket Eats: Nok Noi

I'm a big fan of eating as local as possible whenever I travel. Sure, it's nice to have an English speaking staff and cloth napkins, but it's also fun to play charades with your waitstaff and feed the stray cats that roam under your table.

Nok Noi was one of those places. The menu boasted both Thai and Western food, though I'm not sure why you would bother to try anything from the second category. Their Thai food was top notch.

Our entire family ate here our third night in Phuket. We noshed on tom yum soup, yellow curry, and pineapple fried rice. Throw in a few beers and our total bill still came in at under $14 USD.

Matt and I returned here again on Saturday night for dinner. This time for green curry and rice noodles with basil. Both excellent as well.

Want to go there? Sadly, I don't have a very accurate address. It's on Patak Road, across from the Karon Temple, about half a kilometer from the beach. Look for the large sign outside.

Phuket: Karon Siteseeing

We awoke to rain showers on our third day in Phuket. Not wanting to waste the day, we ventured to Karon Beach to explore.

The first stop of the day was the obligatory fish pedicure. What's a fish pedicure? You simply stick your feet in a tub full of tiny carp who then nibble away the dead, callused skin on your feet. Only my mom was willing to try out this Thai specialty. She said it tickled.

After picking up a few trinkets, we lunched at Bai Toey, which I would classify as fine but not exceptional. We had much better pad thai at other spots for a fraction of the cost. But service was good and it was a nice spot to wait out a rain storm.

With our bellies full, we wandered through the Karon Temple, a Buddhist Temple in the middle of Karon. Compared to Chinese temples, there is much more glitter involved.

Then it was back to our villas for pool and napping. I didn't take any photos of that. You'll just have to trust that is happened.