Ask around Phuket Town for the best restaurant to savor the local specialties and Raya will most likely be the quick recommendation. Tucked in a Sino-Portuguese mansion, Raya is a two decade- old restaurant run by Phang-nga-born Phuket local Gularb Jedsadawan. Surrounded by lush gardens, the wooden two-story restaurant features a non-airconditioned dining room clad in yellow hues and furnished with antique trinkets and colorful Portuguese-style tiles.
The menu is a long list of Phuket specialties that make use of high-quality ingredients (which partly explains why most of the dishes are priced higher compared to similar restaurants in the area). The popular yellow curry is packed with heat as well as generous portions of chunky crab meat. The moo hong, (slow-cooked pork belly stew) is just the right balance of salty and sweet, while the gravy-doused mee sa pam (Hokkien-style yellow noodles) is served with crunchy squid and heaps of fried shallot. Raya is also known for serving succulent seafood dishes like deep-fried seabass with lemongrass and tamarind sauce.
