Open: 8am-10pm

Telephone: n/a

Address: Beach road, Nai Thon, Phuket

Style: traditional beach restaurant

Price range: Low range of tourist prices. chicken sandwich (90 baht) prawn salad (120 baht) ham and cheese salad (120 baht) deep fried prawns (200 baht) fried fish (380 baht) papaya salad (80 baht) fried rice american seafood (150 baht) spaghetti with green curry (140 baht) mushroom soup (60 baht) potato and curry powder cream soup (100 baht) omelet with mushroom (80 baht) fried rice with squid (80 baht) fried rice in pineapple (150 baht) spring roll (100 baht) fried noodles with seafood (150 baht) pad thai with vegetables (70 baht) bbq prawns (200 baht) tom yam prawns (150 baht) lobster, tiger prawns, crab fish on request fried duck with baby corn (150 baht) beef satay (150 baht)honey pancake (80 baht) coconut (50 baht) banana shake (60 baht) ice coffee (60 baht) singha beer (60/100 baht) red wine by glass (120 baht)

Specialties: Thai food, seafood.

We wanted to find a traditional beach restaurant but they are becoming rarer. Real beach restaurants require some kind of reference to Bob Marley, Muay Thai and Manchester United. There must also be at least one dog asleep under a table. So we give the Bamboo Restaurant at Nai Thon a go. Sure enough, Bob Marley's image is on the back of the menu. There's a Muay Thai emblem on the beer cooler. And the waiter is wearing an England football shirt (close enough). The dog? Sure, there's a shaggy specimen under a table. It's a perfect afternoon at Nai Thon with the beach almost free of people and no other sound competing with the heaving surf, coming through Narture's amplifiers loud and clear. We learn that the restaurant has been on the beach for 12 years, one of the three original restaurants. The som tam wins two thumbs up. The food is fresh and we find the other dishes tasty but a little bland and spice-free. We're told that's been done deliberately to cater for tourists. If more spice is required, all you have to do is ask. The menu comes in English and Russian these days. As the sun sinks, we are treated to a free floor show. A shallow hole is dug in the sand, and the dog is part-buried with its paws in the air. It falls asleep, enjoying the sun and the sand. Our paws are in the air, too. Nothing competes as a Phuket experience with a couple of hours at a traditional beach restaurant.

How to find it: On the beach road at Nai Thon, a beach south of Nai Yang, close to the Phuket International Airport.

Parking: Usually space along the road, car park opposite the restaurant.

Phuketwan reviewers pay for their own meals. If we don't, we tell you. Bamboo Restaurant is a candidate for Phuketwan's Good Value Phuket Restaurant of the Year 2013.