Best Restaurant of 2008 contender
Telephone: 076 600173
Open: 11am-11pm
Address: Second floor, Jungceylon, 181 Rat-U-Thit 200 Pi Road, Patong, Kathu. 83150
Style: Thai/Asian
Price range: Reasonable. Prawns wrapped with sugar cane, viet-style (150 baht) steamed fish with red curry dumplings (90 baht) fresh spring rolls with roast duck, viet-style (120 baht) chicken satays (160 baht) black pepper scallops (380 baht) spicy laab salmon salad (380 baht) sea bass salad (180 baht) roast pork with papaya salad sandwich (340 baht) chicken burger laab style (240 baht) hong kong noodles (170 baht) singapore noodles (180 baht) bangkok noodles (120 baht) green curry noodles (250 baht) tom klong seafood soup (380 baht) fried rice, crab meat and yellow curry sauce (180 baht) black pepper giant prawns (360 baht) massaman with nz lamb (360 baht) steamed seafood topped with a rich red curry sauce (380 baht) tamarind duck (240 baht).
Specialty: Massaman curry, salmon salad, green shrimp curry, apple mint tea, lemongrass.
What the management says: ''We opened in November 2007. People seem to enjoy what they find. Europeans, especially Russians lately, come in high season, visitors from Asia in low season. The bar is not yet quite as popular as the restaurant.''
What Phuketwan says: Go up the stairway from the central outdoors mall at Jungceylon and you will enter a stunning world of dangling beads. Are they planets, hurtling around outer space, or bubbles rising from a spectacular bath? The theme strengthens inside the restaurant, which is circular and has a core atrium consisting of beads, planets and bubbles, rising to great heights. The menu also aims high, in everything except price. Unaccountably, a young coconut that costs less than eight baht in the market will cost you 120 baht (plus 10 percent service charge and seven percent tax) here, yet most items on the menu are far less expensive than at restaurants of similar standard elsewhere on Phuket. The ambience is upscale, with the cutlery almost as solid as the tables and chairs. The food comes extremely well-presented. Massaman curry, with new zealand lamb, arrived in a bowl on a large rectangular plate, alongside a hillock of white rice on a base of brown rice. The same care went into the service, with a separate dessert menu being brought after the main meal, along with toothpicks and paper napkins (although we already had linen ones on our laps). Next door is the bar, with the theme carried across in the beads, planets and bubbles. Blue Elephant has established a name for good Thai food in a chain of restaurants across Europe and the Middle East, and the Phuket branch shows why. The only weakness is the sound, both the music and the intruding noise. Moon River, the theme from The Pink Panther and Judy Garland are a little passe, but preferrable to the incongruous hype generated through the loudspeakers from the shopping mall. Escape from Patong's commercial jangle was never going to be easy. As its presentation indicates, the Blue Elephant tries very hard, and mostly succeeds.
How to find it: Turn into Jungceylon mall and look for a stairway opposite the Jungceylon boat in the central courtyard.
Parking: Plenty in the Jungceylon underground car park, although a parking fee is now being charged.
Phuketwan restaurant reviewers pay for their meals. If someone else does, we tell you so
Telephone: 076 600173
Open: 11am-11pm
Address: Second floor, Jungceylon, 181 Rat-U-Thit 200 Pi Road, Patong, Kathu. 83150
Style: Thai/Asian
Price range: Reasonable. Prawns wrapped with sugar cane, viet-style (150 baht) steamed fish with red curry dumplings (90 baht) fresh spring rolls with roast duck, viet-style (120 baht) chicken satays (160 baht) black pepper scallops (380 baht) spicy laab salmon salad (380 baht) sea bass salad (180 baht) roast pork with papaya salad sandwich (340 baht) chicken burger laab style (240 baht) hong kong noodles (170 baht) singapore noodles (180 baht) bangkok noodles (120 baht) green curry noodles (250 baht) tom klong seafood soup (380 baht) fried rice, crab meat and yellow curry sauce (180 baht) black pepper giant prawns (360 baht) massaman with nz lamb (360 baht) steamed seafood topped with a rich red curry sauce (380 baht) tamarind duck (240 baht).
Specialty: Massaman curry, salmon salad, green shrimp curry, apple mint tea, lemongrass.
What the management says: ''We opened in November 2007. People seem to enjoy what they find. Europeans, especially Russians lately, come in high season, visitors from Asia in low season. The bar is not yet quite as popular as the restaurant.''
What Phuketwan says: Go up the stairway from the central outdoors mall at Jungceylon and you will enter a stunning world of dangling beads. Are they planets, hurtling around outer space, or bubbles rising from a spectacular bath? The theme strengthens inside the restaurant, which is circular and has a core atrium consisting of beads, planets and bubbles, rising to great heights. The menu also aims high, in everything except price. Unaccountably, a young coconut that costs less than eight baht in the market will cost you 120 baht (plus 10 percent service charge and seven percent tax) here, yet most items on the menu are far less expensive than at restaurants of similar standard elsewhere on Phuket. The ambience is upscale, with the cutlery almost as solid as the tables and chairs. The food comes extremely well-presented. Massaman curry, with new zealand lamb, arrived in a bowl on a large rectangular plate, alongside a hillock of white rice on a base of brown rice. The same care went into the service, with a separate dessert menu being brought after the main meal, along with toothpicks and paper napkins (although we already had linen ones on our laps). Next door is the bar, with the theme carried across in the beads, planets and bubbles. Blue Elephant has established a name for good Thai food in a chain of restaurants across Europe and the Middle East, and the Phuket branch shows why. The only weakness is the sound, both the music and the intruding noise. Moon River, the theme from The Pink Panther and Judy Garland are a little passe, but preferrable to the incongruous hype generated through the loudspeakers from the shopping mall. Escape from Patong's commercial jangle was never going to be easy. As its presentation indicates, the Blue Elephant tries very hard, and mostly succeeds.
How to find it: Turn into Jungceylon mall and look for a stairway opposite the Jungceylon boat in the central courtyard.
Parking: Plenty in the Jungceylon underground car park, although a parking fee is now being charged.
Phuketwan restaurant reviewers pay for their meals. If someone else does, we tell you so
