Best Restaurant of 2008 contender
Telephone: 076 254350-1
Open: 4.30pm-midnight daily
Address: Samkong, Phuket City.
Style: Korean
Price range: Inexpensive. Adults eat all you want for 125 baht, students for 110 baht. Under 110 centimetres, 70 baht (no, on your knees does not count.) Drinks and ice are extra: heineken (95 baht), Singha (75 baht) coke (25 baht) bucket of ice (20 baht).
Specialty: big buffets for large numbers.
What the manager says: We have another buffet in Patipat Road, near the intersection with Maeluan Road. That has been popular for even longer.
What Phuketwan says: Phuket has had an extended honeymoon with Korean barbeques. Fresh food cooked at your table is a distinctly Thai delight anyway, and they have made the style their own. With the appointment of a Korean honorary consul and the opening of a consulate office a couple of days earlier, we decided it was time to explore the Ko Tee Buffet. You turn through an archway emblazoned with the name, then pull in at a large carpark, with the buffet close. It's big. There are 125 tables, so it can seat around 500. Cheerful Thai music is playing, interspersed with cover versions of the very latest hits from the 1970s. At one end is a children's playground and a giant screen. Fountains and water features surround the central dining area. The toilets, reached across stepping stones of fallen leaves, are reassuringly western. Guests are likely to be greeted by a smiling manager and a petite beer company representative, a ''pretty'' as the Thais call them. Now, we are all in favor of grazing. The concept of all you can eat is something our digestive system embraces wholeheartedly, peristaltically even. And this place is made for eating. Thai families, large parties, and some westerners are already going at it. Not far from us is one of the largest Thais we have seen. He is putting away food as if there is no tomorrow. A few more like him, and the whole business model of volume sales at low prices could be put to the test. We move hastily to the large cross shaped buffet, and what we see is impressive. There are california rolls and sushi as far as the eye can see, or at least, that's the way it seems. Around the restaurant wander waiters, packing heat. In a detective novel, that would mean they were armed and dangerous. Here, they are simply packing heat. They carry hot coals to the tables so you can grill your own food. With a large metal hook in each mitt, a heat waiter looks like Edward Scissorhands on a bad-hair day. Ceiling fans whir constantly, clearing the air. We pile high the cooker with meat of all kinds, tipping snow peas and broccoli into the boiling water section around the griller. First, though, we dispose of the sushi salmon, dipping it in the wasabi sauce first. If you like, you can order fried rice or noodles, or both, from the kitchen. Pasta is plentiful. Come to think of it, so is everything. Soon, a busload of students arrive and the salmon sushi disappears. If there were ever prawns, as there sometimes used to be at other Phuket Korean buffets, we came too late to sight them. Never mind. The processed crab sticks are still piled high. We go back once, twice, three times, all of it tasty and all of it relatively healthy. Desserts are plentiful, too, along with large quantities of fruit. We are reminded about a friend who once took up a challenge and consumed 20 serves of som tam so that he and his companions could all eat for free. And now we think we know how he felt. As we leave, the big guy is going back to the buffet. Wow. Just this once, we have no complaints about the price of a young coconut or a lemon juice.
How to find it: From Patong, drive past Tesco Lotus towards the notorious traffic snarl that is the Samkong intersection. Proceed through the first set of lights. The buffet is in a large dark void of a space on your left. We imagine the buffet, fully laden, would be a wonderful sight at 4.30 pm and perhaps look like the aftermath of a food fight at midnight.
Parking: Space aplenty right outside.
Phuketwan restaurant reviewers pay for their meals. If someone else does, we tell you so
Telephone: 076 254350-1
Open: 4.30pm-midnight daily
Address: Samkong, Phuket City.
Style: Korean
Price range: Inexpensive. Adults eat all you want for 125 baht, students for 110 baht. Under 110 centimetres, 70 baht (no, on your knees does not count.) Drinks and ice are extra: heineken (95 baht), Singha (75 baht) coke (25 baht) bucket of ice (20 baht).
Specialty: big buffets for large numbers.
What the manager says: We have another buffet in Patipat Road, near the intersection with Maeluan Road. That has been popular for even longer.
What Phuketwan says: Phuket has had an extended honeymoon with Korean barbeques. Fresh food cooked at your table is a distinctly Thai delight anyway, and they have made the style their own. With the appointment of a Korean honorary consul and the opening of a consulate office a couple of days earlier, we decided it was time to explore the Ko Tee Buffet. You turn through an archway emblazoned with the name, then pull in at a large carpark, with the buffet close. It's big. There are 125 tables, so it can seat around 500. Cheerful Thai music is playing, interspersed with cover versions of the very latest hits from the 1970s. At one end is a children's playground and a giant screen. Fountains and water features surround the central dining area. The toilets, reached across stepping stones of fallen leaves, are reassuringly western. Guests are likely to be greeted by a smiling manager and a petite beer company representative, a ''pretty'' as the Thais call them. Now, we are all in favor of grazing. The concept of all you can eat is something our digestive system embraces wholeheartedly, peristaltically even. And this place is made for eating. Thai families, large parties, and some westerners are already going at it. Not far from us is one of the largest Thais we have seen. He is putting away food as if there is no tomorrow. A few more like him, and the whole business model of volume sales at low prices could be put to the test. We move hastily to the large cross shaped buffet, and what we see is impressive. There are california rolls and sushi as far as the eye can see, or at least, that's the way it seems. Around the restaurant wander waiters, packing heat. In a detective novel, that would mean they were armed and dangerous. Here, they are simply packing heat. They carry hot coals to the tables so you can grill your own food. With a large metal hook in each mitt, a heat waiter looks like Edward Scissorhands on a bad-hair day. Ceiling fans whir constantly, clearing the air. We pile high the cooker with meat of all kinds, tipping snow peas and broccoli into the boiling water section around the griller. First, though, we dispose of the sushi salmon, dipping it in the wasabi sauce first. If you like, you can order fried rice or noodles, or both, from the kitchen. Pasta is plentiful. Come to think of it, so is everything. Soon, a busload of students arrive and the salmon sushi disappears. If there were ever prawns, as there sometimes used to be at other Phuket Korean buffets, we came too late to sight them. Never mind. The processed crab sticks are still piled high. We go back once, twice, three times, all of it tasty and all of it relatively healthy. Desserts are plentiful, too, along with large quantities of fruit. We are reminded about a friend who once took up a challenge and consumed 20 serves of som tam so that he and his companions could all eat for free. And now we think we know how he felt. As we leave, the big guy is going back to the buffet. Wow. Just this once, we have no complaints about the price of a young coconut or a lemon juice.
How to find it: From Patong, drive past Tesco Lotus towards the notorious traffic snarl that is the Samkong intersection. Proceed through the first set of lights. The buffet is in a large dark void of a space on your left. We imagine the buffet, fully laden, would be a wonderful sight at 4.30 pm and perhaps look like the aftermath of a food fight at midnight.
Parking: Space aplenty right outside.
Phuketwan restaurant reviewers pay for their meals. If someone else does, we tell you so
