PHUKET: Some of the best beach restaurants with sensational tropical island views have been cleared on Phuket over the past 18 months but good food is still to be found everywhere - at a variety of prices.

Over the years, Phuketwan marked the best of the good-value restaurants with its Restaurant of the Year award. We're pleased to say that all the winning restaurants are still open and still offering excellent dining at good prices.

The changes on Phuket, though, were brought home to us by the recent closure of our favorite place to eat, a small family-run restaurant almost on a beach at Koh Sireh, an east-coast island linked to Phuket City by a road bridge.

The reason for the closure? After allowing the family to operate a restaurant for two decades, the owners of the land had sold out to a condo developer.

When we went looking for the great seafood we had enjoyed at the beach restaurant, we found the family had settled into a new home in Phuket City and had been forced to adapt to a customer base of nearby workers who wanted more conventional fare.

Just for us, though, they turned on a Sunday afternoon spread that rivalled the great meals of the past.

The difference was that instead of hearing the nearby sound of the waves lapping on the shore, we had the buzz of passing motorcycles.

The shrimp cakes, though, rate as still the best in the land, if not the whole world.

And of course, we paid for our meal, just as we have paid for almost all the meals at the restaurants we have reviewed down the years.

And if someone else paid, we made it plain someone else picked up the bill. That's the difference between a food review and an advertisement.

Phuket remains a great place to eat, although the best-value meals are definitely to be found now in Old Phuket Town or Phuket City.

We've been fortunate enough to live in Samkong, which is rapidly becoming the eating out suburb for all of Phuket City.

Scores of restaurants now flourish along Yaowarat Road and in nearby streets.

And who knows . . .

One of these days, we hope the suggestion is taken up to try to turn Phuket's annual Vegetarian Festival into an international food festival, showcasing the best in vegetarian food.

The island's reputation as a foodie destination was enhanced this year with recognition as a Unesco Creative City for gastronomy.

The best may be yet to come. For our top restaurants for price and taste down the years, check the links below.

Photographs from the Friendly Hut in Rassada Nuson Road Phuket City, opposite a Chinese grave site, where the best shrimp cakes in the land can still be ordered.