WE'VE gone back to the smorgasbord of delights this year for Phuketwan Restaurant of the Year 2009 and gorged ourselves on a second helping.

Yes, in our constant craving for good value we've selected not one but two restaurants, and stretched the choice wider, to Greater Phuket.

As regular readers know, this particular quest of ours is for restaurants that don't leave customers hopping out, having lost an arm and a leg.

Yet satisfaction at every other level is essential. We want consistency and quality and great taste and good service. Is that too much to ask?

We found it more often this year than last year, and one of the difficulties has been going back to good restaurants we know and like instead of trying new ones.

We were mulling over our choice of winner when a commission came along from cnngo.com. So we confess we told them all about this year's winners a few days in advance of Phuketwan.

Here they are and here's what we wrote:


If you had two hours on Phuket, where to eat? Somewhere by the beach, if you are hungry for a sea view. But if you want good Thai food in a radically different environment, pull up a chair at the Natural Restaurant in Phuket City. Wrapped around a couple of trees by a couple who couldn't bear to cut them down, Thammachart (Natural) provides leafy glades among the branches, each one stuffed with a mixture of old television sets, sewing machine treadles, hanging orchids and undergrowth. Tarzan and Jane would love it. Hard to find but worth every bend and bite.


This restaurant was one of the first to reopen in Khao Lak after the 2004 tsunami. Today visitors can sprawl on chairs in the open or under salas on a broad stretch of white Andaman sand. Sunsets do happen elsewhere, but seldom are they seen across sand this brilliant and a sea so blue it sometimes seems to glow. The food is Thai. Need we say more? You'll pay a whole lot less than at the five-star boutique resort next door. Some afternoons and evenings are so beautiful it may even be worth the 90-minute drive from Phuket.

Both restaurants offer an experience we've not had to that quality elsewhere, and we've been back to both several times to check for consistency. Prices? Excellent at both.

We were a little bit surprised, though, the other day at White Sand to find loungers stretched out on the beach in front of the restaurant . . . something we though was a bad Phuket habit, banned in Phang Nga.

But we're not going to tell.

As for Natural, we've been addicted to the place for a long time, and we love the story that owner Sirijid Jaiyen tells. She and her husband moved in to the old house on the site, 20 years ago.

They wanted to open a restaurant but they did not have the heart to cut down the trees, so they built around them. The restaurant has been growing with the trees for 17 years now, time enough to develop the consistent quality we crave.

Khun Sirijid says they cook for Thais, the menu includes recipes from all over the country, and they choose not to compromise. The result: expat visitors and residents flock to the place, too.

The best news of the year for dining on Phuket was the release of the Miele Guide to the region's top dining. The worst news: the guide only contained one Phuket restaurant.

These two join past winners Dibuk and Kan Eang 2, and as such cannot win another Phuketwan Restaurant of the Year title.

But that doesn't mean we won't be back for more.

Finding Natural: Call +66 (0)76 224287 or +66 (0)76 214037 for help or head for Juitui Chinese Temple in Phuket City, near the fresh market, and turn down the oneway road beside it. Natural has a large sign on the left.

Finding White Sand: Go through Khao Lak township and head for Cape Pakarang. White Sands is alongside the award-winning resort The Sarojin, and both are signposted.

You'll find the complete cnngo.com 'Insider's guide to the best of Greater Phuket' at http://www.cnngo.com/bangkok/none/insiders-guide-best-greater-phuket-752463