Open: Daily 7am-11pm

Address: Fisherman Way Business Centre, Chao Fa Road East, Chalong.

Style: Western food with good wine and coffee

Price range: Moderate. Red tuna carpaccio mizuna salad (150 baht) prawn and tomatoes olive oil coulis with herbs pancake (135 baht) baked loin cod, mashed potatoes, white wine cream sauce (370 baht) Pumpkin ravioli and beef short rib (220 baht) deluxe Australian tenderloin burger (260 baht) cheese platter (290 baht) gratinated New Zealand mussels (140 baht) ravioli salmon (180 baht) ossobuco (320 baht) beef bourgignon (290 baht) creme brulet (80 baht) Blanche de Bruxelles beer (110 baht). All prices plus 10 percent service charge.

Specialties: Comfort food.

What Phuketwan says: Thai food is great but every so often, we hanker for Western. Finding a good quality steak or even a pasta at the right price can be a real bind on Phuket, so when a friend pointed us in the direction of the Wine Connection, we followed her finger. Oddly, we'd long enjoyed wine but figured that the ridiculously high tax in Thailand made it prohibitive. Not so. The Wine Connection appears to be bringing prices lower all the time, and benefitting from scale by growing to 24 outlets throughout Southeast Asia, with four on Phuket alone. Wine Connection seem to be hitting the spot. The Chalong outlet hardly provides a scenic outlook but the outdoors-indoors restaurant setting is just fine if you've come for the food. Judging from the number of busy tables over lunch, we've been slow to discover what's plainly a popular expat haunt. Perhaps we need to learn to drive with our eyes open. The food represented good value, and across a broad range. We shared a salad, then moved in different directions: to imported cod, an Australian steak, and a pleasant-looking pasta. Three people and three thumbs up, which is as good as it gets, unless you expect the double-thumbs that usually only follows a wonderful free meal, with plonk. Inside through the glass we could see shelves bulging with coffee, and a table laden with home-made bread. Around the corner, we knew, were racks and stacks of wine from all over the world. The menu offers some fancy beers, too, and we topped off the lunch with a spicy Belgian lager. Next time we hanker for Western, we know where to go.

How to find it: Stores on Phuket at Chalong, Plaza Del Mar near Laguna, Bang Tao Place, and Jungceylon in Patong.

Parking: At Chalong, there's parking right outside. It's probably easier at night when most of the surrounding businesses are closed.



Phuketwan restaurant reviewers pay for their meals. If someone else does, we tell you so