restaurants + coffee shops (closed): ระย้า (Raya)

Saturday, April 26, 2014

ระย้า (Raya)

This is certainly an attraction for you in Phuket Old Town.

ระย้า (Raya) restaurant is adjacent to a klong in Phuket Town (no smell) and it is in one of the old Sino-Portugese houses that we read so much about.

There is not a lot of room to sit and when we visited one lunch hour it was nearly full of what looked like the 'bank manager taking out their staff' - well there were two tables full of people wearing polo shirts with the emblem of the bank on (just to indicate that I was not being rude).

We were able to park the car behind the restaurant which made this easy to visit for us and it was interesting walking through the back door because you were able to see into the kitchen.

The ground floor (where the food is served) is a historical draw - there seems to be old framed photographs on the walls all around you.

The furniture also seems to be from the same period and the cupboards seem to be an interesting place - but it was busy so we were put in the corner next to a vintage turntable!

The food was ordered and I took a number of photographs of what we were given and what struck me first was the very low quality of the table clothes - small holes and not square - call me a nerd but that is what i saw.

The food arrived and it was pretty normal - the dishes that we had were okay and that is all that I can think off to describe the food, oh yes - it was expensive compared to the foods that you can buy in other restaurants in Phuket Town.

It was a place which drew the Social Media crowd - this was the number of people from foursquare!

It was a wonderful building and it was obviously of importance but it seemed that the building was better than the food - even if it needed a little care.

But it is on a lot of lists... the Yum list, Phuket.com, Phuket101, Travel and Leisure - maybe we went on the wrong day - we shall have to go back?