Peang Prai (pronounced PeeYang Pry) is a restaurant I have meant to try for a couple of years. It's been recommended by friends, it's in a part of Phuket that we head to quite often, it always looked "interesting" ... so we finally tried it a couple of weeks ago. When I am thinking about eating, there are several considerations - 1. Location - I like a nice view, a quiet area, an interesting location - Peang Prai is at the entrance to the Bang Pae Waterfall park, well off any main road, views of trees, flowers and a lake. So it's a good place to combine with a visit to the waterfall and the Gibbon Rehab Project.
(above) the view one way, and (below) the other way ...
It's not a huge restaurant, could maybe hold about 30 people, with seating on the 2nd floor of an octagonal building in the trees. A couple of tables were already occupied by Thai families - which I would normally take as a hint that the food is good here - the locals know where to go! We ordered a selection of things - our kids are normally happy with a fried rice or garlic chicken, whereas my wife and I like to eat spicy salads and local specialties - the menu was pretty big - all the normal Thai dishes but lots of Phuket/Southern Thai food which always pleases my wife.
I was a little miffed that the service seemed a bit slow - the place was not really busy and there were 4 ladies cooking in the kitchen. Sometimes you have to slow down a bit. This is a family run restaurant and this kind of laid back place can be a little too laid back for some people. You can't expect snappy service at a place like this. Fortunately, they had very cold beers, served with an iced glass too. A couple of these went down very smoothly.
Food was good too - we ordered a bunch of things, and the menu has many other dishes to try, so I am sure we'll eat here again. I had a salad called Yam Tua Pu - made with wingbeans, prawns, cashew nuts. We also got some Hor Mok, local style fish curry cooked in a banana leaf, and a similar dish made with mushrooms...
They do good coffee here too - my wife said her ice coffee was great. We had actually thought about just having a drink here and then eating somewhere else, but once we saw the menu we had to give it a proper try. I mentioned that location is important to me when trying a restaurant - so is price! Peang Prai is not cheap like a little street restaurant but most dishes were decently priced at 60 - 100 Baht, and the beer only 45 Baht. The 3rd consideration is "how good is the food?" - you don't know until you try! In this case - good enough that we will eat there again, helped by the friendly service, yeh a bit slow, but slow with a smile :)
And then we got free dessert too - fried banana done in their own way, small pieces of banana fried in batter with sesame seeds and a sprinkle of sugar ...
I think our total bill was about 500 Baht. I have some more photos of Peang Prai on my Flickr site: Peang Prai Restaurant. We like this part of Phuket. Within a few miles are a couple of other restaurants - Bang Pae Seafood and Chumchon Floating Restaurant from where you can go Kayaking in the Mangroves. This is the Phuket that we go looking for.
Peang Prai Restaurant - Location Map
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