Kin Dee Restaurant - Local Food in the Jungle!

During my recent holidays in October 2011 when my parents visited from the UK, we had the chance to try quite a few new restaurants that had been "on my list". On the day we visited Kin Dee, the weather was not so nice, one of those low season days that has no sun. The rain seemed rather patchy, we figured that if we just drove north we might find a rain-free area! So we had no particular plan for where to eat.. just drive and see where we end up. The east coast seemed rather wet just north of Phuket Town so we headed further and drove through heavy rain with kids moaning about hunger in the back of the car ... we though to head over the bridge into Phang Nga and eat at Samchong Seafood which is a favourite of ours. But as we reached the far north of Phuket I remembered Kin Dee, although could not remember exactly where to find it! We kept eyes open for a sign .... and finally just before the Tha Chat Chai police checkpoint we saw "KIN DEE LOCAL FOOD" - did a u-turn just before the checkpoint and headed down a small side road into the trees, into the rural Phuket that is easily found in this part of the island.



A restaurant with a Sang Som advert is a sure sign of a local restaurant. Sang Som is a Thai brand of rum, pretty cheap and doesn't taste too bad mixed with coke or soda. We pulled into the small car park... nobody else there.. was it open? Thankfully yes, otherwise kids would have been distraught! The restaurant is built of wood, bamboo and with a canvas roof. It's built on stilts right in the trees and certainly looked very nice.



So we took the "best" table and hungry bellies scanned the menu. It struck me right away that this "local restaurant" was not priced for locals - most dishes were 150 Baht or more, and as we are.. how to say ... cheap discerning local residents we were a bit surprised. Looks like their target audience might be customers from some of the nice resorts in the north of Phuket like JW Marriott, Sala Phuket, Holiday Inn or Indigo Pearl to name but a few. If you are staying there, 150 Baht will be cheap and of course I recognise that 150 Baht is only 5 Dollars / 3 Pounds / 4 Euro and thus it's cheaper than eating out in England, but we are not tourists :)



For anyone who is not as cheap as us, I do recommend Kin Dee! A very unique little restaurant, very green, quiet and natural, there's a little river / mangrove creek below and there are orchids everywhere. The view from our table...



One reason I have enjoyed doing this blog - it stops me (and my dear wife) from being lazy! Sure we have our favourite places to eat, but sometimes we try new restaurants either because they look interesting, or they have been recommended by a friend or just "for the Phuket blog"! I forgot the food photos at Kin Dee - my Mum had a green curry, the kids devoured their fried rice, and I ordered their "Kin Dee salad" which was rather good.



A good eating experience, I am not sure if we'll go again, just priced a bit high for us - the bill was over 1500 Baht for 4 adults and 2 kids (and we did not order the more expensive dishes!), which for sure some will think is cheap. Actually while the food was not local price, the drinks were just about the same as other restaurants. A beer was 60 Baht, which is pretty standard. The Kin Dee restaurant has character and I reckon most people would love it.

Kin Dee Restaurant - Location Map


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