Japanese Food

Can you even find Japanese food in Phuket? For a lot of us, our exposure to Japanese food has been limited to sushi and Japanese Steakhouses like Kobe’s. Sure, it’s absolutely amazing steak and it’s a really special meal to have it cooked in front of you by a master chef – complete with flames leaping off the grill and shrimp flipping all over the place. But is that real Japanese food? Maybe, maybe not. If you go to Hawaii for instance, the majority of people are Japanese and we believe there is only one Kobe Steakhouse, and we never saw any Japanese people eating there!

Japanese are big on seafood – being a nation surrounded by water, it makes sense. They ate very little red meat historically, preferring to focus on seafood and vegetables. Cooked food is usually simmered or fried. Vegetable salads with seafood and various pickled items are popular. Miso soup is common and served with most meals.

Spices commonly used are soy sauce, sake (wine), vinegar, sugar and sale. Ginger and red pepper may be used for added flavor.

Fuji Japanese restaurant in Central Festival is popular with Thais who seem to love the Japanese food in Phuket at this super-clean restaurant.

Enzo Japanese restaurant in Thalang receives good ratings and is a casual place good for children – and worth a stop.

Novotel Phuket Surin Beach Resort has a Japanese restaurant they say is the best on the island. It gets good ratings, so if you’re nearby give it a visit! It’s called the “TAI Sushi Bar.” They have a natural atmosphere and open kitchen so you can watch the chefs creating Japanese cuisine from scratch. You can sit at the sushi bar and get up close to the sushi making too. Their menu lists sushi, maki, specially created rolls and other exotic entrees. They serve 'A la Carte' or buffet!

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