Royale Nam Tok – top-class dining in the wilds of Phuket
Classy: The Royale Nam Tok.
Topped up on tom yam? Surfeited on som tam? All noodled out? Need a different diet? Head for the Restaurant Royale Nam Tok in Kathu. It’s a bit of secret; the owners are quite happy to have it just ticking over, rather than being rushed off their feet, but this is one of the very best European restaurants – if not the very best – on the island, possibly in Thailand.
The owners – Corry, who deals with the diners, and Marc, the chef – ran the high-class De Tafeljoncker restaurant in Antwerp for 18 years, during which they snagged a score of 16 out of 20 points in the Gault Millau Guide for the quality of their cuisine, along with two “toques”. That’s very high praise.
When they decided to move to Thailand they simply packed everything from the restaurant into three containers and had it all shipped to their newly completed house in Phuket, with its long veranda and decorated pillars. During the day, it’s their home. In the evening, out comes the restaurant furniture, the staff, the crockery, the highly polished silverware and glassware.
View from the other side of the pool. Don't forget: swim BEFORE you eat.
The result is an ever-so-slightly over-the-top place that looks like your grandma – the 102-year-old dowager duchess – may have had a hand in the decor. Dining chairs are slightly rococo and upholstered in striped silk. Crystal chandeliers hang from the ceiling of the main room. There’s a 100-year-old harmonium made in Chicago, a chest of drawers covered with so much marquetry that it’s hard to spot the handles, a curved glass display case packed with silver and ornate crockery.
There are carefully-draped curtains that are guaranteed to keep the place warm on the dreariest of Belgian winter nights. The tables are fully draped – no naked legs here – and napkins come with napkin rings, the first time I’ve seen that in Phuket. All in all, it’s exactly what you’d expect in a very-high-end European restaurant.
Except for the swimming pool, the palm trees, the frogs and cicadas calling and the occasional chorus of squeals from a small pig farm nearby when Napoleon starts shoving the others around.
Dinner starts in style and continues in that vein. A platter shaped like a cake stand arrives, raising the three delicate amuse-gueules it holds almost to chin height. I’ve had crême brulée before, many times, but not foie gras crême brulée. Wonderful, especially when, with a little dip of the head, you can slurp it straight off the plate with benefit of knife and fork. No, I didn’t. Not really. I always behave in restaurants with chandeliers.
Take me to your lieder: After dinner, a bit of a singalong with the harpsichord, perhaps?
Starters arrive on long boat-shaped crockery, three or four bites per person. The wine (Chilean Cab, in my case) has also arrived, along with a tiny tasting bowl. The wine list is long and tempting. The food menu is shorter, but with enough variety to satisfy every palate. Corry says that, apart from a few established favourites, the menu is changed every six weeks.
Some random samples at time of writing: Salmon tartar with capers, garden herbs and condiments; Filet of barracuda Flemish style, in a pot with shallots, tomato and herbs, and butter with capers; Salade Royale with duck liver, rock lobster and smoked duck breast on a salad with Witlof bread, nuts, apples and home-made wine vinegar and herb olive oil.
You get the idea. It’s all guaranteed to make even the most dedicated of gastronomes dither. Oh never mind. I’ll have one of everything. And a long feather.
The Royale Nam Tok is not cheap by Phuket standards, though if you do your thinking in Euros or sterling, it’s far from expensive for the quality. Getting there: at the main crossroads in Kathu, with Patong at your back, go left, towards Loch Palm Golf Course. Then turn left towards Kathu waterfall (namtok in Thai, hence the restaurant’s name). Drive about half a mile past the wakeboarding centre, and it’s just inside a small soi on the right. It’s well signposted.
Tel: 076-321272, email here, website here.
