Those who know their way around Phuket Town will tell you that when it comes to restaurants, Steak Samkong is very high on the list of places giving value for money.

Want to know which is the best restaurant, not just in Phuket but the whole of Thailand? According to Thailand Tatler magazine, it’s La Trattoria at the Dusit Laguna Resort.

Phuket’s beautiful people were out in force last night (May 5) for the unofficial pre-pre-soft opening of two floors of the restaurant and club section of the Indochine Resort & Villas, above Kalim Beach.

It was the ultimate Patong opening: lip-synching ladyboys galumphing around the stage, tiny skirts (on girls and boys alike) and big fronts (on the ladyboys, mostly), volume cranked up, crowds of passers-by rubbernecking to see what was going on, free drinks, balloons, flowers and an opening ceremony presided over by the deputy mayor and the deputy police chief of Phuket’s Big Play Pen.

Jean-Noel Lumineau presented his first French food festival at Mom Tri’s Boathouse in Kata nine years ago – two weeks of the very best French food in the world.

He came back every year to do the same thing and, in September 2008, made the big jump, moving to Phuket as Chef Consultant for Mom Tri’s four restaurants – the Boathouse, the Oasis next door, Mom Tri’s Kitchen (all in Kata) and, the most recent addition, Mom Tri’s Regatta at the Royal Phuket Marina.

Andy Andersen, organiser of the annual Phuket Blues-Rock Festival, which takes place on February 26 and 27, has organised a couple of intimate dinners for small groups of people to get to know the two headliners – Charlie Musselwhite and Richard Clapton.

This is a great place to watch the sun dive into the sea. On the evening the Observer was there, a gleaming gin palace to slide across the face of the bay as the sun sank behind it. Sitting in comfort on the classy restaurant terrace with a good cold Mojito to hand, it’s possible to image that this is something the management arranges every night just to add to the sunset experience.

Ani Phyo is bringing her raw food vision to Phuket at the end of January with a class at Mom Tri’s Villa Royale.

Works of art donated by internationally-renowned artists, galleries and local children will be up for sale on December 9 at Hung Fat’s restaurant, Kalim Beach, with all proceeds to go to the Phuket Has Been Good To Us Foundation.

Twenty Belgian beauty queens added glamour to a pre-opening dinner at the soon-to-open Blue Elephant restaurant in Phuket Town.