Our last night in Thailand had us dining at one of the many buffet restaurants lining the streets of Patong Beach in Phuket. We haven’t really tried any of the food places along its crowded avenues—well except the street food we sampled the previous day—since our arrival a few days ago. Finally, here’s our chance.

Dinner was served at the World Café of Mercure Phuket Deevana hotel. Although it mainly serves the guests lodged in their world class hotel, the restaurant is also open to walk in diners. While it is not exactly located right in front Phuket’s Patong Beach, it’s still strategically situated near the many street shopping areas to attract a fair amount of tourists.

►CHECK DISCOUNTED ROOM RATES & AVAILABILITY

The interiors of World Café is pretty classy but not intimidating. We actually went there without changing from the clothes we wore from the Phang Nga whitewater rafting activity earlier in the day. It’s atmosphere is quite relaxed and I like the fact that wi-fi is also available for free—you just have to request for a username and password at the hotel concierge.

A buffet dinner at World Café would cost you 499 baht. The restaurant isn’t as large as the one in Siam Niramit where we also had our buffet dinner the previous night. I’d say it’s about a fourth of its size, so it isn’t surprising that its food selection is also not as varied as the previous evening’s dinner.

►BOOK DISCOUNTED FOOD TOURS IN PHUKET

But as its name suggests, World Café serves both local and international cuisines; I remember seeing Indian dishes, western regulars, pastas, tempuras, and of course Thai dishes. I so love their unnamed tofu-like nuggets (far left of the photo) and their pad thai is also quite commendable (the cheap one we tried on the streets of Patong Beach near Bangla Road is still the best one for me though).

Their desserts are also a mix of local and international selections. Cakes and ice creams intermixing with traditional Thai comfort food, saku kao pod or tapioca pudding mixed with strips of mango and black beans. Although very Thai, it somehow reminds me of ginataan, a favorite Filipino afternoon snacks.

It was unfortunate though that by the time our group arrived at the restaurant, most of the dishes displayed on the buffet table were starting to dwindle. ”There were just too many customers,” a staff apologetically told us, ”but their cooking a fresh batch just for a group,” she reassured.

If a buffet restaurant’s popularity can be judged from the amount of empty dishes on its tables, Phuket’s World Café would definitely be a good contender.

World Cafe Phuket
Address: Mercure Phuket Deevana , 239/14 Raj-U-Thid 200 Pee Road, Patong City, Phuket
Contact Number: +66 (0) 7630 2100 ext 1311
Email: info@mercurephuket.com
Opening Hours: 6:00AM to 11:00PM
GPS Coordinates Map: 7.885713, 98.294296

• BOOK TRANSPORTATION ONLINE TO/FROM PHUKET TO ANYWHERE •