Phuket Sep 2013 - Part IV, Food at Phuket

Continued from
Part I - Pullman Phuket Arcadia
Part II - Grand Ocean  Room
Part III - Breakfast at Pullman Phuket

In this post, here's sharing where we had our meals apart from breakfast at the hotel.

By the time we checked-in on Fri night, it was already 8+pm. We were famished and couldn't wait to tuck into a good thai dinner. Elements Restaurant was closed for a private event and Vero Italian was also closed somehow. The front office staff recommended us to go to Naithon Beach for thai seafood dinner and we were certainly happy to indulge in some seafood cooked thai style.

The buggy driver took us to Naithon beach which was merely 5 minutes drive. Naithon beach is a very quiet area with around 7-8 seafood restaurants on the beach itself. Business seem quite bad for most restaurants with only 1-2 tables of diners each.

The front office staff had recommended a restaurant called Mr Oody's, whereas the buggy driver suggested Beach House. We decided to go along with the driver's suggestion.

The whole atmosphere was actually quite serene, dining under the stars barefooted, listening to the sounds of the waves with gentle sea breeze while enjoying seafood. Free wiFi is available!

Stir-fried clams with basil and chilli. Not the freshest but still ok.

Stir-fried morning glory in garlic (known as kang kong in Singapore). Can't go wrong with this dish, crunchy and refreshing.

A must-order for every thai meal, Tom Yum seafood. Not the best we had, but still pass hubby's taste test. Spicy and sour, certainly whet our appetite.

Initially we wanted to order fish but after looking at the variety available, hubby told me that the fish weren't very fresh, whereas the squid (sotong) was very fresh. So we had grilled squid, which was really yummy! Tender and juicy with bbq smell, perfect with some sweet thai chilli sauce. Both of us agreed that this was the best dish of the night.

My must-order dish, the breaded prawn cake. This was ok only, still couldn't match the standard of what I had at Sabieng Lae Koh Samui. The breaded smell was a tad too strong and overpower the taste of the prawn cake.

This meal was less than 1000 baht inclusive of drinks, fairly reasonable in terms of price, food quality and service standard.

For lunch the next day, we decided to go to Naiyang Beach as we missed the food there. Rented a semi-automated bike at the shop just outside the hotel, for 300 baht a day.

Gasoline is 50 baht for 1L, easily available at most shops around the island.

Alternatively, self-service pump stations found almost everywhere as well.

Since it was still early for lunch, we drove down south to Bangtao area (found a fairly nice spa for massage, will blog about it in a separate post) and then up north towards Naiyang beach.

We were back to Naiyang beach, our third visit. There were around 6-8 such beach eateries along the beach.

Selling thai food and grilled meals/seafood.

Look at the scrumptious looking grilled chicken! We only saw these thigh meat after finishing the meal.

Diners could dine in one of these beach huts (photo taken from the beach direction).

Or any tables under the sun shade.

We opted for one of the beach huts.

Nice, cool coconut drink to start.

The papaya salad was really good! Sweet, salty, sour, spicy and special umami taste from the dried shrimp.

Grilled fish. Meat was tender and juicy.

Grilled chicken. Very fragrant with charcoal smell, but the meat was a little tough unfortunately. We forgot to request for thigh meat and the staff gave us breast meat instead :(

Tom Yum seafood, fairly yummy.

Stir fried glass noodle, which was surprisingly very good!

As we weren't satisfied with the grilled chicken, decided to order some grilled pork, which was oh-so-good! The meat was juicy, and nicely caramelised with the honey marinate. No regrets ordering this additional dish even though we were too full for words! This shall be the must-order dish next time, if we were to return again!

After the sumptuous lunch, we strolled at a nearby weekend fresh market (will blog about it) and then headed back to the hotel and lazed the whole afternoon :) Bliss!

Soon, it was time for dinner (again). We were deciding between room service, Elements or Vero. Since we couldn't get enough of thai seafood, we proceeded to Naithon beach again and this time, dined at Mr Oody's. It was a Saturday night and we were actually surprised that the restaurant was very quiet with only 1-2 tables of diners (same as the rest of the restaurants).

Was also disappointed that the fish on display weren't fresh at all! Quite surprised as we saw plenty of fresh catch at the Naiyang weekend fresh market. Probably because business was bad, the fish were leftover from previous nights. The menu also didn't look appetizing.

Fried prawns with garlic. Prawns were still ok, quite fresh, taste-wise so-so only.

Stir-fried mussels with basil and chilli. Mussels was fair.

Stir-fried mixed vegetables. So-so.

 

Phad thai noodles. Oh this was the worst phad thai we ever had. The noodles were clumped and no taste at all.

Well, if we were to compare Beach House and Mr Oody's, we would say the food quality at Beach House was better. I guess this was our last visit at Mr Oody's. In fact, the restaurants at Naiyang Beach are better than that of Naithon Beach. Maybe it's really due to poor business and hence food not so fresh.

We sort of regretted not dining at Elements or Vero's instead. Next time, we will.

In the next post, will blog about the Naiyang Beach weekend fresh market. Stay tuned!

Phuket Sep 2013 - Part III, Breakfast at Elements Restaurant Pullman Phuket Arcadia

Continued from Part I - Pullman Phuket Arcadia and Part II - Grand Ocean  Room

For this post, I'm going to share about breakfast at Elements Restaurant!

Somehow, breakfast is always a high anticipated thing for me whenever I go on beach vacations. Even though it's very tempting to just sleep in till late, I make myself (and hubby) wake up for the resort's buffet breakfast every time.

Some resorts provide semi-buffet breakfast where the main course (such as noodles, rice, different cooking style of eggs with bacon, sausages etc) is cooked-to-order and the sides like bread, cereals and fruits are self-service. Whereas some resorts offer a full buffet service.

I remember the best semi-buffets we had were at Koh Samui (Sareeraya and Hansar), so I was highly anticipating the buffet here at Pullman. Breakfast is served at Elements Restaurant, located one level below the reception area.

The restaurant is very airy and spacious, with uniform design and furnishing that is consistent with the rest of the resort. Buffet is fully self-service with an open kitchen where certain items are cooked ala-minute. Breakfast is served from 6.30am to 11am, very generous timing allowance for both early risers and those preferring to sleep till late.

There are plenty of seats available both indoors and alfresco.

We opted alfresco for both days. Good to enjoy the great sunshine and fresh air early in the morning.

Some of the seats are under the sun, which we reckon would be more suitable for dinner seatings. Don't wanna be baked during breakfast.

Bakery section with wide variety of breads and pastries. I thought the tiny bottles of jam hanging on the ornament tree is really cute and functional.

Very good selection of greens with different types of sauces to go along.

Wide selection of cheese and cold cuts deli meat as well.

Cutesy looking petite bowls of appetizers.

Fair selection of tropical fruits.

Yogurts and muesli.

Crackers with dried fruits and nuts.

Bread and pudding and pie/quiche.

Roasted leg of ham.

Fresh milk, low fat milk and soy milk.

Nespresso machine those who need their caffeine fix.

Cereals and juices.

Healthy smoothie bar.

Open kitchen where guests can order their eggs, sausages, pancakes, waffles, noodles and dim sum.

Hot food selection like porridge, fried rice, fried noodles, stir-fry veggies and meat, baked beans, hash brown etc.

Day 2 - first serving.

Some greens, smoothie, appetizers and Danish pastry. Not bad.

Second helping :p

Sunny side-up, bacon, hash brown, ham. Yummy!

Third helping - some fruits and juice.

Day 3 - first helping.

Bread with honey dip, appetizers and greens.

Second helping. Flat rice noodle soup, topped with some pork balls, roast pork and fish rings.

The broth was very nice but the noodle wasn't cooked properly, some pieces were stuck together. The pork ball and roast pork were very delicious!

 

Third helping. Mixture of everything I like :p Danish pastry, roast pork, bacon, fish ring, veggie and dragon fruit. Weird combination, I know :p

 

All in all, we were quite satisfied with the buffet selection. However, we wish there could be more thai food such as Pad Thai, fried kway teow, stir fried basil with chicken/pork type of dishes. Even though there's a noodle counter, the types of noodle offered seemed to be what I can find in Singapore like the thin noodles, spinach noodles. Was hoping for glass noodles and rice noodles. So I would say that the buffet still falls a little short of our expectation as compared to Hansar and Sareeraya Samui.

 

In terms of service, the staff were very efficient in clearing our plates so no issue with that. However, on Day 3 (Sunday), the open kitchen seemed to be very short-handed. At one point there was only one chef who had to man 4 counters at the same time and he seemed a little disorganized. After taking my order for noodles, he went on to take order for eggs and sausage and pancakes and did those orders first even though I was the first. Eventually another chef appeared but I had to wait about 10-15 mins for a bowl of noodles. I guess there might have been some manpower lapse but luckily there weren't that many guests on that day.

 

That said, I believe dear son would enjoy the buffet very much if we were to bring him along. *wink*

 

A pity we didn't get to eat lunch or dinner at Elements again or Vero the Italian restaurant this time round. We promise ourselves we have to dine at either of these restaurants the next visit to Pullman Phuket. That's right, the next trip if we have the chance again!

 

That's all, and stay tune for the next post where I will share about what and where exactly we had our lunches and dinners in Phuket!

Phuket Sep 2013 - Part II, Grand Ocean View Room at Pullman Phuket Arcadia

Continue from Part I - Pullman Phuket Arcadia

Next, we move onto the room that we stayed, the Grand Ocean Room.

There are several room categories in Pullman Arcadia, namely Deluxe, Grand Deluxe, Family Deluxe, Ocean, Grand Ocean, One Bedroom Pool Villa and Two Bedroom Pool Villa.

We wanted a breath-taking ocean view for our room, so it's between Ocean room and Grand Ocean room, the latter being slightly bigger. We were deciding which category of room would give us a better and eventually chose the Grand Ocean room, one for the spaciousness and two we thought that the Grand Ocean would be the one with better view since it's more expensive?

Alas, we were wrong :( Or rather, the Grand Ocean rooms that have better view were already occupied by the time we checked-in and we were allocated Blk 33. When we checked out we heard from one of the staff that next time we could request for Blk 16 or 17 which would offer better view.

But that said, when we saw the Ocean rooms (Blk 3), these are the ones that are closest to the ocean with superb unblock view!! (Blk 16 and 17 are still a distance away) We felt really disappointed as the Ocean room is cheaper, I mean we could have a better view at a cheaper price! Duh! What kind of logic is that?

I guess the only explanation is the Ocean room is smaller in size, with less privacy as it's located next to the restaurant and there are several deck chairs below the block. But I want the view! I think I'm going to stay in the Ocean room next time!

Ok, enough of complaining about the room category. Besides that point, the Grand Ocean room is indeed very spacious and comfortable. The furnishings are in a soothing light wood colour, gives a warm and clean look to the overall décor. Notice the armchair at the right side of the above picture? It swivels around, love it!

The king size bed with the fluffy pillows is needless to say, absolutely comfy.

6 bottles of water and 5 cans of soda in the fridge (coke, sprite, soda water) are provided free-of-charge, along with tea and coffee making facility.

I love this huge alarm clock. Thought the design and colour complement the furnishings of the room very well.

The bathroom is very spacious and that's part of the reason why I like the room. I'm rather particular about bathrooms, I thought bathrooms should be spacious, airy and bright. Hate those dinky and dimly light ones.

Good size bathtub which I believe dear son would LOVE.

The rainforest shower head is so-so but the normal shower head gives very strong water pressure which we like.

Wardrobe space is reasonable. Iron and ironing board is provided, along with two umbrellas, beach bag and beach towels.

One of the nights we decided we boil some water for tea, and I was so impressed with the flask which emits a cool blue light when boiling water. So cool looking. I want one!

Ample balcony space with comfy lounge sofa, exactly what I wanted, to chill out at the balcony enjoying cool breeze and nice view while reading a book (or playing with iPad :p)

 

View from the room, can only see a little bit of Naithon beach, not what I was looking for unfortunately. Although I can say this room offers very good privacy.

 

Oh, there's also one technical (or construction) problem that surfaced during our stay. On day two, we left the room at around 11+am when the housekeeping staff came in to clean up the room. When we returned in the afternoon at 4+pm, the entire floor was soaking wet! It couldn't be due to housekeeping since it was more than 4 hours already and any mopped flour would be dry already (and they wouldn't pour buckets of water like that to clean the floor right?) We thought maybe plumbing problem but no signs of leakage anywhere. Bathtub was dry as well (no overflowing water whatsoever).

 

The air-con to the room was off (since we went out) and we thought maybe we would open the balcony to air-dry the room but after half an hour, the floor was still soaking wet. So we had to call the front desk. It turned out to be a condensation problem (apparently a known problem, as the front desk staff and housekeeping staff had already encountered the problem many times). The room below ours was very cold (full blast air-con maybe) whereas the air-con in our room was turned off. Therefore condensation occurred; which means that there's very poor insulation when constructing the property. Anyway, we were told not to turn off the air-con even if we leave the room (have to leave one key card behind to power the electricity). True enough, after we turned on the air-con for half an hour, the floor dried and we didn't have the problem again.

 

Hmmm, does this mean guests cannot enjoy natural air in the room at all (unless no guest staying in the unit below)? Wonder if only certain rooms have this problem? The wet floor could be hazardous since it's very slippery but it would be a waste of electricity too if the air-con had to be on even if guests were to leave the room. Well, something for the management to ponder in the long run I guess.

 

That said, I still hope to return as I do like the entire design and concept of the property. The next time round, the Ocean room with superb view!

 

Ok, that's all for the room. Next up, breakfast at the restaurant. Stay tuned!