Twinpalms Phuket

Eating

Breakfast at the Oriental Spoon Restaurant is a western-style buffet - patisserie, fruit, Bircher muesli, fresh juices and cold cuts - with hot food cooked to order by a brigade of pleasantly chatty chefs.

If you’re there on a Sunday, save yourself for brunch. Join Phuket’s ex-pat business community and regular visitors to graze on smoked salmon, roasts, cheeses and seafood. Finish off with berries, chocolate fondue and crème brulee.

Lunches are served at the pool bar or in the Martini Lounge by super-friendly staff; there’s complimentary WiFi available here and in the lobby, so you can log on while you tuck into a mean Tom Yum.

In the evening, the restaurant morphs into a sophisticated, back-lit eatery serving imported seafood (such as Sydney rock oysters) alongside indigenous black and blue crab, tiger prawns and white snapper. You’ll also find some beef and chicken dishes on the Asian-inspired menu. If you need to rest your taste buds, resort to familiar pasta and pizza options.

Meanwhile, down on Surin, Catch Beach Club is open for drinks, lunch, dinner and twice-weekly beach barbecues. It's so hip it slithers. Wear high heels, no matter how impractical. Hotel guests get a 50% discount on beach chair and umbrella charges, but many balk at this as similar hire charges close by are much cheaper.

Outside the hotel, particularly in high season, you’ll find plenty of cheap fish restaurants on the beach. We liked Taste and Twin Brothers), or for a phenomenal Thai meal, try Silk, a restaurant in a shopping mall (honestly) just round the corner from Twinpalms. Even tricky vegetarians will be spoilt for choice.