Restaurant review: Phuket Chinese Restaurant, Paphos

With staying in the new going out numerous restaurants in Cyprus are having to concentrate efforts on take away and delivery for any hope of survival.

Until the pandemic, Cyprus rather lagged behind other countries in delivery and take away services, so the experience can be a bit hit and miss. Not so with online orders and deliveries from Phuket.

Phukhet Thai and Chinese restaurant was established in Paphos in 1985, and although a stalwart of the town, I have only been there a couple of times. I decided to try their online order service and delivery for the first time a few weeks ago. Since then, I have treated myself on other occasions.

The entire experience was simple, easy, convenient and stress free, and most importantly, the food arrived piping hot, tasty and fresh.

The eatery has launched a ‘new online store’ and offers a 10 per cent discount as an incentive for a following order, which is a good start. They also offer a mailing list if you wish to sign up, but I go straight for the menu.

Clicking on ‘order online’, I’m prompted to enter my post code,which is accepted for delivery which means categories complete with colourful photographs pop up.

Soups, appetizers, dim sum, chicken, duck, seafood, pork, beef, noodles, rice, vegetables, a children’s menu and set menus are all offered. Both Thai and Chinese dishes are listed together.

Feeling hungry, I order a selection of dim sum, enough for three people, prawn crackers, different rices, Thai chicken green curry, Prawn chow mein and stir fried beef with green vegetables.

At the checkout, choices to either pay online, which I opted for, or pay on delivery are offered.

Around 35 minutes later, a courteous delivery driver telephoned for directions and on arrival, left the food on my doorstep as requested.

The dishes came in generous portions and arrived in plastic containers inside a tidy cardboard box. The food was piping hot and delicious.

First, we tucked into the dim sum, which are steamed dumplings prepared in small almost bite-sized portions. They were delicious and decidedly moreish, I could have eaten more.

The Thai green curry is a ‘lip tingler’, fragrant with a spicy kick, and the accompanying steamed rice was cooked to perfection.

The chow mein was enjoyable too. Often, this dish can be too salty and the stir fry noodles soggy, however, despite being transported in containers before arriving on the plate, the dish was flavoursome and firm.

The stir-fried beef was tender; juicy slices mixed with green vegetables which included bok choy. The mixed special rice was packed full of prawns, peas, corn and roast pork.

The prawn crackers were crisp and full of flavour, and not at all oily.

Felling stuffed, we all agreed that Phuket had made yet another evening spent indoors both enjoyable and memorable.

Phuket advises that orders take 30-45 minutes to deliver while the ‘self pick up option’ is usually ready within 20 minutes.

www.phukhet.com