“Location, location, location” as the saying goes.
It doesn’t matter how good you are, if you’re not in the right location, forget it. That’s why Tom McNamara, Baan Rim Pa creator, decided to convert his two-storied teak house overlooking Kalim and Patong Bays, into a restaurant.

Baan Rim Pa has since become one of Thailand’s best-known restaurants, with a reputation stretching much further. It is perched on a cliff, with teak floors and the constant swish of the surf ‘downstairs’. It didn’t take long to decide on a meal, as we’d already studied the Baan Rim Pa cookbook that afternoon and had a fair idea of what we wanted to sample.

We chose four plates: Goong Choob Paeng Thod (battered and deep-fried shrimp), Gaeng Liang Goong (herbed soup of vegetables and prawns), Panaeng Ped (creamy curry with duckling) and Pla Nueng Manow (steamed fish with lemon), with a bottle of Allegrini, Amarone Della Valpolicella Classico 1999 from Baan Rim Pa’s award-winning wine cellar.

Spotlights highlighted dancing branches next to our table, the atmosphere that brings thousands of diners each year was in full swing – and the food arrived. The Panaeng Ped deserves special mention. The duck, simmered in coconut milk, is sweet and just a touch piquant. The shrimps, plump, fresh and tender were served with Chinese plum sauce and a red chili dip. The herbed soup was perhaps outdone by the stronger flavours of the duck and prawn, and when the steamed fish arrived I found the meat fell off the bone and the lemon perfectly complemented the fish.

There are some restaurants that can, for a fleeting moment, encapsulate the word ‘romantic’ and then there are those that fling their tacky version of romance full in your face. Here, with
Tommy Doyle playing classics on his grand piano and Bolek Peplowski on his saxophone or clarinet, the sea breeze and the delicate aromas of world-class cooking in the air, The House by the Sea was the most romantic place I’d eaten in a long, long while. A five time winner of the Wine Spectator Award of Excellence, Baan Rim Pa delivers the definitive Phuket dining experience.