A mark of some of the best restaurants on Phuket is their discreetness. Often, a small doorway or back alley will be the entrance to a simply marvelous culinary experience. And so it is with Patong Biergarten on Raj-U-Thit Road (200-Pee-Road). We passed through an unobtrusive garden into a bustling, busy restaurant with a tangible Middle European ambiance to it. At first, my dining partner couldn’t understand a thing as everyone was speaking German. Then he opened the four-language menu and it all made sense.

The kitchen is the star of Patong Biergarten and it’s a bold statement to place it slap-bang in the middle of the establishment. Well-lit and simply a powerhouse of activity, it’s almost a floor show in itself. We’d chosen a French Merlot to accompany our meal, eschewing the obvious choice of beer. I’ve always found that beer loses its freshness after a surprisingly short while in the tropics and who wants warm beer along with their meal? No thanks.

For starters we sampled a cream and spinach soup and a beautiful beef salad along with home-baked bread. The meat (New Zealand beef) was velvet-tender and the soup tangy and light. Next, I ordered a ‘Gentleman’s Plate’, which consists of a pork steak, bacon, mashed potatoes and a glorious mushroom and onion topping.
Phuket has a sizeable Chinese population which insists on the best pork and this locally-bought meat is no exception to the rule. The potato was served in whirls with deep fried onion twists over the top. All in all quite an order, and fabulous value. My partner, meanwhile, was tucking into a grilled fish filet in dill sauce with rice.
An industrious silence fell as we ate which was only broken when the head chef, Robert Pagitsch from Graz, Austria, joined us. “Busy?” He grinned, “This isn’t busy. You should see this place when it’s really swinging.” Like most quality restaurants, Patong Biergarten's popularity has come from a word-of-mouth reputation that speaks reams more than loud billboards and announcements ever can.

We finished off a memorable evening with chocolate mousse and a kartinalshnitte – an almond and sponge cake which pretty much defies description, except to say that it’s identical to what you’ll find in those famous Viennese coffee houses off Kartner Strasse. The real thing.