Indian and vegetarian food in Phuket
Updated
At a glance
Indian food is easy to find in Phuket, most of it in Patong, which also has most of its pure vegetarian and Jain restaurants.
- Elsewhere: Old Town, Kata, Rawai, Kamala and Cherngtalay have Indian restaurants too.
- Pure veg: Patong's pure vegetarian places are along Rat-U-Thit 200 Pee Road and on Soi Moh Watthana.
- Thai food: Ask for jay (เจ): no meat, egg, milk, garlic or onion. A plain vegetarian dish may still have fish sauce or egg.
- Jain: Thai jay food has no garlic or onion, but it can have potato. Several Patong restaurants say they cook Jain food.
- The festival: Every autumn, Phuket's Vegetarian Festival brings jay menus to many restaurants. In 2026 it ran 10 to 18 October.
Indian restaurants, area by area
These restaurants say on their own websites, or the Michelin Guide says, what they serve. Hours change, so check before you go.
- Patong: Tambu, listed in the Michelin Guide, cooks modern Indian food over charcoal and has an eight-course vegetarian tasting menu. Amritsr, which serves “the true taste of Amritsar”, has branches on Beach Road, on Second Beach Road (Rat-U-Thit 200 Pee Road) and at Kalim; its menu has meat and egg dishes. Tandoori Flames, just off Beach Road, opens from 12:00 to midnight. Royal Kitchen on Beach Road says it serves halal food and has a vegetarian menu.
- Cherngtalay, near Bang Tao: Little Prince's main restaurant, with a branch in Patong too. It says its menu has halal, vegetarian, vegan and Jain dishes.
- Old Town: Amritsr has a branch on Soi Romanee.
- Kata: Magic Masala, on Kata Road, has a whole section of vegetarian curries. Highway Curry cooks vegetarian, vegan and meat dishes, and makes a dish vegan if you ask. It also has restaurants in Rawai and at My Front Yard, on Chao Fa West Road.
- Kamala: Google Maps lists Sam's Indian Restaurant.
Pure vegetarian and Jain food
Pure vegetarian Indian restaurants gather in Patong. These call themselves vegetarian, and most of them Jain too, in their own Google Maps listings:
- Shree Ganesha 2, on Rat-U-Thit 200 Pee Road: “Pure Veg & Jain Food”.
- Chotivala, on Rat-U-Thit 200 Pee Road: “100% Pure Vegetarian & Jain Food”.
- Shree Govindam, on Rat-U-Thit 200 Pee Road: “Pure Veg & Jain”.
- Phuket Shiv Sagar, on Soi Moh Watthana: “Pure Vegetarian Indian & Jain Restaurant”. Govinda, a vegetarian restaurant, is a few doors along the same lane.
- Kailash Parbat: vegetarian, in Central Patong and on Beach Road.
- Shree Hare Krishna, on Rat-U-Thit 200 Pee Road: an Indian vegetarian restaurant.
Pure vegetarian places here change hands and names often. Guide sites report closures and new names in 2026, so look at a listing's latest photos before you go.
In a restaurant that also cooks meat, ask for a Jain dish, and ask what's in it. Most Jains in India don't eat root vegetables (67% in a Pew Research Center survey), so ask about potato as well as onion and garlic.
Thai vegetarian food: ask for jay
Jay (เจ) is Thailand's strict vegetarian food. Thailand's Department of Health says it leaves out everything from animals, and five strong-smelling plants: the onion family, garlic, Chinese chives, tobacco leaf and Chinese bulb onion. So a jay dish has no meat, fish, egg, milk or butter.
Mangsawirat (มังสวิรัติ) is the wider Thai word for vegetarian, and jay is its strictest kind. Travel guides warn that a mangsawirat dish can still have egg, milk or fish sauce, so ask for jay if you want none of them.
Everyday Thai cooking hides animal ingredients. In the Michelin Guide's own recipes, green curry paste has shrimp paste in it, red curry paste has krill paste, and green curry takes fish sauce. Most pad thai sauces use fish sauce or salt, and pad thai takes egg. Travel guides warn about oyster sauce in stir-fries too.
Words to order with
| In English | In Thai | Say it |
|---|---|---|
| Do you have jay food? | มีอาหารเจไหม | mi ahan jay mai |
| No meat | ไม่ใส่เนื้อสัตว์ | mai sai nuea sat |
| No fish sauce | ไม่ใส่น้ำปลา | mai sai nam pla |
| No shrimp paste | ไม่ใส่กะปิ | mai sai kapi |
| No oyster sauce | ไม่ใส่น้ำมันหอย | mai sai nam man hoi |
| No egg | ไม่ใส่ไข่ | mai sai khai |
| No garlic | ไม่ใส่กระเทียม | mai sai krathiam |
| No onion of any kind | ไม่ใส่หอมทุกชนิด | mai sai hom thuk chanit |
| No potato | ไม่ใส่มันฝรั่ง | mai sai man farang |
End with ครับ (khrap) if you're a man, or ค่ะ (kha) if you're a woman: it's polite.
Jay and Jain aren't the same
Both leave out meat, fish, egg, garlic and onion. Where they differ:
| Food | In jay food? | In Jain food? |
|---|---|---|
| Milk, curd, ghee, paneer | No | Yes, traditionally |
| Potato, carrot and other roots | Yes | Most Jains avoid them |
| Honey | Ask | No |
| Hing (asafoetida) | Ask | Yes, in place of onion |
So a jay dish can hold potato, and a Jain dish can hold paneer: ask about both. Strict Jains also don't eat after sunset.
Where to eat jay and vegan food
- In Phuket Town, jay canteens line Ranong Road across from Jui Tui Shrine, cooking with no egg or fish sauce. They open early in the morning; closing times vary, so check.
- The Vegan Table, on Ratsada Road in Phuket Town, is fully vegan, open 13:00 to 22:00, closed on Wednesdays.
- In Old Town, Ubuntu EAT has an all-vegan menu from Indian owners, vegan guides say. It's closed on Thursdays.
- Soul, on Karon Road, serves an entirely plant-based menu.
- For the festival, the Michelin Guide named jay dishes at One Chun, a Bib Gourmand on Thep Krasattri Road in Phuket Town that cooks meat too. Ask whether they're still on.
Phuket's Vegetarian Festival
Phuket's Vegetarian Festival, Jia Chai, honours the Nine Emperor Gods with processions from the town's Chinese shrines. It lasts nine days, from the first night of the waxing moon in the ninth month of the Chinese calendar, so its dates move: in 2024 it began on 3 October, in 2025 on 21 October, and in 2026 it ran 10 to 18 October.
During the festival, yellow flags with red lettering hang over stalls and shops that serve jay food. The lettering is the character 齋, read jay.
Many restaurants put vegetarian menus on for those days, the Michelin Guide says, and 7-Eleven stocked more than 600 jay items in every branch in Thailand during the 2026 festival, a Thai business magazine reported. The 2027 dates weren't out on 28 October 2026; the Tourism Authority of Thailand announces them.
Langar at the gurdwara
Phuket Town's Sikh gurdwara, Gurdwara Sri Guru Singh Sabha on Suthat Road, serves free meals to everyone, and on Sundays a vegetarian langar from 13:30, Prince of Songkla University's Phuket guide says.
Spices and groceries
Cooking in your villa? In Patong, SNS Singh Supply sells spices, lentils, rice, atta and pickles, a local food-shopping guide says. Google Maps also lists karma food store in Chalong as an Indian grocery.
Halal Indian food
Several Indian restaurants in Patong say they serve halal food. On 27 October 2026, none of them was on the Central Islamic Council of Thailand's register of certified kitchens, so ask to see a certificate.
How to read the halal logo, and where to eat halal: Halal food in Phuket
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