Café del Mar Phuket Beach Club — Restaurant in Kamala

We have no complaints about the food and our server who was really sweet and really friendly. It was the rest of it!!

We had booked online about 12 days in advance and prepaid 6562THB so we were not just random walk-in customers but honestly the way the security at the entrance treated us was just shocking. We were a group of 4 women ( the 5th girl could not make it) and one of my friends has acute anxiety and IBS issues for which she is on medication. This trip to Phuket is the first one she’s taken alone without her family. We were happy to give up our disposable water bottles ( which we’d brought for the taxi ride as it was a long way from our hotel in Patong) but when we explained that our friend needed to carry her electrolytes, there was a huge argument. The foreign bouncer / security personnel ( a tall, bald guy who was not Thai) came forward as though we were terrorists trying to break into the building! And I was like.. are you serious?? I had just asked that if we left the electrolyte bottle at the entrance would it be possible to purchase something similar from inside and he was behaving as though we were insisting on carrying alcohol bottles inside!

The second issue we faced was that although the place ( the beach sofa area) was 85% empty when we reached (and when we left only 2 other tables had got occupied) when we asked for the corner beach sofa adjacent to beach, we were immediately told that it was already booked. We had also booked ours for that matter but no tables / sofas were reserved with names on them so basically the allocation of the sofas were totally up to the staff / usher. As we didn’t want to get into another discussion as our friend was already hassled by what had happened outside and begged us not to get into another conflict, we let it go.. and then we see that an hour later the usher brings a group of people to the table next to ours but when they request to be moved to the sofa at the end ( which we had asked for) they were immediately shifted there!

I mean why the discrimination?? We were well dressed , polite, single women, we had already paid more than enough to cover our table infact we had paid 1000 THB extra as there was one less person and actually ended paying almost 3500 THB extra.

We were really disappointed by the attitude of the staff..we are all well travelled people.. I’ve been to Nikki Beach in Ibiza & Koh Samui , Ku De Ta in Bali and various other high end beach clubs.. This was our first visit to CDM in Phuket and we only came because my husband and his friends had recommended it very highly ( although he HAD said that Nikki Beach had been far better!) Later we saw the same bald guy taking pictures of two white guys and high fiving them etc.. I mean, what? Do only men get special treatment? Literally the only person who smiled at us was our server and we even asked her why their security staff had such scary expressions.. I mean you can do that to strange men who come to the entrance but we were 4 women alone!

Not a single smile or hello or enjoy yourself.. We actually left by 5pm as we didn’t feel very welcome ( and 80% of the tables were still unoccupied then so what difference would it have made to give us the corner table.. There was no extra charge for that.. and if it had shown up on the booking page I would’ve definitely paid the extra and booked that)

All in all, it was a disappointing experience and I am definitely going to share this review on Trip advisor and Instagram.

After you spend over 10000 THB you don’t want to think that it...

Terrible Experience – Completely Unacceptable Treatment at an International Venue

My wife, a friend, and I visited Café Del Mar Phuket on Friday, May 22nd, 2025. We had high expectations for what is known as a prestigious international brand and went all-in by reserving a VIP bottle service table (Table L1), costing 30,000 baht (around 925 USD). The venue itself is visually stunning – the beach and pool area are beautiful, the nightclub has a well-designed theme, and the service staff at first glance were polite and accommodating. However, what followed turned our night into an unforgettable disappointment for all the wrong reasons.

For a table of that caliber and price, you’d expect a standard of service aligned with global hospitality norms – especially at such a world-renowned venue. To our surprise, there was no food menu, no fruit platters, no cheese boards, or even basic snack offerings alongside the bottle service. This is unheard of at any top-tier club or VIP experience globally.

When we asked our server about food, he misunderstood and promised mini burritos. After a long 30-minute wait, he returned with one oversized burrito wrapped in aluminum foil, cut in half and served with his bare hands – no plate, no cutlery, no presentation. Naturally, I declined it. It was completely inappropriate. After raising the issue with his supervisor, they apologized and removed it, but the experience already felt cheap and unprofessional.

Then came the most appalling part of the night. Around 3:00 AM, when the venue was closing down, we left the VIP area through the nearest available exit with other guests and found ourselves near the beach club pool. Out of nowhere, a rude and aggressive security guard started yelling at us. I calmly tried to explain, but he grabbed me by my shirt collar and physically dragged me. I repeatedly asked him to let go, but he insulted me with obscene language and called in around eight other security staff, who surrounded and intimidated both me and my wife.

Only after this humiliation did a security manager named Abdulrahman arrive to de-escalate the situation. He apologized for his staff’s behavior and acknowledged that the guard in question was a known troublemaker. He even asked me to point out the individual so that he could be held accountable and forced to apologize – but the damage was already done. Being physically assaulted, insulted, and humiliated in front of my wife and other patrons is absolutely unacceptable – and a disgrace to any professional hospitality establishment.

For context, I am 43 year old mature husband and a pilot captain who has traveled the world extensively, and I have never been treated this way in any club or hospitality venue anywhere. It is beyond shocking that a place with an international reputation like Café Del Mar would allow such untrained, aggressive staff to represent them and ruin their brand image.

We ended up spending around 50,000 baht (1,540 USD) by the end of the night, including extra orders at the table, only to leave with a bitter and degrading experience. Management at Café Del Mar Phuket needs to seriously reevaluate how they train their security staff and how they treat paying guests.

We will never return, and I would strongly advise others to avoid this venue. You may be drawn in by the aesthetics, but the service and treatment of guests are appalling. Café Del Mar may have a name globally, but this location in Phuket does not live up to it – and it reflects poorly on the...

Immediately upon entering our mood was ruined! Visited Del Mar for the second time. On April 17th we made a reservation at the beach bar to celebrate my wife's sister's birthday. she wanted a table with a sunset view. On the 17th, we warned the hostesses that there would be 7 of us, but left a minimum deposit for 4 people (8,000 baht) in case someone’s plans changed, since the deposit is non-refundable. Also on the 17th, we said that there would be a birthday and asked for congratulations, they took my wife’s sister’s details from me and promised that there would be congratulations. On April 18, when we came to celebrate our birthday at the appointed time, they kept us at the entrance for about 10 minutes, convincing us that there was not enough space for 7 people at the table we had chosen, and offering us to take another table, in another place, NOT NEAR our table. so that 3 people from our company would sit separately, and would pay for 4 people (since the minimum for a table is 8,000 baht), but the problem is not money. How can you separate a company that is celebrating one person’s birthday in different parts of the room? Throughout this entire dialogue, aggression and obvious disrespect towards us were felt. The second hostess girl went to walk us to our table and pointed at our table with obvious negativity, when I asked if we could have another chair, she pretended not to hear me, turned around and left, the hostesses ignored me for the rest of the evening, even when we left, I said goodbye to them, and they pretended not to see us. I also think they didn't specifically convey the information that the waiters needed to wish us a happy birthday; we had to specifically ask the waiter about this. And the problem with table capacity was solved simply by adding one chair, which our waiter brought, many thanks to him! Since childhood, I wanted to visit the real Cafe Del Mar, even when I listened to the first mix records from Ibiza. This is a very beautiful place, amazing music, incredible professionalism of the DJs, excellent work of the waiters, delicious food, delicious cocktails (even though they consist of 90% ice)😄 But when there is rudeness at the beginning at the entrance, it spoils the whole impression, and I just can’t give more than 1 star. I really hope that the management will see this review and convey to their staff that the most important thing is the guest! I am a completely non-conflict person, and in my youth I myself once worked in similar places as both a DJ and an administrator, and I know that such behavior by hostesses is completely unprofessional and does not correspond to the level of this place....