Nikita's Beach Restaurant — Restaurant in Rawai

Vegan: 🚫 Vegetarian: 🚫 Meat: ✅️

We were brought here by our tour guide to have lunch during our Phuket island sightseeing tour. First of all the restaurant is nicely located directly by the water. It is quite big and has only outside tables, partly roofed. The menu is split between a Thai menu and a western style menu. The prices are above average for Thailand, but not too expensive. I think for this view they are really OK! As we were a mixed group of two meat eaters and one vegetarian we were looking for a vegan or vegetarian option. The Thai menu unfortunately didn't contain any pure vegetarian or vegan choices, only some vegetable dishes which contain fish sauce for sure. The western menu had some vegetarian choices, so I went for the Fattoush salad and a bruschetta triple with three different bruschettas (classic tomato, avocado and mushrooms with feta cheese). The two meat eaters chose the classic Thai dish Pad Thai.

When the food was served everything seemed okay. The salad was fresh and had a nice vinaigrette dressing. The tomato and avocado bruschettas also tasted quite well. But when I took a bite off the mushroom and feta bruschetta I immediately tasted that something was wrong. It was the taste of meat! I had to spit it out and one of the meat eaters confirmed that there were pieces of bacon (or similar) on the mushrooms. Disgusting! This wasn't marked on the menu so this is a absolute catastrophe. If you randomly put meat in dishes please clearly mark it!! There are many vegetarians nowadays and they don't want to have such a bad surprise!

Still I have to say that the service was friendly and everything else was okay.

Because of that bad experience I as a vegetarian can't recommend this restaurant at all for vegans and vegetarians. The restaurant doesn't seemed to care enough about vegetarian and vegan food or the clear marking of ingredients. For meat eaters the restaurant is good, so I can recommend it for them. The review only reflects my very personal experience as a long time vegetarian who really doesn't want to be...

Nikita's is a Rawai Landmark. It's likely that anyone who lives here has dined at Nikita's a number of times (a repeat visit is a high review in itself).

For visitors and tourists, it's a must. And it's not only about the good food and presentation; the oceanfront setting is amongst the very best in south Phuket.

I can't count the number of times I've dined there in the two years since my first visit, but it's a lot...so that's tantamount to 5-start reviews.

A number of photos below, but I'll mention three of my favorites specifically.

The Grilled Chicken Caesar Salad. I have a list in my head of "best values in Rawai." Theses are dishes where the quality and price make it feel like you're getting the better end of the exchange. The Chicken Caesar is right in there. Hard to get many places because Romaine lettuce isn't the norm. Also, the price is under 300B. There are many places that serve fancy salads for over 300B that don't even have protein or any crunch. Plus, the protein isn't only the chicken. It also has a generous portion of crispy bacon. Unbelievable deal.

The Spicy Seafood Soup. I'm not certain that's what it's called on the menu, but it's like a bisque with a little kick. Has a variety of seafood. Just delicious every time and if I'm not mistaken the seafood varies slightly depending on season and freshness.

The Lamb Shank Massaman Curry. Massaman is a very special curry that originates from Malaysia and so is a bit distinct from Thailand's other more fragrant coconut-milk based curries. As a muslim dish, it's typically made with chicken or beef. This is the only lamb Massaman I've ever seen and it's fantastic. One of the best unique...

Amazing ambience but service was just average. Food was not authentic at all, my Thai Basil rice had super tough pork that was barely edible. Also note that they charge 3% fee for credit cards

EDIT: Initially gave an honest 2 stars review but owner gave extremely defensive and snarky replies - as I scrolled through all the bad reviews, I realised this behaviour is extremely consistent. Anyone reading, do yourself a favour and read through all the bad reviews. If everything is fake why do they all say the same things 😉

In response to the owner’s previous comment, no I certainly did not see any Thai people in the restaurant except for your waiters unlike the restaurants nearby and I do not need to be a “Thai food expert” to know that Thai Basil Rice shouldn’t have rock hard pork meat that was practically unchewable. I gave up eating after a few bites because the meat was so tough.

So what if you have been in business for 30 over years? I don’t doubt that the food was once good but if customers are complaining about bad food, instead of being all delusional maybe you should see if there is any truth in that and ask yourself how you can do better! A stinky attitude does not go far in the service industry

My opinion is honest - the ambience is definitely nice and I do recommend a drink but everything else was just bad, and I think there are better places to go for more authentic food experience

Everyone is free to read the reviews and give what they want a try (just don’t say you were...