Fisherman's Restaurant and Bar — Restaurant in Surat Thani Province

For some reason, this place just didn’t gel with us. It came highly recommended by a Bangkok friend, so maybe our expectations were elevated. Also, the restaurant/bar web site had photos that elevated those expectations further. We’d booked a table for 7pm but after a massage in Thong Sala we thought we’d also go here for a pre-dinner drink. Arriving, the place (in daylight) looked very run down, and the “beach bar” quite far from the sea, no real view, and not set up for customers. The staff told us it wasn’t open, but we could have a drink at our table. Despite being told on the web site and FB that a booking was absolutely essential, it looked from the booking form that we were the only reservation that night.

While we sat over our drinks, the staff seemed to be having a party behind us, so loud was the chatter. Only just drowned out by the traffic noise from one of the busiest stretches of road on the island.

As for the food, it was pretty good. Some fish cakes (better than average, but far from sublime), a seafood tom yum (8/10 my Thai partner gave it), and an excellent fried red snapper with garlic (9/10).

When the lights came on, the ambience improved quite a lot, although the “beach bar” continued to look rather abandoned. By 7:30/8:00 the place was packed. 12-15 tables I would guess, so clearly very popular. Did they all make reservations ten minutes before arriving I asked myself?

So, obviously a very successful operation, and I still can’t quite determine exactly what it was that turned me off the place. I certainly wouldn’t go back, but I don’t think that will make a dent on...

What an experience. My partner and I visited here new years day after long night/early morning at the full moon party. Did we ever make the right choice? For starters, the cocktail list is impressive and atune with Thai cuisine. We enjoyed a spicy cocktail that genuinely tasted like a boozy green curry (sounds odd, but trust me it was amazing) along with a berry puré gin cocktail that comes with a scoop of their homemade lemon sorbet (very sweet but equally delicious as it was refreshing). We proceeded with a daily special of crab cakes which really cemented the feeling that we were in for an amazing meal. We followed with a platter of BBQ seafood (size: medium) which included crab, white fish, squid, prawns, and mussels (although the mussels did not open up so we avoided them). We also ordered a fried mackerel with red curry and rice, which had the perfect balance between tang and spice. Only downside is that the server made it seem as though we wouldn't have enough food with just the BBQ platter which is why we ordered the curry fish along with it. We would've done just fine without but in the end we were happy to have gotten to try more items from this amazing kitchen. The service was timely, informative, and polite, the setting is romantic and serene. Prices were surprisingly affordable for the quality and portion size. All of this plus two glasses of Chenin blanc came to about 2400 bhat. We are not sure if we will return to Phangan but if we do, we would definetely go back to Fisherman's. Thank you for a wonderful...

NOT FRESH VERY RUDE MANAGEMENT I came in around 6 pm with some girlfriends, expecting to wait for a table... boy, were we ever wrong. The place was completely empty, with maybe only two tables in use. Our server, who didn't speak a word of English, took our orders and repeatedly brought out food that we did not order. In response to this situation, Emily came out, a fairly large-set woman, who claimed to be the owner (we later found out she was only a supervisor) and accused us of lying about what we had ordered. When explaining that this may be due to a language barrier, she quickly retorted that they had trained the servers to speak and understand perfect English, and that this could not be the case. After this whole charade, when we lined up to pay our bill, we found additional charges for all the items that were wrongly brought out, which totalled about 1200 baht. Keep in mind, we did not even touch the food. She stated that food wasn't free, so she could not remove the charges. She offered us a 20 baht (less than a dollar) discount. The real owner then joined in (might I add she was a bit of an airhead, and needed to add up the totals with a calculator three times until she finally got it). She said that a 20 baht discount was the most she could do, and offered only two free coffees the next time we visited (we were a group of 6).

Needless to say, we will not be returning, and I should warn you that unless Thai is your first language, avoiding this place should...