Sea. Fire. Salt. in Phuket at the Anantara villas cooks fresh seafood served up in the open-air lounge at the resort. Their cool gimmick is that they serve your grilled fish of choice on a block of Himalayan salt chiseled out of salt mines in brick size. The meal provided a nice break from the traditional Thai fare found at every venue in Phuket, but didn’t come without its problems. Everything felt dandy up until the point when they turned on their fans above, and I suddenly hear a huge thud at a column right next to my table. Looking up I saw a crowd of huge hissing cockroaches in the nearby columns very near the outdoor dining tables. I only took notice of these vile creatures when the fans came on because they would occasionally fly into the fan and go splat wherever they landed! Now, I for one admit that the resort has no control of natural environmental hazards that go along with serving people outdoors, but could they not fumigate the columns to avoid enormous roaches from lounging about? Completely on edge after one landed very near my feet on its back so that all I could focus on was its disgusting little legs moving about trying to stand upright…final diagnostic?

Sure go here if you have the cash to burn and want to claim eternal bragging rights saying, “This one time in Thailand, I ate off a salt block carved out of a Himalayan mountain. Cool heh? What have you eaten off lately?” Otherwise, take into account that there may be uninvited creepy crawlers around your dining area. Other people didn’t seem to mind, but I for one could not let go of the fact that everything else about the dinner occurred perfectly, except for the off-chance that a giant flying roach could potentially land on my table. The food, the presentation, and service (which is for the most part always great in Phuket) are all things to commend at Sea.Fire.Salt. Phuket. Such a shame too because I’m not going to lie, eating off a salt block carved whole from a Himalayan mountain side was a super cool experience for sure! If they have taken care of this one problem (I was here in March 2010), I would not hesitate to recommend this restaurant.

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