Food: Benny’s: a bite of classic Americana

PHUKET: Tucked away between four and five-star hotels by the sea in Surin, you’lll find Benny’s Cocktails and Grill.

This eight-table eatery, created by gutting an old Thai-style house, offers a wonderfully intimate, cozy and comfortable ambiance, enhanced (somewhat uniquely for Phuket) by diner-friendly noise levels that enable conversation.

“All of my cocktails are original recipes” says Italian proprietor Benedikt “Benny” De Bellis. “I have a nice menu where I can actually describe the history of the cocktails. For most of the cocktails, I use recipes from the UK Bartenders’ Guild, and caster sugar instead of syrup.”

As the grill is goes, it’s definitely all one could hope for… and affordable. Among the tempting offerings are BBQ pork ribs, smoked in-house and slow cooked for six hours; 120-day grain-fed rib eye; a no-bells-and-whistles, bacon-cheeseburger that’s juicy, flavorful, tender and quite possibly the best burger in Phuket, and the pièce de resistance, the 1.5kg Tomahawk steak, which is a substantial fraction of a cow, all served with a side of duck fat fries and Benny’s legendary coleslaw.

When asked what made his burger so incredible, Ben very humbly mentioned that it could be the pork fat that he mixes in with the Australian kilcoy beef to keep it moist. Either way, it is absolutely one to journey out for.

Like the establishment itself, the menu is very intimate. Thus, Ben likes to mix it up every once in awhile. To do this, he keeps a watchful eye on what’s popular and what can be changed for something new.

Bookings are recommended but the bar is always an option for walk-in customers who need a fix when the tables are full.

Benny’s is located on Soi Had Bangtao, Moo 3, in Thalang and is open from 2pm to till midnight.
Bookings can be made by calling 080-700 1509 or by emailing book@bennysphuket.com.