Mee Hokkien Phuket: Where to Eat Hokkien Noodles in Phuket Town

Featured image: JULIANISME, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

What Mee Hokkien Is in Phuket

Phuket mee hokkien is built on round yellow wheat-flour noodles with a slightly salty taste. Cooks stir-fry them with soy sauce, choy sum, pork, fish, squid, shrimp and fish balls. Some shops add an egg. Older recipes use small oysters as a main ingredient. Menus in Malaysia and Singapore use the same name for dishes of their own, so judge a Phuket bowl by what the shop describes rather than by what you ate elsewhere. Among Phuket's local noodle and rice dishes, mee hokkien sits beside mee sua, Kwangtung noodles and yen-ta-fo. Of those, it is the one most visitors are pointed to first.

Dry, Gravy or Soup: Pick Your Style

Shops do not agree on what mee hokkien looks like. Some fry the noodles dry. Others add water until they arrive in gravy. A third group serves a soup version with a broth made from shrimp and pork bones, topped with fried shallots. Decide on the format before you choose the shop.

• First bowl, classic stir-fry: choose a dry or gravy shop such as Mee Tong Poh.
• Light lunch: choose the soup at Som Chit, where the broth is light but tasty.
• Want both formats: eat at Som Chit and Mee Tong Poh in one outing, since they sit side by side.
• Prefer dry noodles with soup on the side: ask whether the shop will serve the broth separately.

Where to Eat Mee Hokkien in Phuket Town

Phuket Town's best-known cluster sits near the Clock Circle on Phuket Road. Som Chit is pronounced "Som Kit" and is also spelled Somjit. Mee Tong Poh sits next door and appears as Mee Ton Poh or Mee Ton Poe on some maps. Ko Yoon is a third Hokkien noodle shop in town. Go La is a fourth name to look up, and it appears in the MICHELIN Guide Thailand restaurant listings as a Hokkien-style fried noodle place. Read its guide entry for the current designation and hours before you plan around it. One long-time Phuket writer reports that Som Chit draws mostly Thai customers while its neighbor draws mostly tourists. Treat that as one observer's impression, not a rule.

How to Order and Eat Mee Hokkien

Som Chit is a small, plain room with a handful of tables, stools and large Thai-language menus. Point at what you want, or show a photo of the dish. Bowls come in three sizes: small at ฿50, medium at ฿60 and large at ฿70. The soup arrives with dry wonton, shrimp, fish, soybean sprouts, morning glory and big yellow noodles. Table condiments let you adjust the flavor: chilli powder, sugar, vinegar and fish sauce. Add a side of deep-fried wonton if you are hungry. For dessert, order Oh Aew, a local mix of ice, banana jelly and red beans. If you want other casual formats after the noodles, our Phuket street food rundown covers them.

Getting There and Timing

Som Chit is at 214/6 Phuket Road, Talat Yai, Mueang Phuket District, Phuket 83000. It is near the Clock Circle, and Mee Tong Poh is right beside it. That makes a two-shop comparison easy on foot. Som Chit is open from 8 am to 5 pm, so lunch is the safe window. If a shop is shut, walk on to other Phuket Old Town food stops. Hokkien heritage also shows up at the table in the city's dim sum shops. For general trip planning, the Tourism Authority of Thailand's Phuket page covers transport and regional context.

Budget: What a Bowl Costs

A reported price list for Som Chit runs ฿50 for a small bowl, ฿60 for a medium and ฿70 for a large. That list comes from an October 2024 write-up, so expect some drift by now. Prices for Mee Tong Poh, Go La and Ko Yoon are not published in the sources we use. Check each shop's Google Maps listing or Facebook page for current menus. Sides such as fried wonton and Oh Aew add to the total, and no reliable price is on record for them.

Mistakes to Avoid

Most disappointments come from mismatched expectations, not bad noodles.

• Assuming every shop serves the same style: Mee Tong Poh serves gravy, while Som Chit mostly serves soup.
• Arriving late: Som Chit closes at 5 pm.
• Skipping the condiments: chilli powder, sugar, vinegar and fish sauce are there to be used.
• Relying on a single spelling: search Som Chit, Somjit, Mee Tong Poh, Mee Ton Poh and Mee Ton Poe on maps.
• Carrying only cards: small shops like these are typically cash-based, so bring baht notes.