Kopitiam by Wilai
4.6(1,637 on Google)Logged by Murray
- Getting there
- On Thalang Road in Phuket Old Town, walkable from most of the old quarter
Why it’s in the log
Kopitiam by Wilai occupies a Sino-Portuguese shophouse on Thalang Road, the main street of Phuket's Old Town, and serves the kind of breakfast the neighbourhood has been eating for generations — the kopitiam ("coffee shop") format that came over with Phuket's Hokkien and Peranakan communities.
The room does a lot of the talking: tiled floors, old signage, furniture that looks original rather than styled to look that way. It functions as both a coffee house and a proper Thai restaurant depending on the hour.
Morning is the right time for it, before the Old Town's day-trip crowd fills in around it.
“The building alone is worth the stop, but the breakfast is the actual reason to sit down.”