5 Great Sunset Bars above Kata Noi

After Beach is a great spot to enjoy a few cocktails and even a meal when the sun starts to sink and the beaches cool off. There’s just one thing about After Beach: you’ve got to be a Bob Marley fan. Most of the time, it’s Bob song after Bob song at After Beach, with no relief.

People arriving earlier in the afternoon will more than likely sit in the covered section as the sun is ferocious until around 4.30pm and even after then you’ll have to wear sun cream. By night, the view is a major plus: the sparkling lights of Kata and Karon in the distance as well as passing fishing boats on the horizon.

Heaven Restaurant & Bar Phuket is a delightful bar and restaurant with views of the breathtaking Andaman Sea from the rooftop deck and main dining area. The venue allows you to enjoy a host of local seafood delicacies made in the traditional, local way at reasonable prices.

Tuck into the extensive menu and delicious offerings while you stare out over the 3 bays of Kata Noi Beach, Kata Beach and Karon Beach – the perfect place to view the sunset in the distance on an evening in Phuket.

Baan Chom View has clean lines, freshly laundered tablecloths, tiled floors and solid furniture with seating for 150 diners. This restaurant almost seems out of place when compared to its somewhat easy-going thatched-roof neighbours, but it shares exactly the same breathtaking views.

Expect not much more than the gentle whisper of the hillside breeze and a formal dining experience, even though it has mostly similar prices to the other sunset bars in the area. With an extensive seafood menu, it’s a recommended night-dining spot. You can find Baan Chom View on the hill road between Kata and Rawai, directly above Kata Noi Beach.

Som Tam Yai Kit is a friendly and unpretentious family restaurant just at the first right-hand turn of the hill road coming out of Kata, by the Foto Hotel turnoff. It's a charming little bamboo-and-thatch restaurant next to an impromptu gas station. Dishes here are at half the price of its larger neighbours. There always seems to be a good-natured discussion going on here and it has nothing of the hard sell you sometimes get in the more touristy destinations.

A simple Thai-English menu offers such exotica as fried rice with squid and Issan (northeast Thailand) dishes. Because of its location, the outlook is restricted to southern vistas but for a warm welcome, it’s hard to beat Som Tam Yai Kit.

Sabai Corner is a bar and restaurant with a view on the road leading down to the sea from the Karon Viewpoint. Sabai means ‘happy’ in Thai and never was a place so aptly named as this bar/restaurant. Sabai Corner has been built on a bluff overlooking some of the best beach views on the island. Facing north, you’ll see Kata Noi, Kata Yai, and Karon beaches along with Pu Island and the back of the iconic Big Buddha. Look out to sea and the horizon is the limit.

This ‘wow’ factor at Sabai Corner is turned to the absolute max, and that’s before you’ve even taken a seat. Food-wise, Sabai Corner is no fine-dining location, but it does knock out fairly decent wood-fired pizzas from its brick oven plus a whole gamut of Thai dishes.