SALVATORE Cossi is an absolute wizard when it comes to cooking Italian food. The roly-poly restaurateur has been in the business for more than 40 years, and he has honed his cooking craftmanship to perfection.

Salvatore came to Phuket for a holiday, 25 years ago, and immediately fell in love with the place. He returned a year later and opened his first Phuket restaurant, the Marco Polo in Patong which quickly became one of the most popular restaurants on the island.
A year later, he opened the larger Casanova restaurant near the Patong Post Office, and business boomed.

“We were full every night, but when the owner saw how successful we were, he doubled our rent,” said Salvatore.

Eight years ago, he wanted a change of scenery and moved to Phuket Town, where he opened the very popular Salvatore’s, just up from the Phuket Town circle. Again, business boomed, and his cooking excellence won him the Thailand Tattler’s Best Restaurant Award every year from 2003 until now.

Never one to rest on his laurels, Salvatore has now opened a much grander restaurant at the Phuket Palace Hotel, just outside Patong on the road to Kata. The new Salvatore’s, which only opened last month, is set in a landscaped garden next to the hotel’s swimming pool, making it one of the most romantic restaurant settings in Phuket.

But it’s Salvatore’s food that will blow you away.

Salvatore insists on using only the best ingredients, including a lot of locally-caught fish, and some prime cuts of meat which he imports from Australia. The lobster ravioli, made with Salvatore’s own home-made pasta is superb, and is one of the restaurant’s signature dishes along with the grouper, and the crème Catalena dessert.

After a couple of rounds of home made bread, we started with the caspacio (380 baht), thinly sliced tuna marinated in lemon juice, and served with fresh parmesan and capers on a bed of lettuce. It was unbelievably delicious, and you have a choice of sea bass, or beef instead of the tuna if you prefer.

Salvatore recommended the Piccodel Sole Aglianico Bienventano claret (1200 baht per bottle) which was almost as delightful as the food.

Next, we had a choice of either the prosciutto e melone, parma ham (380 baht) served with
sweet cantaloupe melon, or the ravioli ricotta e spinaci formaggio (280 baht).

Salvatore recommended the ravioli, which turned out to be a delightful spinach-filled ravioli cooked in a sauce of four delicious cheeses. It was superb, and I will definitely be ordering another one when next I return to the restaurant.

For our main course, we had scallopini di vitello al masala e fegoto d’oca, juicy veal escallopes cooked in a masala wine sauce and wrapped in foie gras, served on a bed of creamy potato mash.Small portions of apple marinated in a port wine gave the meal that sweet touch, and again it was delicious.

For dessert, it came down to a choice between the crème brulee, the home-made ice cream, the crème Catalina or the home-made tiramisu (all 200 baht). I am a sucker for a good tiramisu, so for me, there was no contest, and this was, by far, one of the best tiramisus I have ever tasted.

Salvatore’s is very new, but it is sure to become a popular favourite with both locals and tourists before very long. The food is perhaps a touch expensive in super-cheap Phuket, but in this life, you get what you pay for, and Salvatore’s is without doubt one of the best value-for-money restaurants I have ever been to. The service is very professional, the décor is clean and comfortable, and the food is absolutely superb.

Salvatore’s is currently open from 6pm until 11pm every day except Monday, but during the high season, Salvatore plans to open for lunch as well as dinner.

To book, call 076 341 676.