Capannina

Kata Beach has grown a lot in recent years, with a bunch of new villa properties, hotels, and apartment complexes replacing a lot of the shophouses and guesthouses that used to define the area. Concomitant with the rise in high end houses has been the increase in boutique stores and better restaurants.

Cappannina is one of the new, middle-range restaurants that has grown up in the area. It serves your typical selection of Italian foods from pasta to pizza and gnochii. I had the penne with eggplant and tomato topping, which was quite nice. I’ll have to go back for one of their pizzzas, which is my usual yardstick to judge Italian restaurant quality.

One particularly nice thing about the restaurant was their latte. Lattes in Phuket are often a very mixed bag, with some being barely passable and coming in tiny little glasses to much more respectable versions at Starbucks and the like. However, the latte here came out in a huge glass that presented it very well. It must have been the size of two normal lattes. It had a great head of foam and the coffee itself was quite good—better than Starbucks to be sure!

The prices are what you would expect to pay at a slightly touristy place with entrees running around 250 to 300 THB and appetizers and desserts going for around 150 THB. Given the decor, quality of the food, and massive latte size, I think it’s a pretty good deal and one more sign that Kata is getting to be a place worth visiting.