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Under 300 Baht ... And Good


Evil Penevil

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2 hours ago, Evil Penevil said:

I haven't seen the ladyboy who used to run it for awhile and read that the stall had changed ownership.  But the spaghetti is still as good as ever.

Evil

The ladyboy had run it for years, so long as the food is just as nice, its all good. Thank you

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For those who enjoy breakfast burritos, Smokin Joe's on Soi Lengkee has a decent one:

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The breakfast burrito is a Tex-Mex innovation that dates back only to the 1970's, but quickly became popular and was included on the menus of several fast food chains.  Now it's widely available as a breakfast item in all sorts of U.S. restaurants, not just those with a Mexican connection.   Breakfast burritos come in many variations and the one at Smokin Joe's consists of a 12-inch lightly browned wheat flour tortilla filled with scrambled eggs, cheddar cheese and bits of sausage and smoked bacon. Condiments from ketchup through Tabasco are available for those who want additional flavor.  It's very tasty, mainly because good quality sausage and bacon are used.

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The price was 175 baht and includes a cup of coffee or tea.  I know a much bigger breakfast is available close by for 99 baht and that 99-baht or lower breakfast specials abound in Pattaya.  However, that doesn't help anyone who want a breakfast burrito rather than an English fry-up or American breakfast.  Retox Game On (2nd Road and Soi Honey) also has a breakfast burrito for 175 baht.  I haven't tried it yet, but will.  It comes with baked beans as one of the ingredients and I'll ask for them to skip that in my order. 

 I have tried the breakfast burrito at the Golf Club on LK Metro for 80 baht (or is it 100 baht?).  It was good, but very different from the Smokin Joe's version.  At the GC, the breakfast burrito contained scrambled eggs, cheese, salsa and refried beans in a flour tortilla. It had more of a spicy Tex Mex flavor.  It  was wetter and messier than at Smokin Joe's and had to be eaten with a knife and fork.  Some foods don't photograph well and this is one of them, so I'll  skip the pic.  

Those were some suggestions for breakfast burritos in Pattaya.  Are there any others?

Evil

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The price of the breakfast-lunch buffet at Casa Pascal on 2nd Road near The Avenue has gone up.  It is now 245 baht plus 7% VAT, so 262 baht total.  The review below is from 15 months ago, but not much has changed since then except the price.  It's still one of the best bargains around.

Here's the menu from the Website) at Casa Pascal:

Breads
Fresh baked Croissants,  Toast Twist Bread,,  Whole Grain Bread,  Sour Dough Bread, Half White Farmers Bread,  Dark Rusticco Bread.  White French Batard,  Swiss Bürli Bread . White Crusty Bread

Terrace BBQ Grill
Eggs and Omelets,  2 different kinds of Bacon Ham and Sausages,  Chicken Breast  Pork Steaks  Waffles and Pancakes

Hot dishes
1 kind of Asian Soup; 1 kind of Western Soup; 3 Asian Specialties;  6 Western Dishes (pasta, hash brown, baked beans, meats, veggies, etc.)  

NOTE: You can have spätzle real Swiss rösti).

Cold dishes
Pork Loin Roast  Different kinds of Cold Cuts Smoked Kipper Herring  Pickled Fish Cheese  Müesli & Cereals  Yoghurt & Fruits  Salad bar  6 different Salads 
Variety of Dressings Russian eggs

Drinks
Juices  Cola, Sprite, Fanta, Soda,  Filter Coffee and Tea; Cappuccino, Espresso, Mocha, Hot Chocolate

Condiments
Homemade Apricot Jam Homemade Berries Jam Orange Marmalade  Honey  Maple Syrup  Butter

Desserts
Choice of Desserts   NOTE:  The desserts are tiny, but really good!


My review:

Casa Pascal offers the best breakfast buffet in its price class in central Pattaya. 

 

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It is located just off 2nd Road near The Avenue and across from Royal Garden Plaza.

 

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Eggs and breakfast meats are cooked to order at an outdoor grill and fry station.

 

 

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The choices include steaky and back bacon; marinated chicken; ham; sausage and marinated pork.

 

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Inside, there's an outstanding selection of freshly baked breads ...

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along with cold cuts; a small salad bar fruits; pickled and smoked herring; cheese;

 

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Asian and Western hot dishes (soups, pasta, stir-fry, potatoes); 

 

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... cereals; yogurt; fruits; desserts; and the customary condiments.

 

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It includes as much coffee, tea, juice and soft drinks as you can knock back.

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It's actually a combined breakfast and lunch buffet. The friendly staff keeps the chafing dishes well filled between 8.00 a.m. and 2 p.m., which are convenient hours for those who wake up when their cocks grow, not when the cock crows. There's also free WiFi with a strong signal, although it is a bit of a hassle to log in.

 
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You can find bigger breakfast buffets in central Pattaya, but you'd be hard pressed to find a better one under 250 baht. That said, we have to keep things realistic. Should you want a full English fry up, you're better off heading to Retox, IRovers or another English pub/restaurant as some of the components of a full English are missing from Casa Pascal's buffet.  But if you can accept a breakfast without black pudding, tinned tomatoes and fried mushrooms, CP is a great choice. 
 
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The absolutely best breakfast buffets in Pattaya, in terms of variety and quality, are in the big hotels like the Hilton, Sheraton, Royal Cliff and Dusit. However, they cost three to five times as much as Casa Pascal, which can't be beat regarding value for money.
 
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Edited by Evil Penevil
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I went to Harry's on Soi Diana to see if the 99-baht hamburger with fries was still on offer and to have another of Harry's Swedish dishes.  The hamburger special was available, but a waitress urged me to try the 150-baht pizza special.

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I was surprised because I didn't recall Harry's having pizza on the menu.  But then I noticed the pizza didn't come from Harry's but from Pizeria in the ZIP Lounge and Apartments across the street.

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I abandoned my plans for pyttipanna or biff à la Rydberg and went with the pizza.  I ordered what was called capriccosa (sic) on the card. It lacked two of the toppings that go on a classic pizza capricciosa, but I don't imagine you can put artichoke hearts and anchovies on a 150-baht pizza in Thailand and still make money.  The tomato sauce, cheese, mushrooms and ham were fine by me, though.  I'm not a fan of artichoke hearts on pizza and wouldn't have ordered it if it had been a classic capricciosa.

It was amusing to see the waitress, in the era of cell phones and the Internet, go to the top step of Harry's and yell "pizza!" across the street.  I don't know what sort of arrangement Harry's has with Pizeria, but there's a Swedish angle.  I lived in Stockholm a number of years while married to a Swedish woman and still remember some of variations available in pizzerias there.  One of Pizeria's offerings was called "Svenne's special" and it was topped with pork tenderloin and Bearnaise sauce,  definitely a Swedish touch.  "Kebabpizza" is also a Swedish invention.  It's not on the same level as durian pizza- yes, you can get that in Pattaya- but bizarre enough to have Raffaele Esposito spinning in his grave. 

I got more evidence of a Swedish connection when my pseudo-capricciosa arrived.

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It was accompanied by a small bowl of what's called pizza salad in Sweden. It was introduced by the Italian  chef and restaurateur who opened Sweden's first pizzeria in 1969. He apparently based it on a Croatian cabbage salad.  Chopped cabbage is marinated in vinegar and seasoned with oregano and sometimes caraway.  It usually contains bits of red pepper and carrot as well. Unfortunately, the bowl of salad I got was inedible: way too much vinegar and what tasted more like cumin than caraway.  It resembled pizza salad, but tasted nothing like I remembered it in Stockholm.

The pizza itself was good; not great in my estimation, but good enough for 150 baht.  

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It was a bit sparse with cheese, but had plenty of mushrooms and ham.  The sauce was OK.  The thin crust was good with just the right bottom char and still soft inside.

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Bottom line:  I don't regard pizza as a dinner dish and almost never have it as such.  I consider it a party food or snack, especially  a late-night snack when out drinking.  The pizza I had at Harry's would be fine along those lines.  I have to rate it as good, with the horrible side salad an irrelevancy.

Evil 

Edited by Evil Penevil
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Pretty funny review, bro.  Agree with your assessment that the crust on that pie appears to be cooked the correct amount.

Just a quick note:  To the best of my knowledge, Harry's is at least partially owned by Patrick "PTOR" Hedqvist, who is very well known to Rockhouse customers as the mountainous Swedish guitar player who has done gigs in there occasionally.  He's a very dear friend of mine, and I'm glad he's doing well.

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(Picture stolen from his Facebook page)

Patrick might be interested in your comments regarding his side salad.  Your description of the proper recipe is appetizing; if they can get it right that would be a pretty cool thing to try.

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1 hour ago, Rompho Ray said:

Patrick might be interested in your comments regarding his side salad.  Your description of the proper recipe is appetizing; if they can get it right that would be a pretty cool thing to try.

One problem is that Thai cooks who prepare Western food seldom know how a Western dish should taste because they don't like and never eat Western cooking. I can only imagine what pad thai would taste like if it were prepared by a Swedish cook who had never been to Thailand or had Thai food before and used a computer program to translate the recipe from Thai to Swedish.

In any case, here's a recipe for classic Swedish pizza salad from a Web site.  There are many variations and as I recall, strips of carrot are usually included.

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Edited by Evil Penevil
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16 minutes ago, Evil Penevil said:

...Thai cooks who prepare Western food seldom know how a Western dish should taste because they don't like and never eat Western cooking. I can only imagine what pad thai would taste like if it were prepared by a Swedish cook...etc.

A good point so often overlooked by us farangs.  Still, chatting with Patrick about it might expose a question of training or recipe that he's not aware of.  Your choice of course, depending on how well you know him.

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A good point so often overlooked by us farangs.  Still, chatting with Patrick about it might expose a question of training or recipe that he's not aware of.  Your choice of course, depending on how well you know him.
I do know him, but not well. Of course if he had been there that night I probably would have said something, but I have never seen him at Harry's and was unaware he had any ownership connection.

Harry's had a lot of Swedish customers and I am sure one of them will say something.

Evil

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I hadn't eaten at Mama's Cafe at the Beach Road end of Soi 6 for a long time. I was down on the Six the other night for a bar crawl and decided to try it again. Most of my dining on Soi 6 hasn't been done in restaurants.

I had tried the French version of shepherd's pie at Mama's in the past and went with it again.  It cost 290 baht with a small side salad.

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It was good, but a different recipe than I recalled.  This version was ground beef and onions topped with mashed potatoes and a layer of Gruyère cheese.

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 I would have preferred the other version, which had excluded the cheese and featured mashed potatoes seasoned with nutmeg.  No nutmeg this time round.

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Bottom line:  If you want something more substantial than sushi on the Six, Mama's Cafe is a reasonable option for French and Italian food.

Evil

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A couple of quick updates:

The 99-baht summer specials at Harry's have ended and the price of the pizza from across the street at Pizeria ZIP has gone up to 200 baht,

The Chunky Monkey has raised the price of its Monkey Madness specials to 89 baht from 79 baht.

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It has also added inexpensive Sunday dinners (chicken, pork and beef):

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I have a feeling the pics that accompany the menu listing for the Sunday dinners are a bit optimistic.

Otherwise, the prices of main menu items seem unchanged.

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Evil

:devil

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The Hideaway Guest House and Bar on Soi 15 between The Avenue and Soi Buakhao has recently added a Rib Shack.

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A sign at the front of the Hideaway says the hours are 6 p.m. to midnight, but a post by the owner elsewhere  says the dinner menu is available from 5 p.m. to midnight.  The Hideaway also serves breakfast and has snacks like onion rings and chicken nuggets available at other hours.

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As the name indicates,  grilled spare ribs are the focal point of  its menu, which features a limited number of dishes.  That's an admirable approach I wish more Pattaya restaurants would follow.  It's far better to concentrate on a  few dishes consistently done well than a long list of mediocre offerings.  

It's a grill menu with a U.K. rather than U.S. touch, as you won't find Cumberland sausage at many BBQ places in Memphis or Kansas City.

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I wasn't in the mood for spare ribs the night I ate at the Hideaway and had the grilled chicken breast for 175 baht instead.  It came with a choice of French fries or rice and I took rice.

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The chicken breast was moist, tender and had a good charcoal taste.  It wasn't overwhelmed by the BBQ sauce.  The small portion of salad consisted of fresh and crispy ingredients.  I'm not a fan of raw onion on salad, so I pushed it aside. The condiment basket included a bottle of Heinz salad cream and I used it with an extra splash of malt vinegar rather than the thousand island dressing on the plate.

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The Hideaway is a clean and comfortable place to have a meal, a snack or a drink.  Customers can play pool for free and there's a big-screen TV for sports. 

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The service is very friendly.  I had never been to the Hideaway before and the owner greeted me warmly,  then came back and asked if everything was OK once my meal arrived. Two of the waitressed also asked me the same question. That sort of interaction with the customer is sadly lacking in many Pattaya restaurants.

Bottom line:  I'll be back to try the ribs and the Thai daily special.  

Evil

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Very nice review, as always. And timely. I’ve been looking for a new rib joint ever since Smokin’ Joe’s stopped doing their specials. Spending 465 baht for a half rack of ribs is a bit hard for me to justify. Though it’s funny, when I got here I’d say, “500 baht? Hell, that’s not much” but after a year I say, “500 baht?  That’s a lot of money.” 

 

As you’ve mentioned before, for less than 300 baht, you can find some very good food in Pattaya. It is a pleasure searching for it.

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  • 2 weeks later...
 

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Good news for fans of tacos, burritos, quesadillas and other Mexico-inspired food!   Taco Taco Tex-Mex has opened a new restaurant on Soi  9 off Pattaya Klang, not far from its former stall in the Buakhao Night Market on Soi Buakhao.

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The menu has expanded considerably since the food-stall days.  Prices have also risen, but that's understandable considering it's now an air-conditioned, enclosed sit-down eatery with about 20 seats.

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The young woman who owns Taco Taco  is throughly familiar with Mexican and Tex-Mex cooking.  Remember, they aren't the same thing.  Tacos, the restaurant's menu mainstay, are basically street food in Mexico and her tacos are closer to the Mexican original in flavor and form than the U.S. fast-food taco.  The pork and beef in her menu offerings are slow-cooked.  In all the dishes I've tried. she's captured the big, bright flavors of Mexican and Tex Mex in the right proportions.

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The other night I tried the shrimp ceviche tostados at 260 baht.  Small bowls of pineapple salsa and home-made hot sauce (Untitled-2.jpg.862cae2fc0e6749871885910b41f1f71.jpg fiery hot!!!) accompanied the tostadas. 

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Pieces of raw shrimp had been marinated in lime juice, mixed with pico de gallo (diced tomato, onion and chilies with cilantro) and placed on three toasted corn tortillas. Excellent! There was nothing Taco Bell-ish about those tostadas or the sauces.  The pineapple salsa gave a sweet hint and a few drops of the hot sauce (enough for me!) added heat.

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The interior of Taco Taco is clean, functional and well-lit.  As well as its food items, Taco Taco also offers hand-shaken margaritas (120 baht), beer and other beverages.  I've tried the margarita and it's both delicious and strong.

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It was reassuring the walls weren't covered with sombreros, Mexican blankets, pinatas, burros or guitars.  Instead of Frito-Bandito-style symbols, Taco Taco uses painted skulls as a table decoration as well as on its logo and exterior neon sign.  Skulls have been a common motif in Mexican art since Aztec times.

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This has to be the most original restaurant bin I've seen in Thailand.

As a nod to Tex side of its food, Taco Taco has begun with Taco Tuesdays, a U.S. innovation since the 1950s.  It began as a promotion on  a weekday that was slow for a Mexico-inspired restaurant in Texas. and now encompasses many restaurants across the U.S. that sell tacos.

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According to the owner, Taco Tuesdays have already become popular and Tuesday is the busiest day of the week for her. It gives customers the chance to sample a variety of tacos at a discounted price. The above graphic and the first pic in this post come from Taco Taco's Facebook page.  You can see more photos of Taco Taco's food on its FB page.

Taco Taco's hours of operation are; Monday, 5 p.m. to 10 p.m.;  Tuesday- Saturday, 12 noon to 10 p.m.; closed Sunday.  Below is a map that pinpoints its location for anyone not familiar with the area.

Bottom line:  Taco Taco is a great option for anyone who enjoys Mexico-inspired street food served on or in a tortilla.  I'll be reporting again from Taco Tuesday.

Evil

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  • 2 weeks later...

Some decent offers at the Robin Hood Tavern, although I haven't been too impressed by the food on a couple of past visits.

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They may, however,  be a bit optimistic with their Scotch egg promotion.  I wonder if they have been inspired by the story of Robert the Bruce and the spider?  "If at first you don't succeed ..."

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Evil

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  • 4 weeks later...

I had dinner New Year's Eve with a farang friend and his Thai companion at Calles Bar and Restaurant in the arcade next to Soi Diana.  That arcade, which runs between 2nd Road and Cherry Bar, is something of Pattaya's Restaurant Row.  It's home to Kiss Food, Beefeater, Patrick's, Longhorn Steakhouse, My Way, Little India and a couple of others.

All were very busy.  Every seat was taken at Kiss; Patrick's had a sign up saying it was fully occupied; Beefeater and Longhorn had people waiting for tables. We got the last table available at 8.00 p.m. at Calles.   It hadn't been our first choice, but we we were rewarded with excellent meals.

I had the planked chicken  at 295 baht. Roasting meat or fish on an oak plank is a Scandinavian cooking technique that probably predates Viking times, but was revived in  Sweden in the 20th century.  

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I got a nicely grilled piece of chicken breast flanked on two sides by duchess potatoes, a favorite of mine. It's the nutmeg used as a seasoning as well as butter and egg in the mashed potatoes that does it for me. Duchess potatoes are a classic of French cuisine, supposedly first made for a British duchess on a visit to France.  The asparagus stalk wrapped in bacon and the grilled tomato half are the usual accompaniments to modern Swedish planked dishes. The gravy was OK, but it didn't add much flavor.

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My friend had the dory fillet, which he liked very much.

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 It came with rice, but he could have had potatoes with it and on second thought, wished he had.  I can't remember the exact price, but it was around 250 baht.  

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His girlfriend had the planked salmon at about 425 baht.  That's outside the scope of this thread, but she was happy with it and her margarita.  

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The salmon came with duchess potatoes,  asparagus stalks, grilled tomato half, Hollandaise sauce and a sprig of dill.

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Bottom line:  Good stuff on the menu at Calles, with quite a few items under 300 baht.  All three of us intend to return.

Evil

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5 hours ago, Thai Spice said:

The salmon plate looks really great, nice work on the presentation !

I think so too, but here's how one person on another board reacted to the same pic:

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i also hate it when they put your steak or chicken or what ever on top of mashed potatoes or chips like in the photo .

whats with these tucker fuckers these days . i would say learn to cook better more so than being an artist

 i would send it back if they dished it up to me like that

It can't be easy for a restaurant owner to try to please the world.

Evil

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5 minutes ago, Evil Penevil said:

I think so too, but here's how one person on another board reacted to the same pic:

It can't be easy for a restaurant owner to try to please the world.

Evil

Some people should stick to eating fish and chips with mushy peas.....

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1 hour ago, Thai Spice said:

Some people should stick to eating fish and chips with mushy peas.....

Nothing wrong with people preferring simple food, but I can't for the life of me understand why anyone would send back a restaurant dish simply because it had a more elaborate presentation.  That just doesn't make sense.  😖 😕

Of course, it's not a very realistic hypothetical situation.  The menu at Calles and most other Pattaya restaurants have pictures of the dishes, so the guy would know what it looked like before he ordered it.

Evil

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(The pic above is from Moon's Facebook page.  I went back after my first visit to take an exterior pic in daylight, but Moon was closed for interior work.  My pics below).

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The Moon Diner has been open in Tree Town for about six weeks and I tried it for dinner a few days  ago with two friends.  Its theme for the menu, decor and background music is an American diner from the 1950's and 1960's. 

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Of course, the Moon Diner has about as much in common with a real U.S. diner as the Siam Garden Restaurant in Norman, Oklahoma would have with any popular Thai restaurant in Pattaya.  But that's beside the point.  From what I've seen in real life and in Facebook pictures, the Moon's customers are by a big margin Thais.  Not farang, certainly not Americans, but Thais who have never gotten closer to the U.S. than a TV or movie screen.  The Moon Diner is playing into what its customers think an American diner should have been like 50 or 60 years ago.

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According to Moon Diner's Facebook page, the direct inspiration is Mel's Drive-In from the iconic 1973 film, American Graffiti.  Mel's was a real restaurant, but outside San Francisco, not in Modesto, CA, the site of American Graffiti.  Actually, Moon is closer in form and spirit to Arnold's Diner in the TV series Happy Days.  The layout with booth and counter seating is typical for some traditional diners in the U.S.

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but what the heck- you can't mistake it's supposed to be American something.  The Moon is covered with every possible American symbol, including three U.S. flags inside and four on the roof! 

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And you have to  love the statue of Marilyn Monroe ...


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as well as the baseball  bat and catcher's mitt on the counter.

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To cut to the chase-the food at Moon is good- not great, but good.  It is expensive for what you get and portions are adequate but not large. The decor and lighting are a bit gaudy, but the background music (rock'n'roll and pop classics from the 1950s and 1960s) was played at a very discreet level.  That's a big plus for me.

I wasn't very hungry the night we ate there and just had a toasted ham and Swiss cheese sandwich for 139 baht.  

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It came on a wooden platter with a fancy presentation and a small order of French fries.  You won't see that too often in a U.S. diner.

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The ham and Swiss cheese were good quality and the balsamic vinegar and tomato foam were nice touches.  I enjoyed the sandwich.

My friend had the chicken schnitzel  at 220 baht. 

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It also came on a wooden platter, this time with fries and a few lettuce leaves with but without much of a presentation.  It was a fairly large piece of chicken breast and he thought it tasted fine.  We both felt the fries- crispy on the outside, fluffy inside- were better than the fries you often get in Pattaya.

His Thai companion was hungry that night and began with an order of buffalo wings ...

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followed by a shrimp cocktail and Thai soup.  

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The shrimp cocktail cost 139 baht and the soup was 89 baht.  I forget how much the buffalo wings were.  She knocked back all of it.  I tasted a bit of a buffalo wing and it was fine, not as spicy as I had expected. My friend had one of the shrimp and said it was very fresh.  That shrimp cocktail did indeed hark back to the style of the 1960s.  

Another afternoon I went back to try the calamari. It was an appetizer-sized portion, but tasted good and had been deep- fried properly.

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The menu at the Moon is fairly extensive, covering a number of U.S. and international bases.  They offer the usual array of farang favorites, including hamburgers, sandwiches, pasta, pizza, pork chops, BBQ ribs and a few Thai dishes.  It also has some American-style ice cream sundaes.  The Moon offers a number of beers and cocktails.

It's located at the northwest end of Tree Town, across from a Thai nightclub that used to be called "Burn."   It could be the management of Moon is counting on business from customers at the nightclub.  Moon's opening hours are 4.30 p.m. to 2.00 a.m. seven days a week.  

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The night were ate there, Moon had more customers inside and outdoors than I had expected.

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Bottom line:  Moon is a fun place to take a Thai girl for a meal as it provides numerous opportunities for the ever-so-important selfies.  The kitschy decor is likely to be a turn-off for some farang, although it will probably prove popular with Russians if they find the place as it's hidden in a back corner of Tree Town.

One curious note:  Moon seems to have some connection with Thai photographers.  Moon's Facebook page features a number of photos of girls taken by various photographers at the diner.  The night we ate there, two Thais with heavy-duty professional camera equipment were sitting at one of the booths, but they weren't taking pics while we were there.

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(The two photos above are from Moon's Facebook page).

Evil

Edited by Evil Penevil
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