paul1970

Get yourself out into the countryside and look at how a majority of the population live before asking the question of is a LCD television considered a luxury, <deleted> even a flushing toilet is considered a luxury to a vast number of thais.

What a daft question

Hi Paul1970,I see you live on the same Soi as The Bakers Oven,it is not your place by any chance and you are ''''''advertising '''''' on the forum?????

Yes I live on the Soi but it's not my place, if you look I have started two other threads about the Darkside, one about restaurants over here and the other about anything else on the Darkside. So it's all about finding the good things over here so we don't have to trudge over into town for everything. I have no vested interests in any establishments either in the Darkside or in town.

By the way gooner I'm assuming you are an Arsenal fan from your handle, all the best tonight but I hope you loose as I'm a Liverpool fan

For all you English tea lovers a shop has been found that sells PG tips on the Dark Side, I don't know if they are for sale anywhere else in Pattaya but I have looked in Foodland and I have never seen them there and I beleive I looked for them in Villa as well with no luck.

But on little Soi Nernplubwaan just after the railway bridge on the right hand side opposite the market there is a small soi With a large sign for Phiriburi resort, inside this soi is a bakery called Bakers Oven that sells PG Tips, tea heaven no more twinnings English breakfast tea or even worse Liptons, this shop also sells a lot of other British goods and pies pasties, sausages, bacon etc. Well worth a visit for your British items.

Good news all you English tea lovers, you can buy PG tips tea bags at the Bakers oven which is in the small soi opposite the wet market on Nernplubwaan, the same soi as Chesters (great breakfast here by the way), it also sells a selection of British goods and home made pies and pasties etc as well as British sausages.

Paul, are you the same "Paul" that I just met in Rung's restaurant this afternoon, while I was eating my cheeseburger?

No, wasn't in Rung's today, unfortunately there are a lot of us Paul's around. Where you in Rhung tip last night, I was there and there where a lot of farangs there. I counted I think 10 tables in use the most I've ever seen there.

If you did see me I'm hard too miss at 6 foot and 130Kilos which would make 286 of your American lbs in other words quite large

PS How was the cheeseburger ?

Good news all you English tea lovers, you can buy PG tips tea bags at the Bakers oven which is in the small soi opposite the wet market on Nernplubwaan, the same soi as Chesters (great breakfast here by the way), it also sells a selection of British goods and home made pies and pasties etc as well as British sausages.

I lived in CA for 3 years before I moved here 3 years ago and I wholeheartedly agree about Carls JR, definately the best burger by the proverbial mile and George your definition of a Burger is spot on apart that I would add some ketchup. I think where a lot of Thais get it wrong is that to then a piece of meat is just that a piece of meat there is no distinction between sirloin or fillet etc, and for a good burger you need to use ground beef that has a high percentage of fat to stop the meat from drying out during the cooking process, I forget the exact figures but from memory I seem to remember it should be about 80 lean meat to 20% fat.

Anyway back on topic, tried the breakfast at Rung's this morning, to compare apples with apples I ordered the equivalent to what I had at Chesters Yesterday which was the big breakfast.

Rungs was 145 Baht compared to Chesters 150, I'm not a coffee drinker so both mine came with tea, with both supplying PG Tips which is a good quality Tea from England not your usual Lipton rubbish so that came out equal.

Rung's offered 2 eggs, 2 Bacon, 1 Sausage, Sliced Tomato, Hash Brown, shrooms, Baked Beans 2 toast

Chesters 1 egg, 2 Bacon, 1 Sausage, Sliced Tomato, shrooms, Baked Beans 2 Toast

So slightly more from Rungs, though Chesters Bacon was bigger.

now to quality this is where IMO Rungs get it wrong, Chesters Sausage was way tastier and tasted like a real English Pork Sausage where Chesters tasted like a nasty chicken sourced Thai Product and had an unpleasant texture in the mouth, also Chesters Bacon was much tastier and better quality. The Hash browns was the frozen pattie type of hash brown which I really didn't like and didn't eat after trying a few mouthful's as for everything else pretty much same same. So to sum up for me I prefer Quality to Quantity so I think for the extra 5 Baht and the seemingly higher quality meats used at Chesters that Is where I will be spending my breakkie money and for people who really need 2 eggs in the morning I would still recommend Chesters and that you just ask for the extra side of egg or as Americans don't like shrooms and Baked Beans etc maybe Chester would cut you a deal where you get an extra egg instead off beans, shrooms etc.

Maybe Rungs will win the great Burger hunt

Many thanks for that sir

I wonder if the OP would be kind enough to let us know if he managed to find what he was looking for and if so where ? I'm a big who has a really difficult time in finding jeans etc in Pattaya that fit so I'm hoping you found somwhere.

Well, having trotted down to Chesters, here are a few more comments to add to those that have already been made. I think I have a couple important points to add that have not been mentioned previously. This was my first time eating at Chesters.

First, a couple housekeeping comments. As mentioned before, Chesters is located in a small private road (not numbered public soi) directly opposite the Nernplubwan wet market just east of the RR tracks. There is a 7-11 at the entrance to the road. If you are driving, don't be afraid to drive into the lane as there is a big parking area at the back. Chesters is located in the last shophouse building on the right. As to ambiance, it is a typical single-wide shop-house affair...a small bar, a few inside tables, and a couple outside on the sidewalk. The entire facade is open to the street and there is no air-conditioning but there are plenty of fans.

With that out of the way, on to the food. I arrived around 6:16 in the evening and this presented a small problem. I was greeted by the "Chester" of Chester's, a pleasant man, who went on to inform me that the kitchen closed at 6 o'clock. I said that was too bad as I had come to try the F&C, that had been highly recommended. This being the case, and likely that I was was a new customer, Chester offered to open the kitchen for me. This was generous of him, as he was in the middle of preparing a pot of Indian beef curry for his free football nite feed and there was already a small crowd of beer guzzling football fans gathered at the bar waiting for their free nosh. In fact, he even suggested I could just wait a few minutes and eat for free, but I was determined to try out a few dishes from the menu.

Coming from the land of the "breakfast available 24 hours" I was tempted to try one of the 3 breakfasts on offer. They range from B 80 to B 150. For those not so partial to English breakfasts, there is one with 3 eggs, toast, meats, and coffee - sans the beans, tomatos, and stuff. However, I wanted to try the F&C and that's what I ordered. For B 205, you get a smallish piece of white fish, lightly coated in batter and fried, some fries, and "mushy" peas. While certainly not large, the fish is of high quality. The lightly battered fish fillet is fried to a crispy golden brown and is fluffy and tasty. The fries and peas are nothing special but serve to fill out the plate. It is certainly one of the better F&Cs I have had in Patters and I will certainly go back when the F&C monkey perches on my shoulder again.

As mentioned above, this nite there was also a free buffet of beef curry, rice, and nan bread. Therefore, I availed myself of that too, only in the interests of providing my fellow Far Siders with some more insight on the cooking on offer. The curry was very good - but quite spicy. The beef was tender and there was plenty of it. I take it these free feeds are offered on nites when there is a popular football games on television. As to the menu in general, there are the breakfasts already mentioned, the typical English pub grub type dishes, and specials listed on the blackboard.

Finally, to polish off my meal, I ordered the apple pie and custard dessert. As they were out of apple, I had to settle for blueberry. While I am no expert on English desserts, this dish was a good sized portion of blueberry cake covered with a warm vanilla custard sauce. The sauce was not too sweat as can sometimes be the case and this polished off the meal nicely.

Overall, I was quite satisfied with Chester's. All the dishes I had were well prepared and decent value for money. The service staff are very pleasant and attentive and Chester too is a nice fellow. This place makes a nice addition to our list of Far Side eating establishments. I will definitely be back

FYI: They open for breakfast at 8:00 am, the kitchen closes at 6:00 pm, and the bar at 9:00 pm.

From what I see, from reading posts and speaking to owners of bars/restaurants the common fish to use instead of COD is Dory which when cooked correctly is quite delicious and a lot of the quality of a good F&C is in the batter, now tastes differ but generally batter should be crispy and with that in mind and of all the places I have tried Tropical Berts is still the best batter maker here in Pattaya and he gives a whole side of Dory when you have his F&C (180Baht Special on Friday, every other Day I think 230Baht) but beleive me a whale on a plate is a good description, I whole heartedly recommend it and also his cod which is a lot smaller though, only downside is the Frozen chips.

But I do beleive Chesters is still a good find especially for breakkie and the F&C sounds pretty much like TB's but maybe smaller. I think my next stop will be Rung's opposite Chesters to sample some of their offerings. So many places to try and so little time to try them

Has anyone tried the bakers oven which I think has just recently opened opposite the market just across the railway bridge on Soi Nernplubwaan ?

Apparently from reading another forum it's supposed to be a good place for Pies and Pasties etc.

Went to Chester's for a full breakfast (but not a burger), and that was very good, for 120 Baht:

2 rashers of Bacon, 1 sausage, 1 fried egg, mushrooms, baked beans, 3 slices of fried tomato, 2 big thick & fluffy toast and butter. OJ and coffee or tea. And a few wedges of tangerine (?). Very tasty, and good value. Improvement would be 2 eggs i.s.o. 1, and better quality OJ and coffee (I would pay a little more for that).

Nice report. I would also suggest 2 eggs (what's with this one business)...maybe dump the shrooms, beans, and tomato for another egg. Then you would have what we would call an American breakie

Had the pleasure to try Chesters big breakfast this morning, price is actually 150baht but I found it good value and I'm glad to report that I will never feel the urge to cross Suk for breakfast again. The sausage and bacon where delicious, 1 egg is enough for me (got to keep that cholestrol down lads, but can always order an extra egg if thats your thing) and being Welsh I enjoy the shrooms and baked beans etc.

On my mission to Chesters I found opposite a place called Rung's which has been getting very good reports

So now I will have to try the breakfast here and compare, who would have known that we have so many choices over here, live's a bitch . By the way for all you Americans amongst us a Canadian reported that the burgers at Rung's are supposed to be very good. So who will be brave and try the burgers there and not forgetting the F&C at Chesters. I have a feeling these 2 places might become regular haunts for my Falang food intake plus my frequent trips to Rung Thip, oh shit I can already feel my allready too large waistline expanding even more, tilak is certainly not going to be happy

Anyone know of a place to buy things such as phono adaptors, f plug adaptors and the such like ? TIA

Went to Chester's for a full breakfast (but not a burger), and that was very good, for 120 Baht:

2 rashers of Bacon, 1 sausage, 1 fried egg, mushrooms, baked beans, 3 slices of fried tomato, 2 big thick & fluffy toast and butter. OJ and coffee or tea. And a few wedges of tangerine (?). Very tasty, and good value. Some might have wanted black pudding and/or kippers as well, but I am happy to avoid both of those beasts.

Improvement would be 2 eggs i.s.o. 1, and better quality OJ and coffee (I would pay a little more for that).

But overall a very nice breakfast, go try it!

The question I always ask when it comes to these cheap breakfasts is was it a real British style sausage or some thai crap made from what I term liquidized meat ? But this place certainly seems to have it's followers might just give it a go tomorrow.

Hopefully it will last a bit longer before being deleted this time, grab it while you can.

Here we go as promised a map of the darkside showing the locations of most bars.

I hope you are all able to blow the map up to full size, cause it ain't good like this.

v8tfcorty, what happened to your map attachement?

I hadn't got round to copying it and it has now disappeared.

Any chance you can put it back opn this thread or PM it to me, as I found it most informative.

Thanks

For some reason the map keeps dissappearing, guess it's offending one of the mods.

Found a good shop for CP food products today called CP Minimarket in NPW, just before soi 6 coming from Sukhumvit on the right hand side. Great for chicken wings, nuggets that kind of thing and cheap, I love CP chicken nuggets and they are the same nuggets from nick the pizza (165 baht for 15) Tesco (150 baht for 25) CP minimarket (80 baht for a bag of 50). Also have Ostrich steaks (I think they where 150 baht) but I love ostrich meat. A good find if you like the type of food CP make.

Oh though not a restaurant or even a cafe, IMO the best spit roast chicken is from the market just after the railway bridge on NPW, on the left as you are passing the market, almost at the very end of the market you will see an old guy with a spit roast that looks like it's made from half a 45 Gallon drum which will have usually a load of chickens on the go and very often for lunch I just buy a whole chicken from him for 120 baht, much better taste than all the chicken hut type spits I have tried, very tasty.

Forgot to add that if you don't want to have the head and the feet on the chicken you will have to motion to him to cut them off unless you know what to say in thai, which unfortunately I don't, he will also ask if you want it cut into pieces or left whole.

On the Nernplubwan Soi 47, this is the soi on the left side coming from the Sukhumvit just before the Crossroad Bar, 150 m on the right side there is a new small restaurant called Crossroad Restaurant, breakfast, lunch and dine, small card with : fish & chips, hamburgers, spagetthi...prices between 100 an 150 Thb and some thai food on demand, as it was in the afternoon I only drank a beer, rather expensive 60 Thb for a small Leo, the owner, an american, seems to be the partner of the owner of the Crossroad Bar.

Just before this restaurant there is a new building, with swimming pool, in construction, according to the local rumours, the owner is the previous owner of the Dao Cafe and is intend to open a duplicate of his previous business.

I'll have to stop in there. The owner of the Crossroads Bar, Peter, is English. I'd enjoy meeting an American restaurant owner. I may be able to get some real "back home" food there, in that case. Could this possibly mean a good burger on the Dark Side? I'll check it out tomorrow.

Thanks for the news, Luke!

Tried to locate this place today but couldn't find it, I now where crossroads beer bar is, I guess it must be down soi 47 some way as I was trying to find it from NPW, sure would be good if we find a real burger experience on the darkside as IMHO there isn't a real burger experience available anywhere in Pattaya though I must admit I haven't tried places like Bob's BBQ on the other side and McD's and BK is not what I would call a real burger either. Also wondered if anyone has tried Chester's yet ?

Oh though not a restaurant or even a cafe, IMO the best spit roast chicken is from the market just after the railway bridge on NPW, on the left as you are passing the market, almost at the very end of the market you will see an old guy with a spit roast that looks like it's made from half a 45 Gallon drum which will have usually a load of chickens on the go and very often for lunch I just buy a whole chicken from him for 120 baht, much better taste than all the chicken hut type spits I have tried, very tasty.

I think you'll find it's not that easy, I just checked with Gullivers who usually show all the sports especially big games like this but they categorically said no football until Saturday, and driving around on my motorbike I saw hardly anyone advertising that they where showing the games.

Can someone expand on the exact procedure to use as I will be buying a motorcycle soon, my first such purchase in Thailand, though I've lived here for 3 years I have been renting a motorbike just because I was told everything was such a hassle for us farang, but I've had enough of renting so I was just about to buy the bike in the gf's name but if I can do it in mine then so much the better.

I'm here on a non-immigrant B visa but with no wp. thanks.

Hi Guys,

Thanks for your support, as I've been trying to tell "The Bounder" qualifications really mean bugger all in Thailand/Pattaya, previous experince & happy clients means more than anything

But then again maybe "The Bounder" cannot read!!!!

So finally there we have it, no professional qualifications and can't state what standards he works too.

Buyer beware.

Tonight and tomorrow night the quarter finals of the European Champions League will be played, with kick offs at 1:45am, I was wondering with all the push to 2am closing if any venues in Pattaya will be staying open to show these games ? and if they are will the commentary be audible ?

Ha, your are promoting yourself while I just try to illustrate to the inexperienced Falang what's going to happen to him if he decide to build his home here.

Like you point out yourself "your best Thai builder is not cheap" and you are managing him...

Let me make my point, building significantly below market value is only advisable to the ones with experience, speaking the language and not the faint hearted. Getting a falang with that experience like you to manage it is the better option... but not that cheap...

I' sure that you client will be happy while in Athens, he's in fact lucky not go for a Thai-Thai builder.

Just stand by it: that in today's buyers market it's not worth all the hassle to try to build. Hmm maybe renovating yes.

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All my builders have there own clients as well, which I do not get involved in, I only manage projects for clients what intially came to me, even then some clients only want a builders introduction & not a project manager, so I do not get to run every job.

Like any profesion worlwide, there are good & bad, Thailand & Pattaya is no diffrent, there are good & bad farangs as well I'm afraid to say.

What are your professional qualifications?

Also, if you insure on the basis that the work will be up to "high standards", which I believe were your words, who determines whether or not the works are up to the requisite standard? Knowing insurance companies quite well, I would be very surprised if it is easy to pursue a claim simply on the basis that the works are not up to the standard you were told they would be.

I see that there has been no reply to my queries, which were hardly unreasonable. I wonder why???

The reason I have not replied is that your clearly trying to get into an argument, I'm not intrested in arguying, all i'm tryng to do is offer a good service, as they say in Thailand "Up to You"

There have been a number of posts in this thread asking what standards you supervise the work to, and you have clearly avoided the questions which should make any reasonably intelligent person avoid your company. All building work should be performed to certain standards, especially electrical, plumbing etc, but it appears that the standards you aspire to if it works it's fine, if it turns out to be unsafe after it doesn't matter as I've already gotten my money.

While going to Chanlada Coffee for my breakfast 7:30ish noticed that the Outback had quite a crowd eating outside so looks as though the breakfast there may be very good, have never called into the bar but might be tempted to try their breakfasts one of these days.

Good News.

Rung thip has reopened after a short holiday.

Called by today had Cream of Tomato soup, Veal with Rosti Potatoes and Veg, gf had Tom Yam and Som Tam plus we had a drink each all for 355 Baht, superb.

Bar owners are subject to the same rules as anyone else in getting WP. I know two guys who own bars as working managing directors, with quite a decent number (30+) of salaried staff in each. I've no idea how anyone can get a WP for a beer bar.

There'd be little chance. The Government ( for some reason ) don't view bar ownership as a worthwhile profession,.

Hence the reason for my question ? There are so many falang here running bars etc, so how do they do it, what Visa and how do they get a WP as I assume they all pay tax etc ? Surely there must be someone who knows ?

uu

How old are u paul,50 or older one year extension of stay,which i had when i had a bar in pattaya in my wife,s name.

37, so is that it, most of the bar owners are over 50's and the business in the wife's name, sounds risky.

Bar owners are subject to the same rules as anyone else in getting WP. I know two guys who own bars as working managing directors, with quite a decent number (30+) of salaried staff in each. I've no idea how anyone can get a WP for a beer bar.

There'd be little chance. The Government ( for some reason ) don't view bar ownership as a worthwhile profession,.

Hence the reason for my question ? There are so many falang here running bars etc, so how do they do it, what Visa and how do they get a WP as I assume they all pay tax etc ? Surely there must be someone who knows ?