Central Festival Pattaya Beach

[tropo]

Had a look at the Shabushi*? restaurant which looks well worth the price, but there was a huge queue and we were too hungry to wait as the lady on the counter said it would be 20-25 minutes or so. But this restaurant certainly does look well worth the price and we will definitely be giving it a try.. Are drinks also included in that price?

Drinks are included as well as ice cream and fresh fruit for deserts.

The one in Central Mall in Bkk has an 45min to one hour wait every time I go there.

I'm looking forward to trying this much closer one

At 5pm yesterday I got in within 5 minutes. On opening day it took 10 minutes. For me it will be an afternoon affair only because I can't be bothered waiting.

There was a full selection of sushi on the belt in the afternoon, but later at night you had to order it.

Everything is included except Salmon sashimi.

I don't know if they will continue to do it, but they have been giving out free 10% discount cards over the last 3 days. With the discount 2 can dine for 506 baht.

Edited January 26, 2009 by tropo

[Jingthing]

OK, the secret of the Canton House 15 baht dim sum is that the dim sum is VERY SMALL. Its not bad though and certainly worth 15 baht. A step up from the Thai style street dim sum and a step below fancy expensive dim sum, again what do you expect for 15 baht? Their other non dim sum menu is actually more interesting, excellent Hong Kong roast duck starting at 80 baht, stir friend hokkein noodles 50 baht, whole fish in soy and vegetables Chinese style 200 baht.

OK, now for a kvetch. I like the new mall, happy to see it, but when you compare the current MIX of restaurants compared to Paragon in Bangkok or Central World in Bangkok can you name even one NON-CHAIN food biz there? (Well, maybe that fancy Russian place is not a chain ...) Now that is all well and good if the chains are NEW and UNIQUE to Pattaya but so many of them are not. Did we really need another SP, another Oishi, another Zen, etc. etc. Yes I know that the rent is high and these popular chains are pretty much guaranteed money trains, but I am speaking from a variety loving food appreciator point of view, not a corporate investor point of view. Guess which view totally dominates the new mall? Sorry, it isn't a very sophisticated mix. The MIX is not up to Bangkok super mall standards, sorry for all us. Of couirse I do very much appreciate the chain places that are new and unique to Pattaya, the Canton House, the sushi buffet train place, etc.

Another comment. The Central Food Hall makes Villa look cheap! Spot checked a few items I know, the prices there are over the top.

Edited January 26, 2009 by Jingthing

[tropo]

OK, the secret of the Canton House 15 baht dim sum is that the dim sum is VERY SMALL. Its not bad though and certainly worth 15 baht. A step up from the Thai style street dim sum and a step below fancy expensive dim sum, again what do you expect for 15 baht? Their other non dim sum menu is actually more interesting, excellent Hong Kong roast duck starting at 80 baht, stir friend hokkein noodles 50 baht, whole fish in soy and vegetables Chinese style 200 baht.

I had a meal there on the 2nd night. Despite the cheap 15 baht prices I would never eat dim sum there again. There wasn't a single item in the 10 or so plates I ordered that I enjoyed.

The Chinese style chicken with cashews was good and the scrambled eggs with oysters was very interesting.

[Jingthing]

Yes, I agree the dim sum was underwhelming. But the non dim sum menu is really good. Thanks for emphasizing that. It would be a shame for people to go there and only try the dim sum and write the place off. However, I still think even blah dim sum at their price level fills a niche between the Thai street places which I think aren't at all good and the higher end places such as at the Montien which are very good but very expensive.

Edited January 26, 2009 by Jingthing

[tropo]

Yes, I agree the dim sum was underwhelming. But the non dim sum menu is really good. Thanks for emphasizing that. It would be a shame for people to go there and only try the dim sum and write the place off. However, I still think even blah dim sum at their price level fills a niche between the Thai street places which I think aren't at all good and the higher end places such as at the Montien which are very good but very expensive.

I have a limited experience with dim sum, but it would seem I need pay over 40 baht per plate to find dim sum I enjoy.

"blah dim sum" is a very good description of dim sum there.

[Jingthing]

I think the better places in town are now charging 60 to 80 baht a plate. So the 15 baht price on anything even resembling dim sum is pretty alluring. At 15 baht it isn't tragic for people to sample a few items and experience the blah for themselves.

Back to the better side of the menu, any Chinese restaurant offering ducks tongue and goose feet is a REAL Chinese restaurant. Thats pretty rare in Pattaya at popular prices. For example, they have I think four kinds of Asian greens cooked in what appears to be Chinese style rather than Thai style for about 50 baht each. Nothing wrong with Thai style but its nice to have Chinese style at a Chinese restaurant. I was impressed with their duck. Not the tongues. I don't do tongues.

Edited January 26, 2009 by Jingthing

[junki3korean]

oooohhh!

Love the minis they were great! fuc_ked up traffic for a few hours though...was great!

[universe2000]

Went there today and picked up two customers card, both free of charge :

1.-) Central Food Hall card : you obtain 5% discount at Central Food and Tops.( At Customer Service)

2,-)The 1 Card ( Expatriate and International Visitors Card) : All over Thailand : 5% discount at Central Department Stores, Zen Central World, Robinson Department Stores, Power Buy, Supersports, B2S, Homeworks ( A counter on first floor ) plus :

Voucher of 100 Thb Cash Coupon B2S ( Minimum purchase of 1.200 Thb)

Voucher of 100 Thb Cash Coupon Central

Voucher of 100 Thb Cash Coupon Zen Central World

Voucher of 200 Thb Cash Coupon Robinson

Voucher of 10 % Discount Digital Photo

Voucher of 10 % Discount Supersports

all these vouchers valid thru 31 December 2009.

Do you know if the customer cards, 1 and 2 are going to be available for a few more days....or a few more weeks? The Cash Coupons seem like free money.

Since the mall is so busy I was thinking of waiting a week or two, but I don't think these promotions will last.

[luckyluke]

[

Do you know if the customer cards, 1 and 2 are going to be available for a few more days....or a few more weeks? The Cash Coupons seem like free money.

Since the mall is so busy I was thinking of waiting a week or two, but I don't think these promotions will last.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

These cards are available all year long in Bangkok, so I assume it will be the same here in Pattaya.

[wileycoyote]

Anyone been to the cinema ?

[tropo]

Anyone been to the cinema ?

Yes. I made a report about it ealier in this thread.

[tropo]

Anyone been to the cinema ?

Yes. I made a report about it ealier in this thread.

This thread died a surprisingly quick death. Central Festival has not been open a week and no more comments?

There's an upmarket Bangkok style food court on the 3rd floor at the beach end. Sorry, cannot recall the name. Has anyone tried it yet?

I did a small shopping spree in the supermarket and found the prices fairly comparable to Foodland on the items I chose. For any oyster lovers, they have natural oysters still in their shells. They also have a huge selection of Norwegian smoked salmon.

[linglop]

On 29th January I spotted an electrical junction box on the floor next to the bottom of the first set of outside escalators used for illuminating a small garden next to a fountain. The junction box was taking a feed from a connection next to the escalator and the two sets of wires had been insulated using red electrical tape.

In wet weather the junction box will become saturated with water as rain cascades down the metal side of the outside escalator and may well cause the electrocution of customers using this escalator. The whole set up, which was undertaken to illuminate the garden, strikes me as an afterthought and, more importantly, a botched and UNSAFE job.

Will Central take note and take action? Your guess is as good as mine.

[MeetJohnDoe]

This thread died a surprisingly quick death. Central Festival has not been open a week and no more comments?

I was a little surprised at this too I mean, this is one of the biggest things to hit Pattaya in some time...and only a few pages of uninspired commentary? Maybe it's a case of the people who live in and come to holiday in Patters don't come for the shopping

As a resident, I'm happy with it though. The only reason I used to make the trek to Bangkok a couple times a year was for some shopping, maybe some embassy business, and to take in a concert...now, I have only 2 reasons to ever go

I too found the prices on like items at the supermarket to be competitive with Foodland and Villa. They also have some unique items that can't be found at the other places. However, overall, I will continue to buy my groceries at FL/Villa because it is more convient to get in/out of them than the Central Mall. The general merchandise shopping at Central Department Store is great and there are discounts of 20-30% in most departments right now.

I am a little disapoointed with the selection of retailers in the mall itself. Besides the usual selection of chain restos, banks, theatre and bowling stuff, not much else that's unique. There is the first Pattaya branch of Asia Books, however.

[tropo]

I find the name of this new shopping mall totally (stupid) ridiculous. You would think someone would have had the intelligence to give it a unique name to distinguish it from the other Central Festival shopping centre. Something short but catchy would have been the way to go, but of course, as seems to be the tradition in Thailand, they give it a stupid, confusing name.

Regarding the cinemas. They've got 10 beautiful new large cinemas which are going to be next to useless as far as tourists go. The budget for new international (English) movies has been severely cut so there is hardly anything worthwhile to watch. We now have 24 cinemas in Pattaya and nothing to watch unless you're a Thai movie fan.

Edited January 30, 2009 by tropo

[TomBrown]

Here are some photos taken on the opening day at about 4pm onwards;

[myfriendyou]

Its wonderful, Parking is terrible, left there after shopping yesterday at 5.30, parked on floor 5 1/2, there was a queue of cars from the floor above me to the exit, it took 20 minutes for the car in front of my parking space to move, the car behind him kindly let me out, it took another 1 hour and 10 minutes to get to the exit on second road.

So from arriving at the car to exiting the car park was an astounding 90 minutes. It is miss placed in my view, if it was on 3rd road or on sukhamvit it would still attract customers.

I would previously drive to Central Chidlom in BKK to get things i couldn't get in Pattaya so would certainly drive to 3rd rd. I could have driven home from BKK in the time it took me to exit the car park here.

[frodo77]

Your bad parking experience was probably due to it being a weekend. I visited during the week and parked at level 3 1/2 and plenty of spaces. I departed about 2 hours later and was out on Beach Road in 5 minutes.

[Ungabunga]

On 29th January I spotted an electrical junction box on the floor next to the bottom of the first set of outside escalators used for illuminating a small garden next to a fountain. The junction box was taking a feed from a connection next to the escalator and the two sets of wires had been insulated using red electrical tape.

In wet weather the junction box will become saturated with water as rain cascades down the metal side of the outside escalator and may well cause the electrocution of customers using this escalator. The whole set up, which was undertaken to illuminate the garden, strikes me as an afterthought and, more importantly, a botched and UNSAFE job.

Will Central take note and take action? Your guess is as good as mine.

This is the kind of 'readers comment' that you would expect to find in the Viz Comic. Class.

I too witnessed a gross H&S violation, this time on Level 6. Outside a Japanese restaurant, a customer must have ate something that had disagreed with him and he had vomited on the floor. This could have been a potential death trap, given the slippery surface and high volume of people walking by. I counted at least 3 minutes before it was mopped up by a junior member of staff. Surely this kind of thing will deter visitors to Pattaya and Thailand in general.

Joking aside - the place was packed last night. Perhaps it will take a little longer before predictions of it's demise by jaded old fogies comes true.

Edited February 2, 2009 by Ungabunga

[Pattaya46]

I find the name of this new shopping mall totally (stupid) ridiculous. You would think someone would have had the intelligence to give it a unique name to distinguish it from the other Central Festival shopping centre. Something short but catchy would have been the way to go, but of course, as seems to be the tradition in Thailand, they give it a stupid, confusing name.

Hi,

I do not understand your problem with mall's names ??

The new one is "Central Festival" (short and easy name)

The other one is "Central Center" but everybody call it "Big C"

I can't see anything confusing in these names.

Edited February 2, 2009 by Pattaya46

[Humphrey Bear]

I think the better places in town are now charging 60 to 80 baht a plate. So the 15 baht price on anything even resembling dim sum is pretty alluring. At 15 baht it isn't tragic for people to sample a few items and experience the blah for themselves.

Back to the better side of the menu, any Chinese restaurant offering ducks tongue and goose feet is a REAL Chinese restaurant. Thats pretty rare in Pattaya at popular prices. For example, they have I think four kinds of Asian greens cooked in what appears to be Chinese style rather than Thai style for about 50 baht each. Nothing wrong with Thai style but its nice to have Chinese style at a Chinese restaurant. I was impressed with their duck. Not the tongues. I don't do tongues.

I am used to dim sum in Hong Kong - not bothered to try any outside China.

There one orders from various girls walking round the restaurant with their own baskets - each girl specialising in one type / one filling. Is thi the same?

And this is a lunchtime only food in HK - is it the same here?

[Meg_2003]

I find the name of this new shopping mall totally (stupid) ridiculous. You would think someone would have had the intelligence to give it a unique name to distinguish it from the other Central Festival shopping centre. Something short but catchy would have been the way to go, but of course, as seems to be the tradition in Thailand, they give it a stupid, confusing name.

Hi,

I do not understand your problem with mall's names ??

The new one is "Central Festival" (short and easy name)

The other one is "Central Center" but everybody call it "Big C"

I can't see anything confusing in these names.

That is completely wrong.

The old one is "Central Festival Center"

The New one is "Central Festival Pattaya Beach"

[LennyW]

I find the name of this new shopping mall totally (stupid) ridiculous. You would think someone would have had the intelligence to give it a unique name to distinguish it from the other Central Festival shopping centre. Something short but catchy would have been the way to go, but of course, as seems to be the tradition in Thailand, they give it a stupid, confusing name.

Hi,

I do not understand your problem with mall's names ??

The new one is "Central Festival" (short and easy name)

The other one is "Central Center" but everybody call it "Big C"

I can't see anything confusing in these names.

That is completely wrong.

The old one is "Central Festival Center"

The New one is "Central Festival Pattaya Beach"

Absolutely spot on Meg, the fact that the new one is on the beach should give some clue as to its name??

[Jingthing]

I think the better places in town are now charging 60 to 80 baht a plate. So the 15 baht price on anything even resembling dim sum is pretty alluring. At 15 baht it isn't tragic for people to sample a few items and experience the blah for themselves.

Back to the better side of the menu, any Chinese restaurant offering ducks tongue and goose feet is a REAL Chinese restaurant. Thats pretty rare in Pattaya at popular prices. For example, they have I think four kinds of Asian greens cooked in what appears to be Chinese style rather than Thai style for about 50 baht each. Nothing wrong with Thai style but its nice to have Chinese style at a Chinese restaurant. I was impressed with their duck. Not the tongues. I don't do tongues.

I am used to dim sum in Hong Kong - not bothered to try any outside China.

There one orders from various girls walking round the restaurant with their own baskets - each girl specialising in one type / one filling. Is thi the same?

And this is a lunchtime only food in HK - is it the same here?

I know good dim sum from San Francisco which Hong Kong people tell me is comparable to HK. No, there are no walk around with carts places in Pattaya that I am aware of (if someone knows of any, let us know). In Pattaya, dim sum is a menu item and usually available anytime. You are correct, it is traditionally a lunch/brunch tradition. To be clear I do not think a dim sum lover will be well pleased at Canton House but I think you will like the Marco Polo at the Montien. The advantage to off the menu dim sum is that it is usually freshly cooked for you. With the carts, a lot of times the fried items are cold and disgusting. Also, the dim sum at that bird's nest place near Royal Garden is not great either. The low cost dim sum you see at 7-11 and the local Thai dim sum street places bears little resemblance to good Chinese dim sum. I think you will probably like the Marco Polo, if you try it, let us know what you think. Maybe everyone knows this already, but in case some don't, the spring rolls/egg rolls so universal in global Chinese restaurants are a type of dim sum. BTW. of course the major chain MK has dim sum, I have never tried it there, it actually doesn't look that bad though.

Edited February 2, 2009 by Jingthing

[tropo]

I find the name of this new shopping mall totally (stupid) ridiculous. You would think someone would have had the intelligence to give it a unique name to distinguish it from the other Central Festival shopping centre. Something short but catchy would have been the way to go, but of course, as seems to be the tradition in Thailand, they give it a stupid, confusing name.

Hi,

I do not understand your problem with mall's names ??

The new one is "Central Festival" (short and easy name)

The other one is "Central Center" but everybody call it "Big C"

I can't see anything confusing in these names.

Apart from the fact you're totally confused yourself and don't know the names yet, calling 2 shopping centers by the same name on the same road in the same town is not the best idea.

Anyway, the names are up and we have to live with them... just make sure you get the names right next time.

[tropo]

. BTW. of course the major chain MK has dim sum, I have never tried it there, it actually doesn't look that bad though.

The dim sums in MK are really good...speaking as a non-expert on dim sum. Try a few and let us know how they rate.

[Jingthing]

. BTW. of course the major chain MK has dim sum, I have never tried it there, it actually doesn't look that bad though.

The dim sums in MK are really good...speaking as a non-expert on dim sum. Try a few and let us know how they rate.

Sure thing. I will. I can tell that they only have a the classic standards, as opposed to a serious dim sum menu such as the Marco Polo which has a number of more unusual, gourmet choices.

[Pattaya46]

The new one is "Central Festival" (short and easy name)

The other one is "Central Center" but everybody call it "Big C"

That is completely wrong.

The old one is "Central Festival Center"

The New one is "Central Festival Pattaya Beach"

Hi Meg_2003,

Maybe you should verify your information

before saying that someone is wrong...

The old one is "Central Festival Center"

YOU are wrong : The old one WAS "Central Festival Center"

They changed their name before "Center Festival" opened,

dropping the "Festival" in favour of the new mall.

This news was in Pattaya People and in ThaiVisa in January.

And about the name of the new mall, what do you read here on this picture ?

...

Central Festival

[Humphrey Bear]

My main complaint with this place is that it advertised the SFX Cinema - and as I had only glanced at the sign I spent hours trying to find the mucky movie place.

[juniorboysown]

Happy shopper here. 2 Lacoste polos with 20% discount saved 1000 baht there. Then on the way out spotted a pair of Adidas Forest Hills that's like seeing snow in Pattaya so grabbed them. It could do with a Zee & Co type shop, It would do really well, there's nothing like that at all in Pattaya which is a shame as i like my clothes.