I was takng an early morning ride along the water front and realised I've never heard any reports about any of the 3 floating restaurants anchored near the pier. When I first arrived in Pattaya there were 2, now there are 3.

Has anyone ever dined at any of these? Where do you leave from to get there? Are they expensive? Is the food any good?

Also, has anyone had any experience with dinner cruises?

I'm looking forward to hearing some reports.

I was takng an early morning ride along the water front and realised I've never heard any reports about any of the 3 floating restaurants anchored near the pier. When I first arrived in Pattaya there were 2, now there are 3.

Has anyone ever dined at any of these? Where do you leave from to get there? Are they expensive? Is the food any good?

Also, has anyone had any experience with dinner cruises?

I'm looking forward to hearing some reports.

Good timing, Tropo! My wife and I just dined on the newest of those floating restaurants earlier this week. (I think it's called 'Olympia', but that may not be correct.) In any case it is a couple of hundred yards off the end of Bali Hi Pier, which is the departure point.

You begin with a ride to the end of the pier on a motorbike samlaw. Fun. Then a small launch takes you out to the restaurant. The view from the boat is outstanding, as you're right in the middle of Pattaya Bay. At night, the lights are really beautiful. One great advantage of dining out there is that there are virtually no insects to bother you. We didn't see a single fly, ant, or mosquito during our meal.

They had a very pleasant band, playing "Light and Easy" type music, with a Thai singer who had a decent voice.

Both Thai and western food are available. We had mostly Thai, although I did have a fish that was prepared in a more western style. The vegetables were fresh, and everything was clean. Overall, the food was not the best I've had, but it was above average. I had a cocktail before dinner, a liter of house white wine with dinner, and my wife had a glass of red wine. I ordered soup, an appetizer and a main course. My wife ordered a salad and a main course. The total bill was just over 2000 baht. Not "street food" prices; but, IMO, a decent price, considering the full experience.

Dining experiences, including food quality, price, and ambiance, is, of course, extremely subjective. I can only tell you that we really enjoyed it, and are almost certain to return, perhaps for the dinner cruise boat next time.

George

Some of these boat restaurants are false fronts.

I tried to get out on one of them just to be told off by a Russian girl who works there.

She told me that they even thou they had a restaurant on the main deck, the real action was in the casino/karaoke/strip club below where she worked as a "Dancer".

She also told me that on that particular boat you needed to get invited and that it was mostly for rich Thais, Japanese and Chinese. Unless you are "connected" you cant get on the boat being farang.

This explains why I have never seen any ads for the boat restaurants or ever been approached by Thais who wanted me to go there, or ever heard of anyone (except patsfangr) who been on one.

A friend of mine has been on one of the boats and he complained about the diesel fumes going right across the dining area depending on the wind direction...the food was rather average.

Might have been a different boat than patsfarang's

A friend of mine has been on one of the boats and he complained about the diesel fumes going right across the dining area depending on the wind direction...the food was rather average.

Might have been a different boat than patsfarang's

Or a different wind direction!