Deterioration of Dining Quality and Experience

[Patong2021]

This holiday season, I have been eating out frequently in Hua Hin  with my friends and am profoundly disappointed by the deterioration in the quality of food at many places that were once reliable and had some semblance of standards. It covers all types of dining. I don't believe it is attributable to the high season surge of  visitors, but rather a calculated selection of lower quality ingredients, and the cutting of  corners. Am I alone? Here are some examples;

 

- A couple weeks ago I was transiting through Bangkok and statyed at the airport Novotel. Breakfast buffets are never anything to celebrate, but  Novotel once had a decent breakfast spread. What I experienced was empty selection offerings and what was available was cold. This was at 8:30 AM after the  breakfast rush.

-Stayed at  a Dusit, which is usually reliable and consistent in its quality. 500 baht for breakfast buffet and that also featured empty serving  trays. It was a farce.

-Had dinner last week at my once favourite Brazilian steak house in town. They come along and carve off beef, lamb, chicken whatever. I had not eaten here in 6 months as I was scaling back on beef. Well, what a shock. The beef was  tough, and  limited. Instead, they tried to push the pork belly, pineapple, greasy chicken wings. The result is that I won't  go back.

- Had breakfast  at Coffee Club. It was just unappetizing . Not bad, but not good.

- Tried a chain -  ****  ***nection. A 3200 baht insult with a nasty beef serving.

- Had a Burger King Chicken crispy yesterday and it left me feeling ill. Smeared with white goo, wilted lettuce, and characterized by grease.

-Yesterday, breakfast at a local go to place that I usually enjoy. Just awful. The bacon was 2 flat wedges of fried sliced fat. 200 baht.

- Last week, Chicken  Curry at one of my regular restaurants. I was laid out with awful food poisoning for 2 days. I was literally leaking crap and could not stray far from the toilet. 

- Went to the fish strip at the night market. The fish I was served, was not fresh. The other dishes were  greasy. 1500 baht for a mediocre experience at a place that had once been decent.

The only reliable and consistently good experience has been with Starbucks. Its bakery items are always fresh.

 

I will be mostly eating at home for the coming weeks. Ok, so this may read like a rant, but I just can't get over how quickly the quality of restaurant dining has deriorated in the past  few months. Looking at many of the visitors who are in the estaurants, I don't think many of them know that they are being  taken advantage of. In years past there were lots of wine and cocktail drinkers, Now, so many of them are beer drinkers and ordering much less than before.

 

Ok, so I am over reacting, or have you noticed this now too?

[Colabamumbai]

Agree about poorer food quality and smaller portions. 

[Hummin]

16 hours ago, Patong2021 said:

This holiday season, I have been eating out frequently in Hua Hin 

 

Ok, so I am over reacting, or have you noticed this now too?

How is "Don" Andreas doing? He used to have an ok menu. I complained once, and never went back. He is not good at receiving critics 😄

 

I agree with you, I find less restaurants of good value lately. Price vs quality and taste. And if you add a ok table wine as well you got Norwegian prices. 

 

 

http://Trattoria by Andreas 099 910 1018 https://www.google.com/search?client=ms-android-samsung-ss&sca_esv=fe82fb93a4b9bfab&sxsrf=ADLYWILd2YvCjeDfpZXNZFSUnZULLKiFMg%3A1735252349756&kgmid=%2Fg%2F11b6t7n2_m&q=Trattoria by Andreas&shndl=30&source=sh%2Fx%2Floc%2Fact%2Fm1%2F2&kgs=49c7ff435f4c7a31

[Old Curmudgeon]

16 hours ago, Patong2021 said:

... am profoundly disappointed by the deterioration in the quality of food at many places that were once reliable and had some semblance of standards. It covers all types of dining.... so I am over reacting, or have you noticed this now too?

 

Noticed the same.

 

Worthwhile topic, @Patong2021.

Thank you for posting about it.

 

Increasing discussions of exactly this topic on web sites I follow which focus on food and nutrition.

 

They use terms like "food inflation" and "fiat food".

As a result of inflation in fiat currency, restaurants and manufacturers of food products switching to cheaper ingredients and cheaper processing methods than before.

 

What to do??

 

1. I've hired a private cook three years ago.

She buys ingredients that I specify and follows recipes I specify.

That has worked well, IFF I stick to eating food she prepares for me.

 

2. Buy ingredients from the best sources I can find in Thailand.

We're very fortunate here to have some excellent vendors of quality foods.

Three examples are:

• The Accidental Butcher for beef and lamb.
• Paleo Robbie for beef plus many kinds of fresh produce and prepared meals.
• Sloane's for meat and a few prepared foods like savory pies & frozen pizza.

Those are in Bangkok, but they all deliver around Thailand by refrigerated truck.

I'm in Chiang Mai and frozen meat reliably arrives frozen.

 

3. More beef: grass fed, hormone-free beef.

Eat that, always feel good after eating.

Eat something else, never know what to expect.

So now eating a lot of quality beef.

 

When I stick to that I feel good.

But when I want a change of pace and eat restaurant food, problems, sure.

 

As I am typing this, right now, the time is just after 5 AM.

Restless, couldn't sleep -- one symptom.

Needed to visit the toilet -- another symptom.

Because last night for supper I ordered from a restaurant.

A nice restaurant, but still, no joy in the food.

 

Very sad to realize this, because I've enjoyed eating at restaurants most of my life.

In younger days, even worked in restaurants.

Now, no.

Much better to avoid restaurant food and "ordinary" retail food such as that from TOPS, BigC, Lotus, etc.

 

And it's going to get worse.

[jerrymahoney]

2 hours ago, Colabamumbai said:

Agree about poorer food quality and smaller portions. 

From 1977 Best Picture Oscar Annie Hall -- Woody Allen as Alvy:

 

Alvy Singer: [addressing the camera] There's an old joke - um... two elderly women are at a Catskill mountain resort, and one of 'em says, "Boy, the food at this place is really terrible." The other one says, "Yeah, I know; and such small portions."

[1FinickyOne]

Yes, agreed - Prices are going higher and it must be tough to maintain a reasonable price with the same quality as before. 

1 hour ago, Old Curmudgeon said:

Much better to avoid restaurant food

And this from the "let's make a restaurant club" guy... I have always been wary here ordering an expensive cut of meat afraid I would be disappointed. I was really in the mood for lamb one day and ordered a 500 baht plate that I could not cut or chew... and the portions were small... 

[SiSePuede419]

18 hours ago, Patong2021 said:

This holiday season, I have been eating out frequently in Hua Hin

I'm going there next year and people are raving about the nice restaurants there.

Yeah, classic upscale Thai restaurant scenario.

They start out good, lots of customers but then they realize they're losing money so they start to cut corners or get a cheaper cook and the customers drift away.

Aren't there several Swedish restaurants there?

Osot place?

Ogen Israeli food?

Dim sum?

Seems like there's some choices there. 😋

[DonniePeverley]

Have to agree. 

 

Corners are being taken. Chicken especially tasting rancing. Some places not even trimming the fat. 

Disgusting

[mdr224]

Thai restaurants are like the internet in that after they are opened they only get worse with time

[Tropicalevo]

I guess that I am lucky.

I only eat out once or twice a week and go to the same places that I have eaten in for the last 20 years.

All good food, good portions and good service at a reasonable price.

Only French restaurants for steak.

Mostly pork or fish everywhere else.

(I eat a lot of chicken at home.)

[newnative]

      I am in Pattaya.  Spouse and I eat out fairly often and we have not noticed any deterioration at the restaurants we go to regularly.  Yesterday we had a delicious lunch with four friends at one of our favorite restaurants here on The Darkside.   We don't eat at too many chain restaurants but those we do eat at, such as Miyazaki and Fuji, have maintained quality and food portions.   Luckily, living in Pattaya there is a wide variety and number of restaurants to choose from.  If one goes downhill, we can stop going to it and there are plenty of others to choose from.  

[Woke to Sounds of Horking]

19 hours ago, Patong2021 said:

Ok, so I am over reacting, or have you noticed this now too?

If we take the benchmark as pre-p(l)andemic, it has been a lack of customer service coupled with mediocre food quality at many places.

 

That said, if I grab a table at Drunken Sailors on Koh Lanta, the iced coffee and the food will be the same great quality as I remember from 2014.

[cdemundo]

52 minutes ago, Tropicalevo said:

I guess that I am lucky.

I only eat out once or twice a week and go to the same places that I have eaten in for the last 20 years.

All good food, good portions and good service at a reasonable price.

Only French restaurants for steak.

Mostly pork or fish everywhere else.

(I eat a lot of chicken at home.)

What restaurants do you recommend?

[newbee2022]

20 hours ago, Patong2021 said:

This holiday season, I have been eating out frequently in Hua Hin  with my friends and am profoundly disappointed by the deterioration in the quality of food at many places that were once reliable and had some semblance of standards. It covers all types of dining. I don't believe it is attributable to the high season surge of  visitors, but rather a calculated selection of lower quality ingredients, and the cutting of  corners. Am I alone? Here are some examples;

 

- A couple weeks ago I was transiting through Bangkok and statyed at the airport Novotel. Breakfast buffets are never anything to celebrate, but  Novotel once had a decent breakfast spread. What I experienced was empty selection offerings and what was available was cold. This was at 8:30 AM after the  breakfast rush.

-Stayed at  a Dusit, which is usually reliable and consistent in its quality. 500 baht for breakfast buffet and that also featured empty serving  trays. It was a farce.

-Had dinner last week at my once favourite Brazilian steak house in town. They come along and carve off beef, lamb, chicken whatever. I had not eaten here in 6 months as I was scaling back on beef. Well, what a shock. The beef was  tough, and  limited. Instead, they tried to push the pork belly, pineapple, greasy chicken wings. The result is that I won't  go back.

- Had breakfast  at Coffee Club. It was just unappetizing . Not bad, but not good.

- Tried a chain -  ****  ***nection. A 3200 baht insult with a nasty beef serving.

- Had a Burger King Chicken crispy yesterday and it left me feeling ill. Smeared with white goo, wilted lettuce, and characterized by grease.

-Yesterday, breakfast at a local go to place that I usually enjoy. Just awful. The bacon was 2 flat wedges of fried sliced fat. 200 baht.

- Last week, Chicken  Curry at one of my regular restaurants. I was laid out with awful food poisoning for 2 days. I was literally leaking crap and could not stray far from the toilet. 

- Went to the fish strip at the night market. The fish I was served, was not fresh. The other dishes were  greasy. 1500 baht for a mediocre experience at a place that had once been decent.

The only reliable and consistently good experience has been with Starbucks. Its bakery items are always fresh.

 

I will be mostly eating at home for the coming weeks. Ok, so this may read like a rant, but I just can't get over how quickly the quality of restaurant dining has deriorated in the past  few months. Looking at many of the visitors who are in the estaurants, I don't think many of them know that they are being  taken advantage of. In years past there were lots of wine and cocktail drinkers, Now, so many of them are beer drinkers and ordering much less than before.

 

Ok, so I am over reacting, or have you noticed this now too?

I don't have the same experience in Chiang Mai, though it's full of tourists, mainly from China. 

The lunch or dinner buffet at Marriott s was awesome. Best quality. Other buffets at different places with different quality. Some awful, some just to vomit.

However, the bit more expensive hotels here offer good food. (maybe possible by influence of Chinese tongues and taste?)

[PaoloR]

I only eat Thai food - there is no deterioration in any of the restaurants I eat in.

Why go to another country and complain about the price and quality of food when you choose a cuisine that uses imported ingredients, or ones the local population don't use?

[kingstonkid]

I tend to stay with the same restaurants unless the service decreases.  Mostly in NANA I go to VIVA for dinner.  Food is good.   

 

For a fancy meal I go to RR&rib at the landmark.  It is good and the ambience is great.

 

I stay away from hotel restaurants because they usually are not that great.

 

My idea is to stay away from 5 star hotels as they tend to be smaller and more expensive would rather stay at 3 star and get a good meal.

[AndreasHG]

22 hours ago, Patong2021 said:

only reliable and consistently good experience has been with Starbucks

Frankly speaking (and with due respect) if you really believe that the ‘only reliable and consistently good experience has been with Starbucks’, then I believe you set the bar unusually low when it comes to food.

No surprise you get food poisoning.

 

[1FinickyOne]

3 hours ago, jerrymahoney said:

From 1977 Best Picture Oscar Annie Hall -- Woody Allen as Alvy:

 

Alvy Singer: [addressing the camera] There's an old joke - um... two elderly women are at a Catskill mountain resort, and one of 'em says, "Boy, the food at this place is really terrible." The other one says, "Yeah, I know; and such small portions."

unrelated: 

 

The waiter walks up to the table of little Jewish ladies and says - 'So - Was anything ok?' 

[Old Curmudgeon]

22 hours ago, Patong2021 said:

The only reliable and consistently good experience has been with Starbucks. Its bakery items are always fresh.

 

37 minutes ago, AndreasHG said:

if you really believe that the ‘only reliable and consistently good experience has been with Starbucks’, then I believe you set the bar unusually low when it comes to food.

No surprise you get food poisoning.

 

I don't want to start a "food fight" on this topic, but I concur with @Patong2021's observations about the quality of baked goods at Starbucks.

Always the taste of good quality ingredients.

And always fresh, in my experience.

 

@AndreasHG may not like Starbucks -- and there are many reasons to NOT like Starbucks, but the chain does maintain high standards for quality.

That's one of the reasons it is so popular.

But local restaurants of all kinds -- not just coffee shops -- don't have the oversight of a larger organization to enforce any quality standards.

And so, in the face of inflation, locals find ways to cut corners.

 

I certainly don't like Starbucks' corporate politics, not at all, but if I want a tasty snack, and there's a Starbuck's nearby, I'll head there for the good quality products.

 

[AndreasHG]

12 minutes ago, Old Curmudgeon said:

 

 

I don't want to start a "food fight" on this topic, but I concur with @Patong2021's observations about the quality of baked goods at Starbucks.

Always the taste of good quality ingredients.

And always fresh, in my experience.

 

@AndreasHG may not like Starbucks -- and there are many reasons to NOT like Starbucks, but the chain does maintain high standards for quality.

That's one of the reasons it is so popular.

But local shops of all kinds -- not just coffee shops -- don't have the oversight of a larger organization to enforce any quality standards.

And so, in the face of inflation, locals find ways to cut corners.

 

I certainly don't like Starbucks' corporate politics, not at all, but if I want a tasty snack, and there's a Starbuck's nearby, I'll head their for the good quality products.

 

When it comes to quality of the (sweet) bakery, my favored is Paul bakery, not available in Hua Hin.

The scent and flavor of the real butter and the few selected natural ingredients used in its recipes are a triumph of simplicity and pastry art.
Starbucks is a chemical laboratory not a bakery. Its chemists and physicists playing with artificial flavours, colorants and preservatives to bake eyes appealing cakes. Those cakes stay fresh on the shelves for days in a row, worryingly without showing any sign of decay. I never performed the test, but I am under impression that they may glow of an innatural violet light when observed in the dark.
But it's just my opinion, and to each its own.

[Old Curmudgeon]

25 minutes ago, AndreasHG said:

When it comes to quality of the (sweet) bakery, my favored is Paul bakery, not available in Hua Hin.  The scent and flavor of the real butter and the few selected natural ingredients used in its recipes are a triumph of simplicity and pastry art.

 

Yes, yes, and yes again.

Thank you @AndreasHG for that reminder about Cafe Paul depuis 1889.

Indeed, their bakery products are superb.

Cafe Paul sets a very high standard.

 

25 minutes ago, AndreasHG said:

Starbucks is a chemical laboratory not a bakery. Its chemists and physicists playing with artificial flavours, colorants and preservatives to bake eyes appealing cakes. Those cakes stay fresh on the shelves for days in a row, worryingly without showing any sign of decay.

 

I never thought about it that way, but I'll bet you are right about the chemical side of things at Starbucks.

Hmmm ... I'll think carefully about eating their food products again.

 

Now, thanks to Andreas' post here, I just had a look at Cafe Paul's web site.

Wonder of wonders!  Paul delivers nationwide in Thailand.

Not just the pastries, but also breads.

 

 

 

https://www.paulthailand.com/next-day-delivery

 

 

 

 

[OneMoreFarang]

How many people are willing to pay for quality?

And how many people actually know good quality?

 

A good example is that American green logo coffeeshop. Do people go there because of the good quality? Or more likely so that they can make a selfie and run around with a mug with the logo on it?

 

[connda]

Medium to high-end farang food restaurants are suffering quality problems?  Color me surprised.
We eat out at those places on very rare occasions and the couple of restaurants we rely on are still serving good food.  Other than that we eat Thai or we eat at home - mostly at home.  I'm not surprised as food inflation for the type of food that farangs like probably has a lot to do with it.  The farang chain restaurants and upper-end farang-centric restaurants aren't making the profit they once did and cut back on quality of service. And why not?  They serve to farangs who are probably tourists who will eat their once and never come back. And then those like yourself?  You're turned off and vote with your feet and pocketbook. 

If you're eating native, I don't see a problem. The prices of vegetables and meats like pork and chicken are still very reasonable out here in rural Thailand, especially if you're shopping in the local rural markets.  People are selling home grown vegetables and produce to locals who won't buy them if they are ridiculously priced. We went to the market yesterday and bought a bunch of beautiful cool season veggies like snow white califlower which were dirt-cheap.  A large bag of medium sized cauliflower heads for ฿20.  Like my wife said, we'd spend more money on the electricity to power the water pump if we grew them ourselves. The same goes for local village, tambon, and amphur restaurants - if restaurant prices go up or quality goes down, people will just go to a different restaurant or will eat at home.  I've noticed price increases at Thai restaurant in small cities like Lamphun, but the food quality is still top-notch, and the price increases are incremental over a whole lot of years. 

[connda]

44 minutes ago, OneMoreFarang said:

How many people are willing to pay for quality?

And how many people actually know good quality?

 

A good example is that American green logo coffeeshop. Do people go there because of the good quality? Or more likely so that they can make a selfie and run around with a mug with the logo on it?

 

Yeah - coffee is served everywhere in this country and making a latte isn't rocket science.  So when I buy a latte, I buy from small Thai coffee shops and get a latte which is on par to the "American green logo coffeeshop" for a quarter of the price.  Why spend money for nothing special?

[OneMoreFarang]

4 minutes ago, connda said:

Yeah - coffee is served everywhere in this country and making a latte isn't rocket science.  So when I buy a latte, I buy from small Thai coffee shops and get a latte which is on par to the "American green logo coffeeshop" for a quarter of the price.  Why spend money for nothing special?

 

IMHO it is an art to make great espresso (the only "coffee" I drink). That green shop is not bad but far away from good. It's a chain of shops - I don't expect anything great.

In typical tourist spots it's not surprising that many restaurants and shops do tourist business - expensive but not good.

[bkk6060]

Even 7-11 is better then Sbucks coffee. But, the bakery there is ok I agree.

 

Probably the place for me which is consistently decent is Sizzler.  Hard to find good salad here Sizzler is pretty good and fresh. Add, I get the pork loin meal with a baked potatoe 399 all in. If you hit the salad bar 2 or 3 times it is above average and decent value.

[BusyB]

5 hours ago, Old Curmudgeon said:

 

 

I don't want to start a "food fight" on this topic, but I concur with @Patong2021's observations about the quality of baked goods at Starbucks.

Always the taste of good quality ingredients.

And always fresh, in my experience.

 

@AndreasHG may not like Starbucks -- and there are many reasons to NOT like Starbucks, but the chain does maintain high standards for quality.

That's one of the reasons it is so popular.

But local restaurants of all kinds -- not just coffee shops -- don't have the oversight of a larger organization to enforce any quality standards.

And so, in the face of inflation, locals find ways to cut corners.

 

I certainly don't like Starbucks' corporate politics, not at all, but if I want a tasty snack, and there's a Starbuck's nearby, I'll head there for the good quality products.

 

 

The freshly brewed coffee is a treat - I never touch their diabetic lattes etc.

[GammaGlobulin]

Tables manners are atrocious these days.